Sunday, April 22, 2012
Becoming Smarter

Question: Is there a way that I can make myself smarter?

Answer:

Have you heard of the story of a girl from GuiLin who sells medicine?

           Let’s turn back the time to the April of 1980. Mr. Ikeda visited GuiLin, China and something funny happened. When Mr. Ikeda was at the pier of GuiLin, he saw two girls about the age of 15 or 16 selling medicine to the people around them.

            “We have all sorts of medicines. Pick the one you like!” said the girls.

So Mr. Ikeda smiled and asked “Is there any medicine that could make people smarter?”

            “I’m sorry, this particular medicine is out of stock.” the girl replied in quick.

Is there really such a medicine that makes us smart?

In the past centuries, people have been inventing medicines and food that makes people more intelligent. However, over all these years, no one seemed to have invented medicine that makes someone intelligent in just a short period of time.

Actually, we shall not measure intelligence with our age or our academic achievement.

The father of modern Chemistry, Dr. Linus Carl Pauling once said that “we will be smart when we’re confident to think that ‘we’ll know after we do it’.”

Well then, how could we acquire that confidence? The scientist who discovered gravity, Newton wasn’t good at his homework during primary school. He used to be the second one on the list, counting from behind. However, he courageously defeated and overcame all the critics. Such “victory” empowered him as a confidence to face his problems and improve himself on his academic achievement.

As we know that Thomas Edison wasn’t good at his homework as well. He’d frequently be yelled by his teacher. However, his curiosity was so huge and he’d keep asking “why”. Such great curiosity became a driving force that took him on his journey of invention. He possessed a spirit that never gives up. He had gone through tonnes of failures and trials until he actually succeeded. From his attitude, someone concluded that the recipe to victory is a persistence of effort!

Edison has a quote of himself that says “Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.” In order to achieve victory, we’ve got to give 90 percent of great effort to go with the idea we have, Some may think that they’re not smart enough and would even give up on themselves. But if we concluded ourselves to be dumb, we’d be closing up the doors to our potential. In other words, never deny the possible potential in you. There are so many possibilities we’ve never explored. We must believe that most part of our brain’s engine isn’t turned on yet. Hence, we must work hard to awaken the rest of the brain. As we chant along with our effort, we will reach our goal sooner or later.

The second president of the Soka Gakkai, Mr. Toda once said “What’s the distance between a good and bad brain?” Inked his pen, he wrote the following at a corner “only the distance of a thin line”, “Everyone’s got the same brain and we have almost no distance between ours. It depends on how much ‘effort’ you’ve given. ‘Effort’ determines it all.”

In conclusion, I hope that we could understand the fun of learning, carrying on with our faith and confidence to possess the courage while facing the difficulties in our work. Soon, you’ll realize that you’ve been smarted that before.

Shared by,
Wee Yean.

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Written at 11:06 PM by Paper Pilot.