There once was a “Stone Soup Man......

There once was a “Stone Soup Man” and here is how he became the “Stone Soup Man”.

He had no money and he was very hungry. There was nobody offering to help as most people in the town were also poor so. One day he had an idea. He picked up a stone from the ground and knocked on a door.

When the house owner answered, he asked her if he could make her the world’s best soup for free. Free was great because she was also poor so she invited him in to make it. He got a pot from her and added some water and the stone. While it was cooking he said, ‘this soup is already going to be the best soup you ever had, but, it would be even better with a carrot’. The woman agreed and brought carrots from her garden to him.

Then he said, ‘wow, it smells so good I can hardly wait. You know what would make this even better; some potatoes’. The woman goes and gets potatoes and he puts that in. He keeps getting her to add ingredients including some chicken.

Soon they have a big pot of chicken stew with a stone in it. The woman agreed that it was the best soup she had ever tasted. The man went on his way with his stone, a full belly and left the woman thinking he had done her a big favor.

I am always intrigued by how this faceless guy (we don't even know his name) out of nothing, got a full stomach, and not just that, in the process he also made a woman feel very good like she got so much for free even though 100% of the ingredients were from her.

The bottom line is you can always make something out of nothing, and if you offer people the possibility of what they can be, they will be willing to give you anything you ask for. If you can make them see where they can be from where they are presently, people will make their own dreams come true and give you the credit for it. Most time the issue is not what they don’t have, it’s what they don’t see – possibility.

You can’t help people lead their lives, manage their finances, build their relationships, but if you can help them see the possibilities ahead of them, if you can make other people feel better, render services that unveil to them what they could be, take them from where they are, to where they never thought they could be and offer a shoulder of support along the way till they find their foot, you will be the hero of their heart, for life.

In doing good for others, you are doing same for yourself, becoming a better person yourself by adding value to the others around you. You can’t be worse off for being good, you can’t better others and remain mere good yourself. Helping others lit their candle with yours doesn’t diminish your light; it only makes the world brighter.

I hope you get the point of the story. I know this is true. I am in the business of selling possibilities. This is a TOAST to all the Soup Men out there, who sell their soup through the pot of a blog, a book, motivational speaking, coaching and counselling....... (the list is endless) and to future Soup Men; including YOU (I hope you'd create more varieties of pots and better stone soups).

This post is dedicated to Opeyemi Aregbesola a dear and great friend. In her I see the future.