So you really do want to read more! Maybe there are others who are just as lost as I was back in 1985 when I began to write this stuff. I am only letting you read all this in the hopes that somewhere there is a similar young lost soul in need of direction. 

If the following little analogies mean nothing to you then you are not in need of them. However, if you think you might find some help from these tales, read on!

How did Sam get so wise at such a young age? Well truth be told, he got help - lots of help! I will let him tell you in his own words.

'After I failed some exams in my first year of college I took the summer off and did some traveling. Call it denial but I wanted to get as far away from Edinburgh University as possible, so I traveled to the Far East.'

'On my travels, I met a group of young people who had stumbled upon a temple dedicated to Time. As you know I had always had a problem getting to my lectures on time, and so I decided to visit this place. I had no idea that I would spend my whole summer there. 

'I will never forget the day I stepped into the temple and saw an old man in red robes sitting cross-legged under a huge clock. He asked me why I was  there, and I told him the whole story of how flapsi-hapsi my unorganized life was. I felt I was wasting my time, wishing I could turn back the hands of the clock.  

He simply smiled at me. 'Time is like a camel – it never backs up!' 

Then held up a finger in warning: 'Don't let yesterday use up too much of today. You can’t change the past, so don’t ruin the present by worrying about the future!'

He waited a while to make sure that this little nugget of wisdom had sunk in, and then fired off another:

‘Tomorrow, all this will be part of the unchangeable past which fortunately can be changed today.’

‘Young man, you hear me, but you do not listen! Tomorrow, all you have done will be part of the unchangeable past. But fortunately you can change all of that this very day!'

I understood this time. Everything might be different in the present if only one thing was different in the past. The future belongs to those who prepare for it! 

'I will make a change tomorrow!' I announced, but he only laughed.

'Ah, tomorrow is the busiest day of the year! You need direction today! If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else!'

He walked up to me, tossed an apple towards me, then left the room to let me ponder one last piece of wisdom:

'You may count the seeds in this apple, but can you find the apples in the seed?'

Seeds in apples? Apples in seeds? The realization came to me slowly. From the tiny seeds of the apple will grow apples trees and those apple trees will yield more apples! Any change I made today would make a huge effect on my future.

It made me think of how I was wasting my time back at college. I knew I should be working on my skills. I had yet to plant any seeds. I resolved that when I returned to Scotland, I would try to not squander my time but would start to work on goals that bore fruit.  All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.

I explained my intentions to the master and he continued his  lesson in a more conversational tone.  

'It is difficult for young people to realize that everything they plant today will yield ten fold tomorrow. A little effort at planting time will payback ten-fold when you come to reap the fruits of your labour. Don’t squander your life. It can only be understood in reverse, but has to be lived forward.'

I must have looked a little confused for the Master put it into a western context for me. 

'Try to think of life as ….. a motor car! It must be driven forward, but can only be understood in the rear-view mirror. Time will pass whether you are using it well or badly. Make sure you don’t waste it sitting still.'

He paused in thought and summed it up in a context I might understand.

‘Life is like a taxi – the meter keeps going whether you are going somewhere or just sitting still! You will go nowhere if you do nothing! You can’t steer the car if it is stuck in park!’

But enough talking! Its time for Action!' 

I bowed and walked over to thank him for my lesson, but he took my outstretched hand and flipped me over onto my back! I stood up again but he tripped me backwards this time. Every time I got to my feet, he put me down again.

‘Very good!’ he said finally.

‘You have fallen seven times, but you got up eight times! That is the important thing! You may stay here, you have much to learn!'

So that was my initiation into his school of wisdom. I actually stayed there the whole summer and learned so much that when I went back to college I surfed through! 

If you have read this  already, you will know how much of my change hinged on the idea of using Stepping Stones to attain my goals. This was actually something I learned my second day in the Temple of Time, when the master threw me in the river! 

[Again, brace yourself for something that I wrote a long time ago in college. I only hope that it might help someone out there who was in the same situation as I found myself in when I left Arthur Andersen. If you need a little inspiration and encouragement - imagine that you are about to be thrown into a  river!]

Next - Lesson 1 - The Master throws me in the river

©1988 JB