It was a warm summer afternoon and a man was walking around a small city in Spain. Out of sudden a small boy ran up to the man.
“Mr. Picasso, what an honor to meet you! Can I please have your autograph?”
The man was tired because he just finished a painting – which eventually would sell for 106 million USD – and just wanted some me-time. After every painting session, Picasso just wanted to stroll around in nature and soak up some air and wander around.
At first, Picasso did not want to be bothered but after 15 minutes of asking and walking in his slipstream, Picasso eventually gave him an autograph. Mostly to just get rid of him. But the boy was persistent. He did not just want an autograph.
“Mr. Picasso, I’m also a painter and it would be super duper awesome if you could draw me something. It doesn’t really matter what actually, a small scribble from your hand would mean the world to me!”
Picasso started to get some sympathy for the little boy and scribbled something on a little piece of paper. He scribbled exactly what he saw looking over the city and a beautiful afternoon sun, shining over the city.
It took him 10 seconds.
“Here you go, kid.”
“Mr. Picasso, thank you so much! This is the best day of my life!”
And the boy ran away.
“Wait up kid!”, Picasso screamed.
The boy came running back.
“Yes, Mr. Picasso?”, the boy said.
“You owe me some money kid”, Picasso said with a smile on his face.
“You owe me 10.000 USD to be exact.”
“Whaaaaaaaat!? For what?”, said the kid.
“I just drew something for your right?”, Picasso said. “That little scribble costs you 10.000 USD.”
The little boy was flabbergasted. He did not know what to say. 10.000 USD was like crazy money.
“Mr. Picasso, 10.000 USD for a little scribble!? It took you 10 seconds to draw it!”, the boy said.
With a smile, Picasso looked at the boy and said, “It took me 30 years to do this in 10 seconds!”.
Picasso is greatness. One of the world’s best painters, having painted more than 50.000 paintings over an 80-year career! 80 years. People nowadays switch careers every 2 years. Greatness takes time. The life that you see on Instagram is not real.
What does greatness mean to you?
I think we live in a time where we look at our social media feeds and assume that all of the “greatness” we see online is real and is instant. Two assumptions that are killing people’s confidence, dreams and become a huge distraction for living one’s real purpose. Because let’s be honest, living life to impress others is not your life’s purpose.
I believe that real greatness can only arise when stop looking outside and start looking inside. We need to stop looking at our social media feeds and get distracted for our own life. We need to start entering a journey of self-awareness and discovering what our real passions are, what we are good at, what we love to do and what our dreams are.
When we look outside, we dream.
When we look inside, we awaken.
Let’s awaken the greatness that is inside of you.
I believe you have it.
Do you?
Cheers,
Fen
