On the shoulders of Giants

“Offer your strengths to others and you will be amazed how many people offer their strengths to you” Simon Sinek

Right from my childhood I was perplexed by the oracle of Apollo of Delphi that Socrates is the wisest man ever born & Socrates famous statement “I know only one thing that I know nothing”It was paradoxical to me for a long time( I had to reach my fifties to understand that!!). The paradox was resolved by my own life learning & listening to apology by Socrates https://librivox.org/apology-by-plato/ wherein he has removed the paradox quite eloquently. In my personal journey it took years to get that understanding. School days I used to think I am the best. First jolt came when I found I was not topper in 10th even in my own small village school!!{Of course that result pushed me to a downward spiral which took many years to recover.That single result put into me the thought that ‘I am a good for nothing” and when I saw my friends around, my that thought enhanced and I used to envy them. So unlike Socrates I was thinking that I am a fool (Hence the well known nick name ‘Budthu’)There was no oracle to disprove it!!

So I became a tail to my friends, dependent on them for most of the things.Now see the miracle!!I had/have a galaxy of friends who were/are excellent in different arenas of life. I never had any qualms in seeking help from them.So their excellence I throughly exploited in my exploits and credit of it came to me even though the real credit should not have been mine!! In a 2019 blog(http://www.balaprasad.com/life-of-a-zero/ I had elaborated my role of playing second fiddle!! So outside world may think of my achievements as my own whereas reality is something else!! Another take on this is given in an earlier blog http://www.balaprasad.com/shoulders-giants-part1/