“And yet, “Better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.”

Maybe it is being around for a long time or seeing so much, but I’m finding it harder and harder to listen to those who are willing to “bet the farm” to get more and more versus being smart and realizing that a smaller portion of something big is better than all of something that is little, or becomes nothing at all. The winner take all and more attitude is prevalent around us today.  It seems that we have become so self-centered that if we don’t get it all and someone else might get something that we don’t, that we dig in our heels and then no one gets anything.  I’m seeing this more and more in the businesses I work with.  Let me try and be clear.  Winner takes all really looks great and we think because we see a few companies that get that to happen that they become the role model to whom we should aspire.  But, please look beyond those few and see that winning can happen or and over without having it all.  Just enough can win the next next day and beyond.

“Better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.” I love this verse.  Especially, the tradeoff of quietness versus chasing the wind.  Which would we prefer for the long run that is our careers and life?  We’ve all chased the wind at some point or another, only to find that the wind soon subsides and we are stopped somewhere where we may not be able to return.  Might it be that the one handful that we have today is for right now more than enough?

Reference:  Ecclesiastes 4:6 (New Living Translation)