A story about humility

 Imagine for a moment that you have been called to speak to an audience. It matters not the size of the audience; how do you feel ? Most of us would feel on top of the world - it’s a sense of people know who I am and want me to speak. Now continue to imagine that there is a panel of speakers and you are one of them. Unknown to you someone on the panel has no clue who you are and what your accomplishments or the lack of them are. 

It so happens that you and that someone meet before the event starts. They have no clue who you are and ask you “who are you? Why are you here?” You are taken aback but respond with the same questions; you don’t know each other. How do you feel now? 

What a terrible interaction. It’s terrible because your perceived self importance and the other persons perceived self importance. They have come in the way of what could probably be an interesting chain of events. I won’t use the word ego - ego for me is defined as the absolute surety one has in one’s own abilities, and also the surety that one has that one doesn’t know everything; it is a state of mind where you know who and what you are. 

Now consider that instead of asking who and why you are here the other person introduced themselves. They and you exchanged pleasantries and went ahead with your respective narration to the audience. Much later you try to find out more about the person. Maybe you Google and you get to learn a little more. How do you feel now? Maybe you realise that you missed an opportunity to learn something about a subject that you consider important; all because you did not reciprocate the opening; all you did as exchange pleasantries. 

Why is this thought experiment important? Well for one it teaches us about humility. Anyone who is sure of their knowledge and the lack of it is absolutely sure of what their ego is. Such a person will always make the first move to introduce themselves, will always know the correct words to use, and will always make the listener feel comfortable. There is no projected self importance or projection of “I am better”. The entire transaction for them is a lesson to be learned. It is a learning opportunity. You will be left feeling “wow what a humble person”. 

Treat everyone and every opportunity to interact with someone the same way - you learn from them; you learn from the opportunity. This is the truth behind humility.

C