The Horse, the Driver and the Student

A Rabbi once told the story of a Jewish Student with the desire to go to the big city to listed to the teachings of a wise teacher on one of the Jewish Holy days. He employed the services of a driver with a horse-driven carriage. After 2 days they arrived in the big city. Al three of these role-players all arrived at the destination, the horse because of the whip, the driver because of payment and the student because of his conviction and desire.

Maslow created a model that is called the hierarchy of needs, and it looks like this.

Self Actualization

Esteem

Love/Belonging

Safety

Physiological/Survival

These are ranked from bottom to top, where survival is (as is on the table) the lowest, and moving up to Self-Actualization. In our story, we see that all 3 of the characters arrive in the city, and different needs were met. The horse and the driver's needs of survival was met, where the horse got his hay by way of the driver getting paid. The driver could look after himself and his family. The Student on the other hand got everything in motion, based on his need for Self-Actualization.

All 3 gave something up to undertake the journey, the horse gave his power to pull the cart, the driver his time and the student his money. This just simply means that needs can only be met with some kind of effort on our side, nothing will happen in something does not happen.

The main difference between the three would be, who and what instigated the trip? And the answer is the desire of the student. Without his desire to go to the city, the horse might have gone hungry and the driver might not have been able to pay his families rent.

When we talk about motivation, this example shows us that we would like to have in ourselves as sales people, or our sales employees to start their journey by themselves. These are the easy people to motivate, as no motivation from outside is necessary. They would find a way to get things done, because they feel that they are called to the city and to the sale. On the other hand, we do have horses and drivers in our sales-force whom we need to whip and some who are only there for the money.

When I started this journey, I had a calling, because in my soul I understand that my purpose in life is to be a teacher. I spend nights reading and writing. Nobody is forcing me, and people around me don't really understand. I do sell insurance, but to be honest, I do it for the money and to put food on the table, and not from my conviction of my soul. I have post-graduate qualifications in investment and personal finance, but that still did not get me to who I want to be. So, I do get to the city, but only to pay for the hay of my horse.

And before I started the journey, although I had the conviction, I had some doubts. I do not think that I am an excellent writer, so maybe people won't read what I write. Maybe I will not be on any best author list in the near future. I phoned a very successful author about three weeks ago and told him about my idea, and he has not come back to me to set up an appointment, and then I thought that this will not be such a great idea. Then I thought about who I am, mistakes I have made, having lost everything, and that people might not want to listen to me, and they might think that I am a looser. Then I thought that if I really want to pursue this, how will I get paid? But then I was reminded of the movie "Field of Dreams" and that "if you build it, they will come".

Still, in spite of all that, in spite of the sacrifice, in spite of feeling humiliated in my life, in spite of being scared, I was still propelled by my vocation and what I believed in my soul to be my destiny.

"If love depends on a reason, then when the reason disappear, so does love.  But a love that does not depend on a rational reason can exist forever" (Avot 5:16)

The student that undertook the journey, understood that he needed the driver and the horse to get him to where he needed to be. So at this stage I am keeping my eye on the city where I am being pulled towards. But for now, I still have to whip myself into shape in the morning to work hard and earn my money to sort out my day to day living.

To get to the destination of self-actualization, we can not let the horse lead.

So I undertake the journey, knowing that I can no longer ignore the calling of my soul, and by embarking on the journey, I am drawing my calling ever closer every day!