There was once a young man who gave his best at everything he did. Every piece of work he had to do he did to utmost perfection and every job he had was completed to its fullest. He just couldn't bare to leave things halfway undone or imperfect. One day, the owner of a large machine making company came to seek the help from this young man for he had heard of his thoroughness and his attention to detail.
A rich buyer was contemplating purchasing many machines from the business man and was coming in to his nearest town to inspect a sample. However, this business man only had a single machine left in that town and it was pretty old and worn but the rich buyer insisted on visiting this town.
Oh no! What am I to do? After he sees this flaming old mess he definitely wouldn't want to purchase the other newer machines I have!
And then a brilliant idea struck him! He had long heard of the reputation of the young man. So why not put his reputation to the test?
"This machine better look as good as it did brand new after you're done with it," said the pompous business owner, "you have 3 days."
"Yes sir, I will try my best." replied the young man.
So the young man set out hard at work first scraping off all the rust that had gathered on the machine before polishing the steel with a cloth. Alas, after the second day he had nearly completed cleaning the entire machine and it look close to its former self twenty years ago.
The restoration had but one flaw, there was a tiny screw near the back of the machine that was hidden but it was an eyesore. The screw was badly rusted and had to be replaced but it was stuck so soundly in its slot it could not be removed no matter how hard the young man tried. And tried he did. He had spent his entire third day fretting and trying out ways to sort out this tiny problem.
Finally, the day had arrived for the rich buyer to inspect the machine. The young man was dread with fear, he could not believe he had left this little imperfection on his perfect machine and the worst part was that he didn't even had the courage to tell the business owner for fear of having his reputation ruined. He was so anxious he couldn't sleep the night before.
The rich buyer was so famous the entire town turned up to watch him inspect the machine right in the middle of the square. The young man was biting on his fingernails really hard, a bad habit he couldn't kick when he was extremely nervous.
"Let's see how she runs!" exclaimed the rich buyer.
The business man pushed the 'on' button and the great old machine sprang into life, just like always.
The rich buyer didn't even open his eyes. All he wanted was to hear the sound of the machine. Trained engineers can always tell if there's a fault that lies in the equipment by just listening to it's operation. This one sounded exactly how it was supposed to.
"I'll buy all of your machines!"
"And by the way, you didn't have to go through all that trouble polishing it, I do not purchase machines for their beauty but for their products."
The young man heaved a sign of relief. All that worrying was for nothing.
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Life is like the machine. If it runs well, there is no need to change it. As much as you try to achieve perfection, you can never truly be satisfied if you're constantly worried about the minor things in life that do not even affect it.
An old machine can run well even if it's exterior is not perfect. And if you are able to ignore the little imperfections and instead look at it's final product, you'll be a little happier with your machine.
Writing style inspired by H C Andersen. Copenhagen was a blast!
-RomE
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