The owner carries the cage with the nightingale to the teahouse for tea every day. In the teahouse, a group of expert bird keepers gathered daily, often exchanging their experience in bird keeping together.
One day, the master’s son asked his father, “Dad, when you go to tea every day, why do you still bring the nightingale with you?”
“Son, people who usually raise nightingales will never keep them in their own cages. The owners would take the nightingale to the tea house or the bird market, where there are many nightingales. When a new bird hears the sound of its own kind in the teahouse or at the bird market, it will follow suit and sing. But I also think it has something to do with you being a big man in the future.”
“What does it have to do with me being a big man?” The son was puzzled.
“Yes. The birder trained the nightingale to sing beautifully by stimulating its competitive nature, and if there was no competition, the nightingale might have become mute for life.”
When my son heard this, he understood.
Modern society is highly competitive; without competitiveness, one cannot survive. Many people are reluctant to participate in competition because they fear failure. The point of competition is not to win or lose but to promote one’s growth with every input. A person with a sense of competition will likely be invincible at work and in life forever. And a person who is not competitive and does not have a competitive spirit will never achieve great results.
