"LET US HANG TOGETHER OR HANG SEPARATELY!"

A company organized a seminar for its employees. The trainer invited ten volunteers to the stage and handed over a balloon to each one. He asked them to blow the balloon and tie it tight after which were given a tooth pick each.

Then he said, “Each one of you have a full blown balloon and a tooth pick. Keep your balloon without popping for 5 minutes. The winner shall be the one who keeps his balloon intact… Your time starts now: Three, two, one, go.”

As soon as they heard the whistle of the trainer, each one tried to pop the other one’s balloon. In a minute all the balloons were burst.  The final whistle blew and the trainer asked, “Does anyone have the balloon intact?” The answer was in unison, “No!”

“What did I tell you before the game started?”

“To keep our balloons intact.”

 “Did I tell you to pop the balloons of others?”

 “No”, was the reply.

The trainer told, “If you listened to what I have said … if no one tried to pop the balloon of others?”

“We could have kept our balloons without popping!”

The trainer posed for a moment and said, “I did not tell you to fail the other for you to succeed. But still you have done it. This is our prejudice. Our bias made us to act more than what was instructed! We think that in order to win ourselves, we have to fail all others… we have to succeed before the other one defeats us…”

Does anyone succeed in the game of life by failing others? No… all of us fail together!”  

He continued, “All of us must understand this truth. We can be real winners only when others also win along with us. Alone we are a drop, whereas, together we can be an ocean; alone we are a thread, but together we can be a rope; alone we are a sheet of paper, but bound together, we can be a book. ”

To end this post may I quote a famous saying in the ecumenical circles, “Let us hang together or hang separately!”