Against Humanity: Seeking Quick Success from Qualified People

There were two people living on the same floor in the same building at a residence compound. They both had many potted plants on their balconies. The only difference was that the plants at unit A, where Mr. Fang lives, were always growing well, compared to the dying plants at unit B, which Ms. Wu occupies.

Ms. Wu felt so discouraged because she invested quite a sum of money in flowers and plants. She bought new potted plants every season, but Mr. Fang hardly buys new plants and even rarely goes to the flower market. The appearances of the two balconies were such a contrast. One day, Ms. Wu could not help her curiosity and knocked at Mr. Fang's door and asked for advice.

Mr. Fang said: "I already noticed that you are fond of flowers and have bought quite a lot. You invested so much but the flowers are not growing as well as you would wish. I understand your disappointment. The problem is that the way in which you love your plants is not right, which determines the growth of your flowers."

"I observed that you buy flowering plants every month and, meanwhile, you throw plants away. The plants that you buy are all in full bloom and what you throw away are all withered. Look, I even have some of your throw-aways on my balcony."

Mr. Fang continued: "The biggest problem you have is that you only like the plants that are blossoming but not the plants that will blossom or have passed their season. You only care about their beautiful presences, but don't care about their past and future. You only water and fertilize them when they have flowers, but you don't look after them at all when they need water and care. The result is that you change your plants every day. That way, you can only enjoy the glorious flowers for a very short period; however, you can not keep the long-term lushness."

After listening to Mr. Fang, Ms. Wu did find herself thinking in the wrong way. From then on, she no longer just focused on the blooming season and transferred her energy to minding the plants. In less than half a year, her balcony became as lush as Mr. Fang's.

In fact, there are many people who think just like Ms. Wu did. For example, some executives only want to steal intelligent people from other companies but ignore building up nice environments for people at their own companies. Some husbands only love their wives when they are young and pretty. Some sports club bosses poach top players from other teams and then see them changed into ordinary players, or some institutes only pay attention to immediate achievements but not to the procedures of research.

Those represent the phenomenon of just loving the blooming seasons. That attitude, which is so eager to expect people to achieve quick success, is driving human beings to "social Darwinism." The cons will not show at present as human resources are plentiful, however, after ten or twenty years, when we are entering into a mature society, how will it be?

If you love flowers, you should not only love their blooming seasons, but also their non-flowering seasons, which are necessary for the blooms. It is the same principle that should be applied to caring for talented people.