“A left arrow, the passed time and the spoken words never come back.”
There are 3 elements in the above quote, (i) Arrow; (ii) Time and (iii) Words. It’s a no brainer that an arrow has the power to kill and it is common sense that there is a time span for everything and everyone. What do you think is the power of Words; will you believe me if I say even Words have the power to kill?
In the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific some villagers practice a unique form of logging. If a tree is too large to be felled with an axe, the natives cut it down by yelling at it. Woodsmen with special powers creep up on a tree just at dawn and suddenly scream at it at the top of their lungs. They continue this for thirty days. The tree dies and falls over. The theory is that the hollering kills the spirit of the tree. According to the villagers, it always works.
The Solomon Islanders may have a point. Yelling at living things does tend to kill the spirit in them.
So what did the natives in Solomon Islands used to kill the tree, it’s just the Words. Let me also illustrate the power of Words with the help of frogs…
Once a group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all of their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs said, “Did you not hear us?” The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.
This story reiterates the power of Words that could kill a frog. And the same story also illustrates the power of Words when one of the frogs interpreted all the Words as encouragement and came out as a clear winner.
Every leader has used the power of Words to create possibilities and winning moments!
I understand that nature has strategically created the source of Words (mouth) in between The Brain and The Heart and now it’s our responsibility to use it most effectively to invent winning moments.
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” – Shakespeare
