Leadership expert, John Maxwell says: “When you are trying to realise your dream, sometimes you’ll be surprised by which people want to light your fire and which ones want to put it out.” Here’s a humorous story to illustrate the point.

A particular migrating bird decided that it was too much trouble to fly south for the winter and decided he would brave the winter out, like a lot of other animals do. So as all the other birds flocked away towards warmer climes, he stayed behind and waited for winter.

By the end of November he was having serious second thoughts. He had never been so cold and he couldn’t find any food. Finally he realised that if he didn’t get out of there soon, he wasn’t go to make it. So he started to fly south all by himself. After a while it began to rain. And before he knew it the water was turning to ice on his wings. Struggling, he recognised that he couldn’t fly any longer. He knew he was about to die, so he glided down and made his last landing, crashing to the ground in a barnyard.

As he lay there stunned, a cow came by, stepped over him and dropped a plop right on him. He was totally disgusted. Here I am, he thought, freezing to death. I’m about to die. I’m on my last breath, and then this! What an awful way to go. So the bird held his breath and prepared himself to die. But after about two minutes, he discovered that a miracle was happening: He was warming up. The ice on his wings was melting. His muscles were thawing out. His blood was flowing again. He realised that he was going to make it after all. He got so excited and happy that he began to sing a glorious song.

At that moment, the farm’s old tomcat was lying in the hayloft in the barn, and he heard the bird singing. He couldn’t believe it; he hadn’t heard anything like it for months, and he said to himself, “Is that a bird? I thought they’d all gone south for the winter.” He came out of the barn, and lo and behold, there was the bird. The cat crossed over to where he was, pulled him gentle out of the cow plop, cleaned him off – and ate him!

There are three morals to this story: (1) Not everyone who drops a plop on you is your enemy; (2) not everyone who takes a plop off you is your friend; and (3) if someone does drop a plop on you, keep your mouth shut. The same can be said for you as you realise your dream. Some people you consider friends will fight your success. Others will support you in ways you didn’t expect. But no matter which people criticise you or how they do it, don’t let them take your focus off your dream.

Source: John Maxwell, The Success Journey, 1997, Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, p.37-39

Leadership expert, John Maxwell says: “When you are trying to realise your dream, sometimes you’ll be surprised by which people want to light your fire and which ones want to put it out.” Here’s a humorous story to illustrate the point.

A particular migrating bird decided that it was too much trouble to fly south for the winter and decided he would brave the winter out, like a lot of other animals do. So as all the other birds flocked away towards warmer climes, he stayed behind and waited for winter.

By the end of November he was having serious second thoughts. He had never been so cold and he couldn’t find any food. Finally he realised that if he didn’t get out of there soon, he wasn’t go to make it. So he started to fly south all by himself. After a while it began to rain. And before he knew it the water was turning to ice on his wings. Struggling, he recognised that he couldn’t fly any longer. He knew he was about to die, so he glided down and made his last landing, crashing to the ground in a barnyard.

As he lay there stunned, a cow came by, stepped over him and dropped a plop right on him. He was totally disgusted. Here I am, he thought, freezing to death. I’m about to die. I’m on my last breath, and then this! What an awful way to go. So the bird held his breath and prepared himself to die. But after about two minutes, he discovered that a miracle was happening: He was warming up. The ice on his wings was melting. His muscles were thawing out. His blood was flowing again. He realised that he was going to make it after all. He got so excited and happy that he began to sing a glorious song.

At that moment, the farm’s old tomcat was lying in the hayloft in the barn, and he heard the bird singing. He couldn’t believe it; he hadn’t heard anything like it for months, and he said to himself, “Is that a bird? I thought they’d all gone south for the winter.” He came out of the barn, and lo and behold, there was the bird. The cat crossed over to where he was, pulled him gentle out of the cow plop, cleaned him off – and ate him!

There are three morals to this story: (1) Not everyone who drops a plop on you is your enemy; (2) not everyone who takes a plop off you is your friend; and (3) if someone does drop a plop on you, keep your mouth shut. The same can be said for you as you realise your dream. Some people you consider friends will fight your success. Others will support you in ways you didn’t expect. But no matter which people criticise you or how they do it, don’t let them take your focus off your dream.

Source: John Maxwell, The Success Journey, 1997, Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, p.37-39