The story happened in my second year of working for the current expansion company. At that time, we were going to elect a sales department manager. In a training company like an expansion training company in Beijing, there are actually few leadership levels, and the election by speeches and canvassing among employees was still quite novel to me. As a newcomer who had no fear, I also joined the competition. The leaders of the company were quite satisfied with my performance in the first round of speeches, and they praised me a bit. After being praised by the leader, I suddenly became extremely confident, thinking that I must take on this sales manager position. That night, I excitedly went home and kept pondering my great plan in my heart while preparing for the second round of speeches at the same time.
After a week, the second round of the competition officially began, but I was disappointed. Watching my colleagues speak with confidence one by one, I was completely defeated. In the final evaluation results, not only did I not get elected as the sales manager, but I wasn't even selected as an assistant manager. It felt like being struck by five thunderbolts, suddenly feeling the extreme contrast between fire and ice. I felt that the summer heat and irritability were all prepared for me. Even though the election failed, work still had to continue, but I couldn't adjust my state properly. My work performance was getting worse month by month. With half a year almost gone, there was no improvement in my sales performance, and I was very anxious.
One day, the leader of the company found me and talked about work. It turns out that my performance was all seen by the leader, and the analysis of the reasons was very correct: it was because the failure in the previous election affected my mentality, which led to my inability to fully adjust myself in work.
While saying this, the leader picked up two cups from the coffee table. One cup was filled with cold water, and the other was filled with hot water. They were placed on the windowsill outside. It was already winter. After a short while, the leader asked me, "Do you know which cup of water will freeze first?" Without hesitation, I answered, "Of course, it's the cold water cup." Not long after, when I brought the two cups back inside, unexpectedly, the water in the hot water cup froze first. Then, the leader poured hot water and cold water into the two cups again, and then took out a very frozen pear, cut it open, and put a piece in one of the cups, asking me, "Do you know which pear will thaw first?" After thinking for a moment, I hesitantly said, "In the hot water, right?" But soon after, the pear in the cold water cup became soft, while the pear in the hot water cup, although a bit soft on the outside, was still hard frozen inside. The leader burst out laughing, and at this moment, I suddenly understood the meaning of the example given by the leader. When encountering difficulties, it is necessary to appropriately calm down and settle your mind.
Article reprinted from: http://www.blwh.cn/dg_more.asp?id=350