It is said that if life gives you lemons, you must make lemonade of it. Deducing the metaphor, it speaks of being optimistic and creating the best out of the situation you are facing in life. Indeed, as you move ahead in life and grow further, you will face a preposterous amount of hurdles. But life isn’t about what conundrums you are challenged by. It is about your reaction to them.
Around eight years ago, there was a young man studying to be a child psychiatrist — Tom Dixon from Philadelphia. One day, he was out for a run when he was hit by a car. As Tom woke up in the hospital, he fathomed that he had sustained a brain injury consequently causing him to lose his memory. It was a day, Tom later said, he would never remember but a date he would never forget. In the hospital, he kept a notepad by his bed and jotted down even the most trivial details of the day. For instance, he had to write down the meals he had had and the names of the people who dropped by. If he did not make the notes, he would end up eating multiple meals and barely recalled any of his interactions.
However, in the midst of this, Tom noticed how often people forget the “overwhelming majority of their lives”, referring to the seemingly insignificant details of our routine experiences. He believes it’s great that humans tend to forget such things because it is quite efficient. In the aftermath of the injury, he began to experience deeper empathy for people who have shared similar traumatic experiences. The flip side, however, is Tom has to convince other people of his capabilities and has to establish independence all over again.
Needless to say, he was handed lemons by life. So, what did he do? Yes, he made lemonade. Tom began working on an app named me.mory to aid millions to people going through memory loss conditions.
Akin to Tom, there are a plethora of business owners struggling in the midst of this global pandemic. These are unprecedented times and we are all learning as we move forward but the worst possible mistake you could make is resisting the change. Change, it is said, is the only constant. Go with the flow. Be pliable and adapt to the changing times. Remember, we can’t change the times around us. But we can definitely bring a change within us.
Quite possibly, we will never face another pandemic in our lifetime. This is the time to stand up for ourselves and our fellow businessmen. Reach out to the ones looking down at the dirt and give them a reason to look up at the stars.
