The Gift of
When American comedian David Brenner graduated from high school, he asked his father for help. His father gave him a coin and told him, "Use this coin to buy a newspaper, read it word for word, then turn to the advertisement section, get yourself a job and go out into the world." Later, David Brenner achieved success through hard work. The star looks back on his father's coin as "a gift".
Game over
First, a Jewish father and his son go into a concentration camp, a dark, exterminating place! He's afraid that it will ruin his son's childhood and cast a shadow over him for the rest of his life. So, on the way to the camp, he tells his child that he is going to a special place to play a game, and all the people in the camp are participants in the game. All of them, will celebrate the arrival of his birthday.
The young father pretended to speak German and translated for his son the words of the German guards in uniform who were shouting. All that name-calling and heckling was part of the game, and the rules were that the child couldn't chant for his mom all day and couldn't be seen crying by the men in uniform. Do that, and he scores points, or else points are deducted, and when he scores enough points, he wins the game and a special birthday present - a fully equipped tank.
That sweet and pathetic father went to great lengths to keep up the lie. He had to face the hardships of life, laugh in the midst of extreme violence and fear, and give his child a fairy tale world. Days passed in the lie, and it was hard to get to the eve of the Nazis' downfall, when the father hid his son in a dumpster and told him: this is the last part of the game, if you survive it, you will get the tank.
The 1,001st sales pitch
Anyone who has ever been to a KFC will have seen a statue of an old foreign man in a white suit with a friendly demeanor, Colonel Sanders, at the front of the store. He is the founder of the world's fast-food fried chicken chain, a man who started his business at the age of 65.
Colonel Sanders retired from the military, penniless, and got his first handout of only $105. He asked himself: what resources do I really have left? What else can I do to contribute to people? As he thought about it, he suddenly remembered that he had a secret recipe for a kind of fried chicken that everyone might like. Why don't I sell this recipe to some restaurant and teach them how to make it?
For the next two years, Sanders drove his "old car" around the country in a ridiculous white suit, hawking his recipe to every corner.
He was rejected 1,009 times, until the 1010th time, only to hear every "yes". Years later, KFC became the world's largest fried chicken chain.
The coin that decides the winner
This is a story from Zen Buddhism. In ancient times, there was a general who was both wise and courageous. Once, he led his army against the enemy, but there was a huge difference in strength between the two sides, and his entire force was only one-tenth of the opponent's. Therefore, all the generals were a bit lackadaisical. The general went to a temple to ask the gods for advice, then he took out a coin and said in front of the generals: "Victory or defeat is in the hands of heaven, let the gods decide our fate! If the coin falls to the ground face up, the gods will bless us invincible; if face down, the gods let us fail, we can only listen to God's fate." Said the general gently threw upward, the coin fell to the ground, face up, suddenly the whole army was pleased. Then the general threw it again, still face up. In this way, the generals rejoiced and their morale was greatly boosted, and they finally won a complete victory. After returning home in triumph, the general offered to thank the gods for their blessings. It was then that the general took out the coin and showed everyone that both sides of the coin were positive. It was then that the generals realized that it was not the gods who had blessed them with victory, but themselves.
Wrestling the violin
There is a story of an artist wrestling the violin in the Japanese book "The Eurasian Yitans": a violinist was to play on the most precious violin handed down from the Renaissance, which was worth a lot of money. At the end of the song, the beautiful sound of that precious instrument made the audience drunk, and unanimously marveled at the superb craftsmanship of the fiddle maker of the past. At this time, the fiddler waved his hand, but the piano fell to pieces, suddenly all the seats were shocked.
At this moment, the host came on the stage and announced: "What was broken just now was only a violin worth more than a dollar. The fiddler did this to tell you that the beauty of music does not lie in the instrument, but in the person who plays it. Now, please enjoy the music played on a truly precious fiddle." So the fiddler once more took up the instrument, and the same wonderful music rose up. The listener no longer pays attention to the value of the violin, but concentrates on the state of art.