“The person with the smallest ego wins the game of life.” - Anonymous.
A few days ago, my brother and I went to a tailor shop where he had his Jodhpuri's designed. It was the third trial; the previous two were not satisfying.
This time, he was in a hurry as he had to attend a wedding ceremony in the evening and leaving the city before 03:00 was the most appropriate scheme. His mind was already regretting the decision to design the Jodhpuri at short notice, and that, too, was from a shop that was not so worthy.
But anyway, it was done already, so nothing could be done more.
We went to the shop, and the owner had my brother wear the Jodhpuri and see how it looked.
Brother was hoping that they would have done something good and that previous visits would have put some sense into the minds of the tailors.
However, to his dismay, the Jodhpuri still did not look good. When he knotted the buttons, they were creating wrinkles on the chest.
It was clear that one side of the suit was longer than the other side.
Yet, the owner was arguing that if you hold the suit tight, it won't fold, that a little bit of imperfections will be there, and the most freakish thing he said is, "at this price, this is you'll get."
Well, to all this, we gave our counter-arguments such as holding the suit means a day full of uncomfortableness; a little bit of imperfections should be accepted if we have not given him clothes of appropriate length, and to the last excuse, we said, “you should have told us that first."
To be honest, we gave him the standard price, and he's not sitting on the footpath either. He has a nice shop and professionals on the hire.
Also, it doesn't mean that if you're selling food on the street, you're entitled to serve unhygienic food; instead, your job will be the same whether you're working in a palace or in the wilderness.
You are supposed to serve the best.
Finally, the arguments took a dramatic turn when the shop owner cancelled our order and handed us our deposit—such a generous man, though he was not.
We had our money in our hands but no Jodhpuri, something for which we invested a significant amount of time.
My brother and I returned home. He went to the wedding without the dress code, his wife scolded him, his in-laws gave him tainted looks, he felt insecure, and the wedding was a totally bad show for him.
But fortunately, that's not what happened. It could have happened if the brother had not put his ego aside.
When the shop owner handed us our money back, we were fierce. We were about to leave the shop, and if we had done that, it would be among one of the worst decisions we ever took.
However, the moment my brother got the money, he went into thinking.
He asked me, “what should we do?”
And my reply was, “I told you earlier, there’s no point to argue.”
Why did we exchange these dialogues? Well, the wedding was in the evening. At that short notice, we wouldn’t have found another tailor who could have designed a perfect suit.
What that shop owner gave us perfectly fits the proverb, “It’s better to have something than nothing.”
That Jodhpuri he designed was enough to help my brother attend the event, not how he wanted, but let him attend it without making his wife angry.
Nevertheless, we handed the money back and paid the remaining amount to get the suit.
If we had a week’s time, we definitely would have taken the money, and probably the shop owner wouldn’t have given us the money back, because in that case, we would be the first to claim the money, not him offering it to us first.
Anyway, it turned out to be the right decision because nobody noticed that small bump on my brother’s chest.
But from this, what we can learn is that, in most scenarios, no matter what situation we face, if we put our ego aside, we not only handle the situation well but also win it.
It’s like doing something without having huge expectations in our minds.
Whether at your office or in your home, when you participate by putting your ego aside, you participate without bias and are able to understand people effectively, leading you to work effectively.
This putting of ego aside is not only in situations in which we deal with other people. Instead, it’s about ourselves as well.
In day-to-day life, we have so many jobs that we want to do differently with different outcomes in our minds. These outcomes take the shape of our ego, and when they are not met, life feels heavy.
But for an instant, drop all your desires and everything that’s on your shoulders, whether getting a job, buying a new home, or anything else.
Just drop them and see how it feels.
I used to pray to God and tell him my desires, what I want, and how I want it. I build a strong pile of expectations which need to be fulfilled. But it doesn’t work like that, so whenever I didn’t get them, it took me.
It made it hard for me to pray because I was telling God how to do his job, which is not possible.
It made me disbelieve.
So, one day, I dropped all the expectations, and it felt heavenly. Once again, I can trust the power that’s beyond my control.
Your ego is built by your expectations; the moment you drop them, your Ego has no power over you.
And this is something we should do as much as possible because, in the game of life, the person with the smallest ego always wins.
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