One of the key themes that I often talk about with business people is that of decision making and accepting personal responsibility (and not being/playing the victim).
I thought it timely to share the following story taken from Jeff Olson’s The Slight Edge. The story goes:
A wealthy man nearing the end of his days summoned his twin sons to his bedside. Before he died, he told them, he wanted to pass on to them the opportunity to experience the richness of life that he had enjoyed for his many years on earth.
“If I could do so, I would give you both the world,” he told his boys, “but this is not possible, for even I do not own the entire world and everything in it. But there are three treasures I have had the good fortune to experience in my life, and it is my fondest wish, my dying wish, that you would both have these three treasures.”
“The first gift is easy to give, and never runs out. I have been giving it to you since you were born, and die in peace knowing that you both already have it in abundance.”
“The second gift is easy to give, but not always easy to have. For some, it never runs out, while for others, it constantly runs out. This gift I give you now, but whether or not you keep it will be up to you.”
“The third gift is impossible to give, but can only be gained. I have been showing it to you both your entire lives, but cannot say whether or not you have gained it. This gift I cannot give you, but I can give you the opportunity to see it one last time before I die.”
The boys both wept to hear their father speak of his approaching death, but he smiled and bade them hush with a wave of his hand.
“I see your grief, but in that grief you may be happy, for it is evidence of the first gift, which you have in abundance. Do you know what the first gift is?”
The two boys dried their tears and furrowed their brows in deep thought. Easy to give, and it never runs out …
Suddenly the first boy clapped his hands and said, “Love! The first gift is love!” The father smiled. The boy was right.
“And the second gift?” he asked them.
They again became quiet with thought. Easy to give but not always easy to have …
The second boy looked up with a start. “Money? Is the second gift money?” It was indeed. For some it never runs out while for others it constantly runs out.
“And the third?”
Impossible to give, can only be gained…
This time both boys remained buried in thought. Neither could come up with an answer.
The father smiled again, a little sadly this time. He lifted a beautiful lacquer box from the bedside table onto his lap, opened it and looked inside.
“I offer you both a choice.”
He beckoned the boys to move closer.
“One month from today, you will both turn twenty-one. I will no longer be with you, for my life has run its course. On that day, thirty one days from now, I have instructed my most trusted advisor to execute a document that will bequeath my home, my treasury, my estate – all that I possess – to the good people of this land, who have treated me with kindness all these years.
This place, which has been our home together for these twenty one years, will become a public trust. I will be well on my way to the next world, and the two of you will set off to make your way in this one.
“Yet I do not wish to see you set foot on this journey empty-handed. My last gift to you, on the day of my departure, will be a purse to finance your adventures. What goes into each purse is your choice.”
He reached both hands inside the box, and then held them out to the boys. In one hand, he held a sheaf of one thousand crisp, new $1000 bills. One million dollars. Cash. In the other hand he held a shiny new copper penny.
“If you take the million in cash, you may take it with you or leave it in your purse for safe-keeping until the day of your journey; your purse will be held by my treasury director.”
If you take the penny, you may also take it with you or leave it in your purse. However, if you choose the penny, my treasury director has instructions to double the contents of your purse each day.”
He took out another lacquer box, identical to the first, opened it and took out another staff of $1000 bills and another penny.
“Here is one million; here is one penny. You each have the same choice to make. Whatever you do not take, I will return to my treasury to add to my estate.
“Now go rest and think. Tomorrow morning come back and tell me your choice.”
All night, the first boy lay in bed thinking, What should I do? Which should I take? What is the lesson?
The second boy lay awake too, but he asked himself different questions. He had made his decision before his father had finished the sentence. Now he was making careful plans for what to do for the next thirty one days.
When morning came, the second boy sprang into action. After securing the million in cash from his father, he hired a sharp manager to help him execute his carefully wrought plan. They rented a hotel suite, in which they conducted exhaustive, back-to-back interviews for the next six days. By week’s end, they had hired a staff of the finest financial advisors in the land.
The boy’s new crackerjack money-man team spent the second week in intensive round-the-clock brainstorming sessions, drafting proposal after proposal, seeking the smartest, most cost effective investment and leveraging strategies, both long term and short term, to help the wealthy man’s son turn his million into a genuine fortune.
