Are you a pond or an ocean?
Are you a pond or an ocean?
I know this is a strange question to ask but I promise you it will make a lot of sense in a few more paragraphs.
First, a little background story.
A few days ago, I was complaining to my mentor about how stressed out I was.
Yes…. I do have those days too.
Difficult personalities.
Demanding clients.
Dumb keyboard warriors.
He listened for a while and then asked me this really random question.
“Do you want your wealth to be shallow as a pond or deep as an ocean?”
“Um… ocean?”
“How about your influence? Shallow as a pond or deep as an ocean?“
“Ocean of course.”
Like you, I was just as confused by his questions.
He paused for a moment and then you sense that Yoda moment.
“Eric, if you want your wealth and influence to be as deep as the ocean, then you got to be able to take all kinds of sh*t just like the ocean.”
He added, “The ocean is the largest body of water on earth. That’s wealth. And it produces over half of the world’s oxygen.
That’s influence.
But it is also in the ocean that you find all kinds of crazy things. Sunken ships. Rotten food. Man-eating fishes.”
If you cannot even take these crazy sh*t then how can you be able to create crazy amount of wealth and influence?”
If you were with me in the room, you will see me grinning from cheek to cheek.
I get it now.
Don’t wish for my life to be easier.
Wish for myself to be stronger.
By increasing my capacity to deal with difficult problems and difficult personalities, I am also simultaneously increasing my capacity to “hold” wealth, influence and all things good.
So, do you want to be shallow as a pond or deep as an ocean?”
Your #1 fan,
Eric Feng
P.S. Thank you for taking the time to read this email. If this email WOW-ed you, please let me know on social media. Share it and tag me. I would love to know your answer.
P.P.S. It has been a week since I launched my podcast and we topped the Apple charts under the marketing topic!
First in Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines.
Second in Hong Kong.
Third in Indonesia.
If you were one of those early listeners, thank you! I just launched a new episode titled “How to build an authentic personal brand on social media?” Have a listen!
Details here -> https://www.knownlovedrespected.com/podcast
