SECRETS TO A SUCCESSFUL LIFE — Qualities Required

The full realization had come to him that it was on himself that he had inflicted suffering, not on his enemy, and that it was best to leave such matters to God. In beginning to think in this way, he found that, bit by bit, he was once again able to take a constructive approach to things. Not much long after, he became more successful than he had ever been. In pursuing positive ends he had also attained peace of mind — and that, for him, had been the most important thing of all. Flexibility A man once came into a shop, intent on buying some cloth. Choosing a suitable piece was no problem, but fixing a price was; for in some countries one usually has to bargain before buying anything. This time, the bargaining was tough. Neither the shopkeeper nor the customer was willing to budge from the originally quoted price. Finally, after holding out adamantly for half-an-hour, it was the shopkeeper who gave in, coming right down to the customer’s price, thus clinching the deal. A friend of the shopkeeper was in the shop at the time. After the customer had left, he asked, “Why waste so much time over the price, when you were ready to give it at the customer’s price all along?” “You missed the point,” the shopkeeper replied. “That was my way of clinching the deal. Why, if I had agreed to the customer’s price straightway, he would have thought, ‘Oh, I might be able to get the cloth even cheaper somewhere else’, and gone away. Anyway, I wanted to know how far he was willing to go. When I realized that he was not willing to budge even an inch, I saw that I was the one who would have to budge. And so, I sold him the cloth at his price!” Adjustment or adjustability is the key to success in life, both for individuals and for nations. So it is with any contest in life. Quite naturally, each party wishes to settle the matter to his own satisfaction. It is only sensible, then, for a person to press his demands. But, at the same time, common sense requires him to know what his limits are, i.e. how far he can go without losing anything himself or sending his ‘customer’ away dissatisfied. Here we have a basic principle of life. It can be said in one word —