Life is... Like a Cup of Coffee

A group of best friends decided to have their alumni get together at the residence of one of their favorite university professor. The professor was very popular among university students and had been mentor for many of them. They finalized to make a surprise visit to professor. All planning was done and on predefined date they visited their most popular and old university professor’s house.
It was quite a happy moment for not only professor; but even for the all friends (students of professor) also as some of them were meeting after a long time. Everyone was trying to know whereabouts and the developments in their friends life after leaving college. They shared with each other, how did they move ahead in life. Few became a good leaders having senior positions in corporate world; whereas few were doing good in the business world. All of them had got married and having wonderful family. Everyone had his/her own timing of life in achieving the milestones. There was quality conversation going on, but somehow the conversation soon diverted to complaints about work, relationships, ‘stress‘ & ‘tension’ in life.
The professor offered them coffee and went to kitchen to ask his wife to prepare coffee for all his students. After 10-15 minutes, his beautiful wife came with a pleasant smile. One thing was to be noticed that she brought coffee in different kinds of cups !!! (crystal cups, glass cups, ceramic cups, shining ones, some plain looking, some ordinary, some exquisite and some expensive ones …). The students thought that professor may not have the same kind of cups and due to large number of guests; his wife has served the coffee in different cups.
When all of them had a cup in hand, The professor said, “If you noticed, all the nice looking & expensive cups are taken up, leaving behind the ordinary, plain and cheap ones !!!”
It was surprising moment, as nobody noticed that there were some extra cups of coffee and while having their cup, nobody took the ordinary cups and all of them were left on the serving tray.
The professor continued, “Every one of you wanted the best CUPS. While it is, of course normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that can also be the source of much of your dissatisfaction, problems and stress and tension in life.”
It was quite a happy moment for not only professor; but even for the all friends (students of professor) also as some of them were meeting after a long time. Everyone was trying to know whereabouts and the developments in their friends life after leaving college. They shared with each other, how did they move ahead in life. Few became a good leaders having senior positions in corporate world; whereas few were doing good in the business world. All of them had got married and having wonderful family. Everyone had his/her own timing of life in achieving the milestones. There was quality conversation going on, but somehow the conversation soon diverted to complaints about work, relationships, ‘stress‘ & ‘tension’ in life.
The professor offered them coffee and went to kitchen to ask his wife to prepare coffee for all his students. After 10-15 minutes, his beautiful wife came with a pleasant smile. One thing was to be noticed that she brought coffee in different kinds of cups !!! (crystal cups, glass cups, ceramic cups, shining ones, some plain looking, some ordinary, some exquisite and some expensive ones …). The students thought that professor may not have the same kind of cups and due to large number of guests; his wife has served the coffee in different cups.
When all of them had a cup in hand, The professor said, “If you noticed, all the nice looking & expensive cups are taken up, leaving behind the ordinary, plain and cheap ones !!!”
It was surprising moment, as nobody noticed that there were some extra cups of coffee and while having their cup, nobody took the ordinary cups and all of them were left on the serving tray.
The professor continued, “Every one of you wanted the best CUPS. While it is, of course normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that can also be the source of much of your dissatisfaction, problems and stress and tension in life.”