I recently came across a simple story which is actually pretty meaningful.

A farmer came into town and asked the owner of a restaurant if he could use a million frog legs. The restaurant owner was shocked and asked the man where he could get so many frog legs! The farmer replied, ‘There is a pond near my house that is full of frogs – millions of them. They all croak all night long and they are about to make me crazy!’ So the restaurant owner and the farmer made an agreement that the farmer would deliver frogs to the restaurant, five hundred at a time for the next several weeks.

The first week, the farmer returned to the restaurant looking rather sheepish, with two scrawny little frogs. The restaurant owner said, ‘Well… where are all the frogs?’ The farmer said, ‘I was mistaken. There were only these two frogs in the pond. But they sure were making a lot of noise!’

Most of the time, problems seem to be bigger than they really are. Why? Because our mind made them so. We “over think” or worry way too much….more than necessary. But for most cases, we have no control over such problems and worrying about them do not change things for the better. Instead, it will only make things worse and it is very draining on ourselves.

The funny thing is, we worry so much….and could not sleep well….but when we really managed to get some sleep and wake up the next time, the problems will somehow become not-so-big. What seemed to be big and overwhelming problems the night before, might end up being something small and unimportant.

I know it’s easier said than done because I myself worry too much at times over things I have no control over. And I know how draining it can be. It’s something most of us need to learn – to stop spending too much time worrying over things we cannot control and to realize that when we really take a closer look at those problems, they might not be as serious as we initially thought they are.

A friend of mine told me about this story where a young manager came into the office on the manager’s first day and started to threaten every employee in the office. This manager told everyone to work hard or get lost.

Of course all the employees in the office were afraid of him but most of them were not happy as well. People started to leave but  few of them had no choice but to continue to work. Then one day, 2 employees made a mistake which caused the manager to terminate them on the spot. It was a small mistake. And this action of his created an uproar among the existing employees.

Soon, the director became aware of this incident and came to investigate. He had a 1 to 1 chat with the manager.

Director: Why did you terminate the 2 employees over such a small mistake?

Manager: I’ve warned them that I would terminate anyone who is not performing or is making the company lose money.

Director: Everyone makes mistakes and this is but a small mistake. Also, do you think you have actually found the solution by terminating them?

Manager: ……..

Director: So in the end, the underlying problem has not been fixed. All you did was to react unproductively to a problem. Now, we’ve lost 2 people, and the problem is still there.

Yes, it’s easy for people to just sit down, complain or even punish those responsible. But everybody makes mistakes. Nobody is perfect in this world. So rather than punishing, complaining and whining…..why not focus on the problem and how can one come out with a solution to fix it?

Nothing is more important than to find a solution to a problem. So, be aware of what you are focusing on when you’re faced with a problem.

p/s….. over the years, many people have been terminated by hot shot directors/managers who love to flex their management muscles (abusing their authority). This is the harsh reality of the corporate world. Yet, most of them only know how to show off their authority and not solve the underlying problems. Because for them, their ego can only carry them that far.

I know the title sounds a bit funny but when you really think about it, there’s really not much difference between how people treat life, and how big companies deal with piracy.

Every now and then, you will read news about this or that company filing a lawsuit against another party because of piracy (the latest target being China). I do agree to a certain extent that pirates should be destroyed because they take the works of other people and sell these works close to nothing. Minimal effort to generate tonnes of profit. But the problem here is, whether we like it or not, pirates are here to stay in this modern world. Yes, you can try your best to destroy them but each time you destroy an old one, a new one will appear. It is a reality that everyone needs to face, including the big companies.

In a way, it’s quite similar to how people deal with life’s problems and obstacles. Problems and obstacles will always occur in our life whether we like it or not. We can spend hours after hours on something, and then something else comes along and destroys everything within minutes. That’s life. But the decision we make after that is solely up to us, whether we whine and complain like a crybaby, and end up with no solution. Or we can learn from this bad experience, make sure we’re well-prepared for something like this in the future, and move on with life.

The difference? The former places you in a static and unchanged position. The latter helps you adapt to things that you can’t change or things that you can’t avoid completely. So which one do you prefer?

Coming back to the piracy issue, perhaps these companies which are busy burning their money away filing lawsuits should start looking at how they can adapt to this situation. Try to learn from companies like Apple (MP3s are available at such low prices that pirated copies are no longer that attractive) and Sony (Playstation 3 has been pirate-free so far because of the difficulty in cloning the blu-ray and also due to the attractions of online capabilities provided by the Playstation Network – free downloads, DLCs, community, online multiplayer, etc).

So at the end of the day, the decision is really up to you whether you prefer to be a crybaby and solve nothing, or learn how to adapt to something that is outside your control.

Sometimes, things won’t go your way. Yes, shit does happen….and for some unfortunate folks, shit happens pretty often too. And it’s perfectly fine for it to happen. Because sometimes, no matter how well-planned you are, things just won’t work out. Call it bad luck but that is just the way it is.

True, you can always have plan B, plan C, D, X, Y, Z. But all those backup plans are there to minimize the damages done when shit happens. For example, your boss screwed up and decided to retrench 20 people in the company and you’re 1 of them. Is it within your control? Hmm, not really. But can you have a backup plan before it happens? Definitely! One of your backup plans could be having an emergency fund to help support your expenses when you’re jobless, or you can have a backup plan to sell your car in order to raise some fund.

However, despite all the backup plans, it doesn’t remove the fact that shit has happened. What’s next then? Be honest about it. Don’t give any excuses and don’t attempt to hide it. If someone asks you what has happened, just admit that shit happened even though not everyone will buy into that “shit happens” excuse. But that’s their choice. For you, being honest is the best you could do.

Well, there’s actually 1 more thing that you should know. That is… our society does not like people who screwed up, or people who have been in a “shit happens” situation. That is why entrepreneurs who have failed in their businesses find it hard to land a job after their businesses closed down. However, our society despises cheaters even more than people who experienced “shit happens” situations. So, in the end, the decision is still yours – be honest about the entire situation, or try to cheat your way through it.

We live in the information age, and in my opinion, it has make our life somewhat more complicated than before. Perhaps it’s due to the unlimited amount of information that we’re exposed to and the countless of options available to us.

Our designers are coming out with more and more complex designs. Our building architects are doing the same. Our consumers demand more and more features in a single product even though they don’t need all of the features. And our doctors are giving us more and more medicines when the simpler approach would be to drink more water and eat more fruits.

Well, in some cases, going the not-so-simple direction does help but most often than not, it just complicate things. Perhaps we are being trained this way, or our environment forces us to become this way. I don’t know. All I know is, we are starting to lose what we always call “common sense”. Ever heard of people saying “common sense is no longer common”? Maybe that has something to do with our way of life which ignores the simple stuff and focus on the not-so-simple stuff.

Heck, some people even come out with many different ways to cut a fruit!!

But people, I guess it’s time to wake up a little and be aware of how simplicity can actually improves our life. There are many problems which don’t require us to think of complicated and complex solution. All they need is one simple solution, that’s all. Not everything is complicated, so don’t assume everything to be complicated. Start thinking the simple way and if cannot be solved, move on to more complicated solution.

Hope it helps.

p/s…… the reason I am writing this post is that, nowadays, i really notice a lot of us tend to think a bit too much on a problem. We would think of sooooo many complicated solutions and yet failed to solve the problem. Why? Because the solution is supposed to be simple and straightforward, but most of us just failed to figure it out.