We can turn adversities into new opportunities

almost 3 years ago

How many times in life we have not regretted something we lost, clinging to a cycle that has closed that we must, get ahead, when we lose a job we cannot regret believing that it was the only thing, that there is no better job than we could. Doing when it is everything or the opposite is a door to a more complete, happy and meaningful life, even better than when you had your old job. Today I want to tell you a story that will change the way you think about adversity.

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The Porter of the Brothel

There was no job in the town that was worse regarded and paid less than that of a brothel porter. But what else could this man do?
In fact, he had never learned to read or write, he had no other activity or trade. In fact, it was his post because his father had been a porter in that brothel and, also before, the father of his father. For decades, the brothel was passed from father to son and the porter was also passed from father to son.
One day, the old owner died and a young man with restlessness, creative and entrepreneur took over the brothel. The young man decided to modernize the business. He modified the rooms and later summoned the staff to give him new instructions.
To the doorman he said:
• Starting today, you, in addition to being at the door, will prepare a weekly schedule for me. There you will write down the number of couples that enter day by day. One in five will be asked how they were cared for and what they would correct about the place. And once a week, you will present that form to me with the comments that you deem appropriate.
The man trembled; he had never lacked disposition to work but ...
“I'd love to satisfy you, sir,” he stammered, “but I… I can't read or write.
• Ah! I'm so sorry! As you understand, I cannot pay someone else to do this and I cannot wait for you to learn to write, therefore ...
• But sir, you cannot fire me, I worked on this all my life, also my father and my grandfather ...
He didn't let him finish:
• Look, I understand, but I can't do anything for you. Logically we are going to give you compensation, that is, an amount of money so that you have until you find something else. So, I'm sorry. Good luck.
And without further ado, he turned around and left.
The man felt the world was crumbling. He had never thought that he could find himself in that situation. He came home like this, for the first time unoccupied. To do?
He remembered that sometimes, in the brothel, when a bed broke or a wardrobe leg broke, he, with a hammer and nails, would contrive to make a simple and provisional arrangement. He thought this might be a temporary occupation until someone offered him a job.
He searched all over the house for the tools he needed; he only had a few rusty nails and a jagged pliers. He had to buy a complete toolbox. For that he would use a part of the money received.
At the corner of his house, she learned that there was no hardware store in his town and that he had to travel two days to go to the nearest town to make the purchase.
"What difference does it make?", He thought, and started walking.
Upon his return, he brought a beautiful and complete toolbox. He hadn't finished taking off his boots when there was a knock on the door of his house. It was his neighbor.
• I come to ask you if you don't have a hammer to lend me.
• Look, yes, I just bought it but I need it to work ... how I lost my job ...
• Good, but I would give it back to you very early tomorrow.
• It's okay.
The next morning, as he had promised, the neighbor knocked on the door:
• Look, I still need the hammer. why do not you sell it to me?
• No, I need it to work; in addition, the hardware store is two days away by mule.
"Let's make a deal," said the neighbor. I will pay you for the two days out and the two days back, plus the price of the hammer… Well, you are out of work. What do you think?
Actually, this gave him a job for four days… He accepted. He got back on his mule. When he returned, another neighbor was waiting for him at the door of his house:
• Hello neighbor. Did you sell our friend a hammer?
• Yes…
• I need some tools, I am willing to pay you for your four days of travel, and a small profit for each tool. You know, not all of us can have four days for our purchases.
The former janitor opened his toolbox and his neighbor chose a pliers, a screwdriver, a hammer and a chisel. He paid her and left.
"... Not all of us have four days to shop," he recalled. If this was true, many people might need him to travel to bring tools. On the next trip he decided that he would risk some of the severance money, bringing more tools than he had sold. By the way, he could save some travel time.
His voice started to runaround the neighborhood and many wanted to avoid the trip. Once a week, the now “tool broker” traveled and bought what his clients needed.
He soon understood that if he could find a place to store the tools, he could save more trips and earn more money. He rented a shed. Later, he made it a more comfortable entrance and a few weeks later, with a stained glass window, the shed became the first hardware store in town.
They were all happy and were shopping at his business. He no longer traveled, the hardware store in the neighboring town sent him his orders. He was a good customer. Eventually, all the shoppers from small towns further afield preferred to shop at his hardware store and earn two days of walking.
One day it occurred to him that his friend, the turner, could make nail heads and screws for him ...
And it happened that in ten years, that man was transformed with honesty and work into a millionaire manufacturer of tools. The most powerful of the region entrepreneur. So powerful was he that one year, for the start date of classes, he decided to donate a school to his town. There he would teach himself, in addition to literacy, the most practical arts and crafts of the time.
The mayor and mayor organized a grand opening party for the school and an important dinner for its founder. At dessert, the mayor handed him the keys to the city and the mayor hugged him, saying:
• With great pride and gratitude we ask that you grant us the honor of putting his signature on the first page of the new school minute book.
"The honor would be for me," said the man. I think I would like nothing more than to sign there, but I can't read or write. I am illiterate.
• You? said the mayor, who could not believe it. Can't you read or write? Did you build an industrial empire without knowing how to read or write? I am amazed. I wonder, what would I have done if I could read and write?
"I can answer it," the man replied calmly. If I had known how to read and write… I would be the porter of the brothel.
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Thoughts

In this story we can see that the goalkeeper was
working there because he had no other option as he was illiterate, apart from the fact that it was the only job his generation had, there was never another activity between raising.

In turn, he never had the motivation to learn or improve himself in life, for him it was the only job, the only thing he did was accept the reality that he had in front of him, since his small town did not have much economic activity.

Source

But when he was fired from his only job that he had known for years, he felt that the world came over him, that he had lost everything. But remembering his other activities that he did in the brothel could help him get ahead while he got another job, but this small opportunity that he had seen would be in the short term, he would not believe that it would turn into one of the great opportunities of his life, that The two-day trip that I take would change his life and even that of his people.

He did not decide to stay in the house locked up, spend his compensation money and spend it on food until the day that will remain if a penny arrives, he does not show that once you have to find solutions to get ahead.

So with this story we cannot make the adversities that appear to us in life consume us and drown us in a glass of water, that we focus only on the problem that we lost our job, I know that there are people who have happened to him. they have killed because of adversity. We must face and
find a solution to our problem and get ahead.

You must see the adversities in opportunities, the next time a door closes on you, do not waste your energy in being able to open that door again, look for the window of your life.

A little thought: