Superficiality

A father asked his daughter:

• Thu, what business are you planning to start, to look so excited?
  Thu replied:
• Dad, I'm planning to open a nursery school. You and Mum have given me the land; for the capital, I'll borrow half from you and half from the bank. I'm looking for an architect to do the design, and then I'll put the construction out to tender.
  Her father asked:
• Is there anything else you've worked out?
• That's all, Dad. I'll deal with things as they come.
• If things end in bankruptcy and failure, you'll be too late to work them out then. You'd better work them out carefully now.
• Work out what, Dad?
  Her father sighed and said:
• This is your mother's fault, for protecting and indulging you too much; you don't know how to do anything yet. That imaginary nursery school of yours has already failed before you've even begun, because you haven't foreseen everything, especially the difficulties and obstacles. You must have enough ideas about it, enough reasoning about it, enough hope for it, and also enough fear of it. Just listening to you, I can picture about 376 tasks that need long-term preparation, and yet you've mentioned only four: land, money, design, construction. You haven't started, and already I can see it going wrong.
  Thu was bewildered:
• What could there be that makes 376 parts, Dad?
  Her father sighed again:
• For example, who will inspect the construction for you? Will the income be enough to pay the bank interest? By what standard will you hire teachers so as to bring up the children as well as possible, and will you need to train them further in your own way? How much tuition will each child pay, and will it leave enough profit to keep the school going? What food will you serve so that it is nutritious, clean and cheap? How will you raise the children so that they become well-behaved and of lasting moral character... There's a great deal. And if you don't understand each of these issues thoroughly, once you start operating you'll always be on the back foot: one thing goes wrong, then another is overlooked, then something else breaks. You'll be spinning around like mad trying to fix things, and still getting nowhere.
  Thu said hesitantly, worried:
• You're scaring me, Dad.
• That you can be afraid is a sign of a little progress. Next, you must anticipate everything and write each thing down, until it becomes a 300-page book about this nursery school. Then hold a small party and invite friends who are experts to read it and help you find what is missing. Then fill in the gaps. Only then should you start carrying it out according to the plan. Even with that much care and caution, people sometimes fail disastrously.
• Then I should pause for now, and first write everything down and think everything through carefully.
• While you are writing up your reasoning about the nursery school, you should spend time buying gifts, visiting one nursery school after another and giving them presents; that is both doing good and learning from their experience. Don't think that the knowledge you got at university is enough.
  Thu thought for a moment, then said:
• You're so thorough, Dad; no wonder you've had so few failures in life.
• I've failed too. Your mother wasn't my first love. Not winning that girl's heart was a failure in my life.
• Do you still love her now?
• I've never stopped loving her. I failed because she saw that I wasn't careful and thorough enough. She believed I wouldn't be able to keep up with her, so the family would not be happy, since the wife would not respect her husband.
  Thu was surprised:
• Could there really be someone in the world even more careful and thorough than you? What is she doing now?
  Thu's father said quietly:
• Now she is the head of a very powerful State agency. I think she deserves that position. Her intelligence lets her look ahead at every problem and foresee it down to the finest detail. Before anything has happened or been carried out, she pictures it exactly as though it were present before her, and examines it from every angle as though she were holding it in her hands, turning it over and studying it. Every time I see her on TV, I feel a real ache.
  Thu held her father's hand and said:
• Thank you for confiding this to me, Dad. I'll try to learn from you and from her, and try to look ahead at everything carefully so that I fail less.
  Thu's father said again:
• You've only half understood. Being careful, thorough and subtle isn't just for failing less, but for achieving success that many people can share in. We should not do anything for ourselves alone. Everything we do must be for the benefit of many people 🗼

Being careful, thorough and subtle means failing less and succeeding more easily. But we do not look for success for ourselves; we look for success for many people.