Your Last Work (Few Life Inspiring Words - 6)

This is an inspiring story reminding every one of us about the last work we had done in our professional lives before moving on to a new phase of our career. To be more specific it reminds us about the last assignment we did for a company before moving on to a better one or the last work we finished just before going on to a holiday leave or the last projects completed by a person in his career before retiring altogether.

Normally what majority of people do in all the above cases is that they just rush up the work in hands at a brisk speed and try to finish it up in a way which is much inferior, compared to their own set quality standards. And this story makes us remember all those poor projects which unintentionally may have got affected due to this short sightedness of human nature we all possess.

So here it is :

A famous elderly carpenter, known for his skill of making beautiful houses, was ready to retire. So he told his employer-contractor of his plan to leave the house-building business in order to live a more leisurely life with his wife and extended family. He really wanted to spend his last days along with his grand children and all the family members together.

The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go but politely asked that if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but over the time of building that last house, it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials leading to a below par kind of work without any of his famous finishing touches. And it was indeed an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career like this.

When the carpenter finished his work, his employer came to inspect the house. He calmly visited every corner of the house and then with a smile handed over the main key of the house to the carpenter and said "This is your house.............my gift to you for all your services for me in the last decades”.

The carpenter was shocked !

What a shame! And What a Loss! The carpenter simply felt like losing all the reputation he had built in his entire career of a fine craft man. Had he known the real secret then he would have really done it all so differently and beautifully……..but now he had missed the bus. Only because he was retiring from his job after this, he had not put his whole body and soul in building the house, which came back to him as a good teaching slap from the existence.

And then the carpenter died with this only regret of not completing his last house, his own house in style. The regret, which could have been easily avoided by just finishing off the work with his total love and devotion as he always used to do it.

But, one cannot go back and we need to learn our lessons from such stories. We are our own carpenters in life and every small or big work done by us should have all our body, mind and soul put in it to the maximum.

That’s the way of enjoying your work and that’s how we would be able to enjoy every surprise gift of the existence without any guilt or regret.

Therefore make your choices carefully and BUILD YOUR HOUSE WISELY!

It’s time to Think!

(Story Contributed by Mr. Rafiq Javaed, Edited by Bobby Sing)

Thanks Rafiq Javaed for sharing it with us!