The sun was setting as we came to the 19th hole. My friend invited me back to the club-house to debrief the game. We talked about the long putt on 10, the drive on 17 and the almost hole-in- one. Then my friend said: "The best lesson I learnt this season was not how to stand, improve my grip or stay out of the water - I learnt a life lesson."
He proceeded to tell me this story.He'd paid $300 to attend a presentation by a renowned speaker who was in great demand. He arrived early for the presentation and sat at a table near the front of the room, to get his money's worth. Everyone at the sold-out event waited in great anticipation for the speaker to come. An hour and twenty minutes passed and the speaker still hadn't arrived. Voices in the room became louder as people expressed their anger and disappointment. As the tension grew, a man near the back of the room stood up and shouted, "Where is the speaker? I want my money back." The event organiser, looking very worried, tried to reassure people that the speaker would be there shortly. |
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Finally, the door at the back of the room opened and a man carefully made his way to the podium. It was the speaker! He positioned himself at the microphone and stood looking out over the room at the angry and disappointed audience. After a long pause, he spoke, "You are the ugliest looking group of people I have ever addressed. I am not prepared to speak to a miserable crowd. "I noticed coffee and sticky buns at the back of the room. I am going to have a cup of coffee. If you can convince me your attitude will improve after coffee, I will deliver my presentation."
When the audience had reassembled after coffee, the speaker asked a person to stand up and introduce herself and the rest of the people at her table. She replied she didn't know the rest of the people at her table. The speaker addressed the audience, "What have you been doing while you waited for me to arrive? You could have used -the time to get to know the people at your table. Instead, you wasted the time, focusing on how inconsiderate I was making you wait when you'd paid good money for this presentation." The speaker gripped the podium and said slowly, "I do not need to tell you where I was, but I will. I was on a flight scheduled to arrive here at 8am. The plane's landing gear would not release, so the plane circled the airport for two hours. Finally, the plane dumped the rest of its fuel and we landed on a foam-covered runway. "You see," he continued, looking directly at the audience, "I have been contemplating my death for the last two hours, while you were judging me to be inconsiderate, rude and arrogant. You judged me before you heard my story, before you knew me."
As I listened to my friend's story, I thought about the many times I have judged (and discounted) people without taking the time to hear their story. That evening in the clubhouse, I learned a lot about winning in the game of golf and in the game of life.
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