October 02, 2003

The Paradoxical Commandments

Posted by Scott at 01:23 PM

by Dr. Kent M. Keith

  1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
  2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
  3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
  4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
  5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
  6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
  7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
  8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
  9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
  10. Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
✉ • ⚓
Comments

You know I prefer, 'You reap what you sow', but if you're a glass half empty person I suppose 'No good deed goes unpunished' will work too.

Tom

Posted by: Tom at October 2, 2003 11:35 PM

I used to hear "No good deed..." quite a lot when I was at my last job. In sales you just have to get used to the fact that you can't close every deal. Numerous times you'd bend over backwards to try and meet the customer's wishes and they'd go with the competition anyway. "No good deed..."

Now my peers tend to say, somewhat sarcastically, "it's never a dull day..." as we tackle the forest fire du jour. The funniest paradoxical commandment I saw recently was at:

http://despair.com/flattery.html

It said, "if you want to get to the top, prepare to kiss a lot of bottom". There's plenty to laugh about at despair.com. I'm hoping to buy their 2004 calendar later this year.

I got interested in the Paradoxical Commandments when I heard that they are posted in an orphanage in India that was/is run by the nuns that Mother Theresa founded. I liked the "do it anyway" mindset. It reminded me of when my dad used to say "you can't make EVERYONE happy... SOMEONE will always find a reason to complain... don't let that stop you". Hope you found them useful/motivating.

Posted by: Scott at October 3, 2003 10:06 PM