Tales My Mother Told Me...Tale 3 : "The Importance of Self Understanding"

Illustration

by Anthony Van Lam

Tale 3: The Importance of Self Understanding.

This tale took place in our factory back home in Vietnam. I have always remembered how my mum was an extremely good communicator. She inspired people when she connected with them. Even little children took a shine to her and were keen to have a chat with her.

I can recall whenever we had new workers starting in our factory Mum would always make them feel at home. She gave them her full attention and would engage in deep conversations with them. She learnt a great deal about them and had an understanding of what they wanted to do with their careers and in life. Many of the younger workers were unsure what they wanted to do in life. But after a chat with mum, I’d notice that they started to look at their futures differently. They became motivated and developed a sense of purpose as to what they wanted to do to follow their dreams.

I was quite young at the time, and I loved spending time with mum and listened to the conversations she had with these young workers. At time I tried to emulate how she talked to people and tried to recite the same kind of questions she used to ask the workers too.

One day I was curious and asked mum.

“Mum where did you learn to ask these questions?”

and “how do you know what questions to ask them?”

because when I’m a big boy, I want to ask people the same kind of questions and engage in conversation the way you talk to them too.

Can you teach me mum?

I want to be like you mum?

My mother looked at me and smiled and said.

“My little one, what is your hurry to learn this?

You have plenty of time to learn.

Don’t worry, you will when you become a big boy my mum said.

Even when my mum did explain it to me, I was too young to understand the meaning behind the importance of self understanding.

However, I did recall something like this.

“Knowing who you are, and understand what you want in life is the highest contribution you can make for yourself”

Now when I think back to what mum said, I totally understood the real reason as to why mum asked those questions. They were used to encourage them to think about what they wanted to be in life and what they had yet to discover in themselves.

So what do we learn from this tale?

To be good at what we do in life and in business, we need to invest the time to learn and understand ourselves. WHO we are and to know WHAT we want!

If you understand yourself, then you can understand others and therefore you have compassion. If you care for yourself and the people who work with and for you, then they are more likely to support you and grow your business with you. It is your role as a leader to help build the people around you by genuinely looking after their wellbeing and helping them grow as a person.

In business, knowing who you are, and understanding the importance of the goals that you have set for yourself and by having an actionable business plan with a clear vision and mission will help you understand what your business is all about. So when you share this with your team and they understand the overall vision of your business, they too will feel empowered and aligned to your business vision. This is why self understanding is so important.

Once you understand what you want in business, the people who work with you or for you will understand it too.

So what do you like from this tale?

Please share your thoughts and leave your comments here or leave a comment on ArtSHINE Facebook page.

Tune in next Friday for tale 4: “Being Compassionate”

More Tales My Mother Told Me…

Volume 1:

Tale 1: “When You Help One, You Help Thousands”

Tale 2: “Your Mind is Powerful”

Tale 3: “The Importance of Self Understanding”

Tale 4: “Being Compassionate”

Tale 5: “Finding the Inner Calmer In You”

Tale 6: “The Magic Pen”