When you get bags of onions as reward for your hard work

Once upon a time, a young man was looking to grow in his life. While he was exploring what business to take up, he met a very well-travelled man who told great tales of his travel and about a country that had no onions.

“No onions!” exclaimed the young man. He had never heard of such a thing. “How can anyone enjoy the true pleasure of food without onions?” After careful planning and research, he bought onions, filled his cart and set his journey towards that country. After several days he arrived at the palace and requested to meet the king.

“I bring you a great gift from my country, the young man proudly announced. The plant is native to my place but new to yours. It has the unique ability to enhance the flavour of any food. It will be great if I could offer you this magnificent plant which you can in turn introduce to your people.”

With some hesitation, the king allowed him to prepare some delicacies using onions.

The young man stirred up a feast. Everyone was invited to the dinner that night. After the initial tasting, the feast commenced. Everyone loved the dishes. The king thanked the young man profusely and paid the onions with its weight in gold.

Thrilled, the young man started back his journey where he met a trader. He shared his magnificence and splendour of the country. The trader during this discussion learnt that the country did not have garlic. In his mind, he thought he could replicate the success of the young man by introducing garlic to that country.

“Garlic is infinitely tastier and aromatic! If they were giving gold for onions then he could expect diamonds for garlic,” he thought.

Without any further thinking, he carried bags of garlic to that country without garlic hoping to get diamonds. The land overjoyed by the introduction of onions, were open to the idea of trying garlic. The royal guards took the man with the new herbs to the king.

The king asked him to prepare a feast using the garlic, which he did and as expected, the garlic received more praises than onions. The king and his ministers discussed about the reward for their noble guest and agreed that gold was not enough for such a delicious food. So, they decided to reward him with the most precious thing they had to offer. What can be more precious than gold? Onions!

That night the trader returned home with bags full of onions.

Everyone’s journey is different: Never make choices in your life based on others’ journey, especially when you don’t know the path they travelled and the choices they made.

Others’ success or failure does not confirm yours: Others’ success does not mean your failure. It just means that the path exists and it is possible, though the journey has to be your own.

Don’t get bogged down by fear of failure: Fear of failure is the only guaranteed way of failing to achieve your dream. There is no better teacher than failure, but if only you are an attentive student.

Be a creator of your own destiny: Learn to deal with your battles in your own way. Seek advice where you need, but do what you think is the best for you, because only you know what you are, your positives and negatives.

Time is your friend, impulse your enemy: Instinct is great, not impulse. Great things happen when you think, plan and execute small, little things continuously.