Fellow networker, Amy Zagroba of Sparque recently shared the following anonymous story.
Amy's introductory remarks
So often I think we go to networking events and we meet someone and we think that what they are facing doesn't pertain to us, or that they can't help us so we become disinterested and move on to someone else. I think the story below is a great metaphor for how we should learn how we can help every person we can meet, who we can introduce them to, if our network can help them out, etc. Just felt it was a powerful message in these times.
Story
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.
"What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered.
He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.
Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed this warning :
"There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse,
I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me.
I cannot be bothered by it."
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."
The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."
So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected,
to face the farmer's mousetrap
. . . Alone. . .
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- the sound Of a mousetrap catching its prey.
The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught.
In the darkness, she did not see it.
It was a venomous snake whose tail was caught in the trap.
The snake bit the farmer's wife.
The farmer rushed her to the hospital.
When she returned home she still had a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup.
So the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.
But his wife's sickness continued.
Friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.
To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
But, alas, the farmer's wife did not get well... She died.
So many people came for her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered
to provide enough meat for all of them for the funeral luncheon.
And the mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and you think it doesn't concern you, remember ---
When one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
We are all involved in this journey called life.
We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.
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The last 4 paragraphs do make it feel a little bit like one of those "feelgood moral lesson" chain e-mails, which then go on to say "If you forward this to 15 of your friends you will receive a blessing." Thanks for not doing that, Jason!
Otherwise, great story. Thanks!
Posted by: Dave Bull | July 11, 2009 at 11:38 AM