In ancient times, a king had a huge boulder placed in a roadway, then hid and watched to see if anyone would remove it.  Some of the kingdom’s biggest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.  Many of them loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none of them did anything about getting the big stone out of the way.

Then a peasant farmer came along, carrying a load of vegetables on his back.  When he came to the boulder, he laid down his burden and began trying to move it to the side of the road.  After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded.

As he was picking up his vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been.  The purse contained many gold pieces and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the stone from the roadway. 

The peasant had learned what many others have learned since: every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one’s condition.

Thus, as an engineer, reflect on how the “obstacle” of the professional engineering exam really is a fine opportunity to improve yourself.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 9:40 am and is filed under Leadership, Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.