There once was a little girl that came across her mother’s violin, she picked it up and began to play with it and attempt the notes. At first, it was painful to hear, but very quickly she learned to read music and within just a few months, it was as though she had been born playing it.
Her parents were so thrilled, they bought her many music books, and got her lessons to help her perfect her technique. Eventually, they got her an interview at a great music school, and during her interview, a great violin teacher came in and listened to her playing. When it was finished, he went and spoke to the parents.
He told them that her playing was remarkable for one so young, and he would be pleased to recommend her for a scholarship at the school. He had, however, one concern; her playing seemed very precise, almost mechanical, he couldn’t understand it, it was like her playing was ‘soul-less’.
The little girl’s parents were saddened to hear this, but smiled and suggested that the professor go and talk to her, and maybe he would understand why she played in this manner.
‘’That is one of the reasons we would like her to come here, she loves to play the violin, but she needs your help to fully achieve her potential… She has… limits you see…’’ added her father.
The professor went to the little girl, confused by this, and spoke with her for several minutes before returning to her parents. He was holding a piece of paper the girl had given him. “I had no idea,” he told them, “her playing is beautiful, please send her here, I will arrange the scholarship, her technique is flawless, she has as much to teach me as I have to teach her. While she teaches me to understand her, I will teach her to understand what the vibrations in the strings are saying to her. I cannot wait to begin…”
The parents asked what was in the note, he handed it over to them, on opening it, the parents read:
“I cannot hear your words, just like I cannot hear the music from my violin. I feel the vibrations in the strings but I don’t know what those vibrations mean. Please teach me to understand them and I will teach you to understand me…”
The little girl was not just the prodigy that she seemed, she was also deaf.
Never judge a book by its cover or a person by what you see at first.
Judge them by their actions, by their hearts and their dreams. In your business and in your lives, take the people you meet and work with as they are not as you wish them to be, or through the eyes of limitation, wait and see the evidence first, and then make your decisions.
