Perspective is everything

When Steve Jobs was asked to leave the company, Apple Inc., that he founded, he got over the initial shock by looking at his situation in a different perspective. In his own words, “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life”. Later, when his beloved company was staring at bankruptcy he took control as its chief executive officer to start his second run.

Again he perceived that “The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.” He viewed the challenge as an opportunity to innovate new products and the rest is history.

A wealthy business man took his son to a poor neighbourhood in order for him to understand how privileged his life is. He arranged for both of them to live with a farming family for a couple of days. On their return the father asked his son about what he learnt from his stay with the impoverished.

The boy replied excitedly that he understood how privileged their hosts were with whom they had stayed. When father pressed him to explain, he said, “We have just one dog but they have four. We have a pool in our garden but they have this never-ending river, we have posh lanterns but they sleep under millions of stars, we have a patio but they own the entire horizon, we own a small portion of land but their fields stretch far and wide, we buy our food but they grow their own food, we have a high fence for protection, but they don’t need to protect their property as their friends are there to do so. Father, I am thankful to you for showing me how poor we are”.  The boy’s perspective of good life is not based on material things; instead he values happiness in life which relies on love, friendship and freedom.

What is considered polite in one culture may be perceived as rude in another. Traveling and tasting different cultures widen the mind’s
horizon and bring in broad perspective.

The Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius has the last word: “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact; everything we see is perspective, not the truth”.