The Solution is often Simple and Easy

This story comes from centuries ago. There was an Emperor, one day in the morning he gets to his garden. As soon as he reaches, a spike (thorn) gets into his foot.  He was into a bad pain. A terrible pain which he hadn’t experienced before. He invited every wise man in that country into his palace. He very strictly ordered everyone, to do such a thing that he should never get a spike (thorn) in his foot again. The thousands of thinkers and wise men thought for the months. And they finally decided to cover the whole earth with leather, so that the emperor don’t get a spike again. This news broke into the whole kingdom, Farmers became tensed that if all the land will be covered by the leather, then how the crops will grow? Everyone got tensed that to save the king from a spike, they are indirectly going to kill every human by covering the earth in leather as nothing will be grown on the farms. Thousands of people prayed on the door of palace to king that “Don’t do this, find other solution”. 

Thinkers got summoned, they said another idea is to eradicate all the spikes from the soil, so you don’t get any trouble.  The mission to eradicate spikes began. Thousands of labors started cleaning the roads, grounds, farms with brooms so that they can remove all the spikes. With the great brooming exercise, a storm of dust started, sky was filled with the dust, thousands of people were cleaning as the order was not to leave even a single spike or dust. 

Thousands of people got ill. Some fainted. Such a dust storm was there because this program went for 24 hours continuously. People again requested to the king, ‘What kind of madness is this?’. So much dust has been raised that our lives become difficult. Even Breathing is difficult. Please, settle these dust clouds and find another solution. King agreed to find another solution.

To bring down the dust, thousands of labors were asked to fill the water and irrigate the earth. Rivers and ponds dried. Thousands of women watered the capital and nearby places of capital. But now, because the water was used to settle the dust, it resulted in Mud. The mud was everywhere, houses of poor people broke out. Very difficult situation arrived. People again prayed the king, ‘What happened? Why don’t you let us live? If your feet get spike, then why is it that our lives become difficult. Please find another simple way

Then a shoemaker came there and said, “I bought these shoes for you, please wear it. So, spikes (thorn) won’t get you again and our lives will be saved”. King was amazed, as ‘Solution was that simple’. He got surprised by seeing his feet covered and solving the problem. He wondered where such an intelligent man for was so long, who solved this so easily, which the thousands of knowledgeable people in kingdom were unable to solve. Millions were spent, thousands faced difficulties. Seeing this simple solution from a shoemaker, all Intellectuals of the kingdom became envious and angry on this shoemaker. They said to the King that this shoemaker is dangerous. They said, Sure, this man must got help from the evil 😈. We such intellectuals couldn’t solve the problem, this old man solved it. There must be some trick in it. It must be dangerous. They explained to the King 👑 that the shoe 👟 will be proved dangerous, Evil’s hand must be in it because all our intellect couldn’t solve that problem, which he has solved. How this old man 👨 can solve it? King got scared, they brainwashed the King and convinced him that shoemaker has some hidden agenda and is dangerous for king. Ultimately, the Shoemaker was hanged. The first and real wise man of that kingdom was hanged. The one who gave a solution to the problem was hanged 

Moral of the Story? Well, there can be many interpretations and hence many morals. 

In Corporates – We often ignore the simple solution, just because we are (assumed) intellectuals – we often overcomplicate things, we often over-optimize; while ignoring the basic, simple, easy solutions.

In a broader world too, everyone today essentially has only one problem - The spikes of sorrow have poked our lives, The spikes of disturbance, spikes of tension, Spikes of un-knowledgeability, spikes of darkness. All kinds of spikes poke us, and we don’t find a way to save ourselves from them. And everyone by suggestions of intellectuals, starts covering the whole earth by forgetting about themselves. The simple solution of covering own feet, no one understands it. It’s that simple idea 💡 but only very few are the people who has covered their feet. Most are busy covering the whole earth.  Whoever, tried to cover the earth, or eradicate the soil they got into the troubles. Because of these Improvers (reformers), humans have stuck so bad that today we can’t see the way out. But A simple solution was there that everyone covers their feet and become free from spikes. But that’s the simple thing which people won’t understand. It’s not the world that we need to fix, it’s us that we need work upon and fix. Cover the own feet and not the whole planet. 

PS: This story was originally narrated in Hindi, I heard this in one of Osho's hindi discourses. Here I have transcribed and tweaked it a bit to make it relevant for LinkedIn :)

Also inspired to write this story after reading a LinkedIn post by Mani Karthik a few days ago, the gist for marketers is similar from both the posts, if you are a marketer 👉 go read this 😄