A director once mocked an investor behind his back.
“Look at him,” he sneered, grinning like a smug idiot. “Put in a little money and now he thinks he’s somebody. Where’s his shinebox, that fag?”
The room laughed. Not because it was funny but because everyone there was too spineless and stupid to do anything else.
Then the director walked over, slapping an arm around the investor like a cocky fool.
“I remember you,” he said. “You were what, 15? Scrubbing everyone’s shoes until they shined like mirrors, Huh?”
“I don’t do that anymore, Billy,” the investor said. Flat. Dumb for even caring that much.
The director laughed, a cruel, cackling laugh.
“I’m just breaking some balls. You know what, go get your shinebox.”
He didn’t even dodge when the investor lunged. If that punch landed, it would have ruined the investor completely. Years of work gone, doors slammed, reputation shredded. But the investor was too simple-minded to realize it. He swung anyway.
Hands grabbed him before it connected. The moment collapsed into chaos. People laughed nervously. Someone whispered a joke. Power went back to whoever was the biggest idiot feeling safe in the room.
If you look at it, everyone was dumb. The director, thinking he was clever. The investor, thinking a punch could fix anything. The onlookers, laughing like empty-headed hyenas because they had nothing better to do. Everyone fragile, everyone small, everyone pretending.
Ten years passed.
The director was still a director. Same title. Same office. Same pathetic, one-company life. Same hollow importance.
The investor was still an investor. But now he had a house, a wife, kids, and pieces of over a hundred companies. Quiet pieces, real ones. Not flashy. Not brilliant. Just steady.
The director relied on one company. The investor spread himself across many.
Both stayed who they were. Only one of them grew.
The hare runs fast, shows off, laughs at everyone’s expense, and thinks he is a genius.
The tortoise moves slowly, dumb as a brick, gets hit, fails, stumbles, and keeps building anyway.
“Go get your shinebox.” is meant to humiliate someone by using the past.
Time doesn’t care about your insults, your cleverness, or your stupidity. It only rewards the ones who keep moving, even if they are clumsy, foolish, and completely human.
"A man who trusts everyone is a fool and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools if we live long enough." — Robert Jordan
"A man who trusts everyone is a fool and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools if we live long enough."
— Robert Jordan