By week three, the best plans had been selected, winnowed, examined, combed, explored, game-theoried, road tested, computer simulated and dissected. With all their i’s dotted and all their t’s crossed, the boy’s advisors were locked and loaded and ready to rumble.
Off they went, into the battlefields of commerce and speculation. The boy spent the next few days keeping in close contact with his far flung financial team by telephone, but by mid week it seemed clear that things were well in hand and he was not needed. He decided to pay a visit to his brother, whom he had not seen since breakfast on the morning after that long and sleepless night.
When he arrived at their home he was shocked to hear his brother’s account of the past few weeks.
After that excited breakfast, the first boy had also paid a visit to his father, but without explaining why, he announced that he had made the second choice. He had taken the penny and left it in the purse then returned to his room and began reading from one of his favourite books.
The second days he visited again and was allowed to peek into the purse: the shiny new penny had been joined by a companion. On the third day, he found four pennies. On the fourth, there were eight, the fifth, sixteen, then thirty-two.
By the end of the week, just as his brother’s ace financial team was assembling in the beautiful hotel suite for the first time, he had amassed a nest egg of sixty-four cents. By the need of week two – with nearly half the month gone – his pile of pennies, had swelled to just shy of ninety dollars - $81.92, to be exact.
On the days his brother’s financial team hit the streets and went out into the world ready to turn his million into billions, his purse had not yet accumulated a hundred dollars – he would not have been able to purchase even a decent dinner for two at the fine hotel where his brother’s suite had been humming with action for two weeks.
Now, a few days into the third week, the purse’s contents had grown a bit more: now he had a sum of $655.36.
“But you poor sap!” his brother cried hearing his story. “I can’t believe you went for the penny! It’s not too late – visit our father, see if he will relent and give you your own million. Or if he insists in prorating the amount, even just half the million – it’s better than scrabbling by on a few paltry hundred. And if he refuses, you’ve got to let me help.
I can’t stand the idea of you venturing out into the world with scarcely enough to feed yourself for a week!”
But the brother seemed unperturbed and wouldn’t hear of it. Later that week, the wealthy man called his sons to him one more time and spent several hours with them, sharing memories and telling stories. They both left him in good spirits (the second boy was secretly very worried about his brother’s prospects).
That night the old man died peacefully in his sleep.
Towards the end of week fours, the second boy’s advisors brought him some worrisome news. The markets, it seemed, had gone a bit soft. Taken a bit of a tumble actually. The team had acted quickly and salvaged what they could, but their earlier rosy projections would most certainly need to be revised downward.
The boy thanked them for their vigilance, and waited, fretting and anxious.
At the close of the week, the team brought mixed news. Some investments had performed quite well, others had suffered. All in all, the boy had made a modest gain: starting with his one million in cash, his team had succeeded in parleying that into nearly one and a half million. Unfortunately his expenses, including their commissions, tax, bills for the hotel suite, broker fees and the rest, came to just over half a million.
The boy ended the month with just a bit less than he started!
In a panic he rushed to see his brother, to see how he had fared with his $655.36 – only to receive yet another shock.
On day 28, his brother’s purse of pennies had passed the million-dollar mark. On day 29, the two and a half million mark. Yesterday on day 30, it had doubled to more than five million.
The boy who chose the penny had discovered the extraordinary power that some have called the “eighth wonder of the world” – the remarkable creative force of compound interest.
And today, the boy who chose the penny is worth more than ten million - $10,737,418 and twenty-four cents.
Two boys, two powerful choices. Riches or poverty. Life or death.
You are making those same choices every day, every hour and the choices you make are spreading throughout your life. You may not see the results today or tomorrow or even next year.
When the wealthy man spoke to his sons, the second boy thought he was offering them a choice of which money to take.
But the first boy listened more carefully. He remembered that money was only the second gift. He understood that the choice was not whether to take the penny or the sheaf of bills – the choice was whether or not to take the third gift.
Wisdom
The lesson was not about money: it was about wisdom.
It was lesson about compound interest, leverage, geometric progression and growth. It was a lesson about the Slight Edge.
The choice the wealthy man offered his two sons is the same choice the world offers you (and me) every day, every hour; sickness or health; sinking poverty or abundant wealth; deepening loneliness and alienation or a rich and growing circle of friends.
What choice are you making? | 
