Following the followers
FOLLOWING THE FOLLOWERS
Years ago in Cape Town, every morning a car from City Council would stop outside a jeweller shop in Greenmarket square, the driver would get out, look at something in the window, get back into the car and drive away. Eventually the owner of the shop stopped the driver to find out what he was doing. “I am the clerk who fires the noon day gun each day on Signal Hill and I check your clock to get the exact time.” “Isn’t that amazing” said the owner, “every day at 12pm I set my clock to the firing of the noon day gun”
And so every day the people in the city were setting their watches and going for lunch at what they thought was noon. Have you ever thought what would happen if we spent our lives following the example of people who were following us? Although it’s a perfectly natural tendency, this follow the leader game can get us into a lot of trouble and keep us from realizing our opportunities and potential if we let it continue. Each one of us should realize that what others do, the way others conduct themselves, is not necessarily what we should do, how we should behave.
Perhaps we should form the habit of checking on things. If you hear some gossip, you should not believe it until you personally have proof that it is true. I remember being told as a child that only poor people were happy and that rich people led miserable lives. Later I could see that this was a lot of nonsense. Many wealthy people are quite happy and some who are poor are quite contented with their lot in life. I think the Apostle Paul had it right when he said “I know what it is like to have plenty and what it is like to have little, in all situations I have learnt to be content” (some of you may be Estate agents and could concur with Paul. He was the first estate agent, he made and sold tents!)
You’ll hear some nonsense about a particular race or religious group. Don’t believe it. Check on it, be careful of generalizations, start the habit of forming your own opinions through observation, study and research.
When you believe what the majority tells you, you could be wrong. My Bible teaches that I should examine or test all things and keep or accept the true.
“Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another” Condorcet
Insist on being yourself, never imitate. Your own gift can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half-possession Emerson
Men are so constituted that everyone undertakes what he sees another successful in, whether he has aptitude for it or not Goethe
To your success
Think and Grow Wealthy, Healthy and Wise
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