BETWEEN PRAISE AND CRITIQUE

On a hot Thursday afternoon, I bumped into my boss, who coincidentally was trying to drive home a point. He used a story to pass across the message. I leaned against the wall close to the door in the chilled office, while I listened carefully to learn from the bombshell that was about to be dropped.

I therefore choose to share that same story in this blog post, I am confident it will bless you.

There was a young man in the village who is humble and loyal to the king. An act that earned him a name as “THE KINGS’ LOYAL MAN”. 

Source: Google.com

On a fateful day, the king called this young man to send him on a particular errand, one that looked like it was going to be easy, but on his arrival, he found out that the king had prepared a ‘seemly ridiculous’ yet

herculean task for him.

The king while preparing the main task, prepared two other staffs of the palace to accompany the man. One of the staffs was instructed to criticize the kings’ loyal man all through his effort to accomplish his task. He was saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that no matter what good the kings loyal man does, he gets bitterly criticized. 

The other man was saddled with the responsibility of praising the kings’ loyal man. His job was to ensure that at every instance in the man’s effort to accomplish the kings’ task, the kings’ loyal man must be praised even when errors are made.

The task the king gave the kings’ loyal man was to use a tea spoon to carry a spoonful  of water from the palace to the market square where the king will be waiting for the routine village sacrifice. 

The king informed him that two men will accompany him while he is trying to get the task done, and he must ensure that not even a drop of water is lost during transit to the market square. Failure to adhere to the instruction will attract the capital punishment.

The kings’ loyal man set out for his task with the two men also obeying strictly the kings’ instructions and also watching out to observe when a drop of water is lost during the course of executing the kings’ order.

The kings’ loyal man started out and continued the journey that lasted for about thirty minutes.

He eventually got to the market square where the king, other chiefs and the chief priest were waiting for him. He was then scrutinized and it was observed that the tea spoonful water was delivered safely.

Before the king proceeded with the routine sacrifice, the king asked the kings’ loyal man a profound question.

The king asked “of the two men I assigned to accompany you while trying to execute this task, who was more helpful?”

Now, in your own opinion, who do you think was more helpful to the kings’ loyal man?

Hey, I heard someone saying the man that was criticizing him. Oh yea that’s true, he obviously helped him to get better.

Oh! Someone else is disagreeing with a point. Claims it was the man praising the kings’ loyal man that was helpful through the journey. He obviously kept on inspiring him to keep at it.

Well, well you have tried, but let’s hear from the kings’ loyal man himself.

The kings’ loyal man replied the king and said “long may you reign oh king! Thank you for your kind gesture of giving me two men to accompany me while trying to execute your order. But my king, I carried out my task with a mindset that the two men don’t exist, I ignored them and gave all my attention to the task I need to accomplish. So they were practically illusive and helpless”.

Everyone in the market square were dazzled like you are when the kings’ loyal man was through with his answer.

The king gave him the reward of successfully completing the task and the routine sacrifice continued.

Now let’s learn from this abstract story.

As we journey in life, at some point, we have people in the form of the two men the king sent to accompany the kings’ loyal man in our lives. Let’s take initiative from the man, who was focused, determined and resilient in not compromising his task for either the praise or the condemnation.

We therefore must keep our heads straight, focused and determined at every step of the way.

That way, we will continually evolve into BEing all we are designed to BE.

I am Agboola Biyi Micheal a BLESSING to my GENERATION, and an ASSET to NATIONS.