JOIN USA young man, with no money or a job, stood idly on a bridge, blaming his fate. Just then some fishermen were busy catching fish in the river flowing below.
Seeing one of them with a basket full of fish by his side, he remarked sadly, “If only I could have something like this to do, I would have a catch like that. Then, I could sell the fish and I would have the money to buy food and new clothes. Alas! There is no one to help me and I’m doomed.”
“I’ll give you that many fish if you do a small favour for me,” said the fisherman, startling him. “What do you want me to do,” the young man asked.
“Just tend this line awhile. I’ve got some business down the street.”
The young man accepted the offer. After the fisherman left, the trout and bass continued snapping greedily at the bait hook.
Before long, the young man felt encouraged. In the excitement of pulling in a large number of fish, his gloomy thoughts vanished. When the angler returned, he said to the young man, “I will keep my promise to you by giving you everything you have caught. And I hope you have learnt a lesson. You must not waste time merely wishing for things. Instead get started, get busy! Cast a line for yourself.”
As in the story above, for a vast majority among us, getting started is the only trouble. We might have fine qualities and grand schemes. But it is a fact that we are plagued by poor starting abilities.
We keep putting off starting on anything worthwhile because we wait for the right time, the correct environment and the best opportunity.
Until all of these come along, we blame the government, our parents, our bosses and bad luck for our miserable plight and sad state. Yet, if there is anyone who can help us get started it can only be ourselves.
And the truth is that everybody helps only him, who helps himself.
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started,” rightly remarked, Mark Twain. So, let us get started and get busy; the greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started.