Robin was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he should hammer a nail in the back fence. The first day the boy drove thirty-seven nails into the fence. Then, it gradually went down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally, the day came when the boy did not lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and  his father suggested that the boy now pull out a nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The day passes and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. Robin’s father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.

“You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When we say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say ‘I’m sorry,’ the wound is still there. A verbal wound is bad as a physical one.”

Robin’s father decided then to talk to Robin about life. The two of them sat on the fence and munched on apples as they talked. He wanted Robin to know that there were many things  to learn about life.

“Some are learned the hard way but some could be learned by watching the experiences of others. One of the first things you have to be aware about in the real world is that life is not fair.”

His father said.

“You just have to get used to it.”

“Another important fact is that the world expects you to achieve something with your life. You cannot expect the rest of the world to respect you if you have done nothing at all. You have to do well in life to feel good about yourself. Do not complain that your father is hard on you or that your teacher is strict. The world will be harsh and your boss will be harsher.

If you do make a mess of things, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them. Do not keep repeating them. Do not think you have the chance to make every mistake possible. Learn from other people’s mistakes. And go on to do the right things in life.

School is the only place where you can make mistakes and teachers will correct you. They will give you many times to do the test papers again and you can repeat some major exams too. But real life is not like that at all. Nothing in real life is like school. If you make serious mistakes in real life, you will pay for it. The punishment can be severe. People will choose not to be your friend or the law can punish you.

By the way, television is not the real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. Having and holding is important in life for a responsible man. You will have to take care of yourself and your family and for all that, you will need money. Nobody is obliged to give you money. You have to earn it. Any honest job is fine.

You might think parents are boring people. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So, before you think you are great, try doing the small jobs around the house.

Be nice to people. You will need people all the way in life,”

His father said. Robin looked seriously at his father. What he said did make sense.

Credit : teacher.. :)