The Story of the Young Wrestler

A few years ago, my teacher once shared this story to the whole class... it's been a long time so I might have left out some details or some things might be inaccurate, but it's truly inspirational.

This old story dates back to the time of Ancient Greece. Two scrawny friends were out training to become professional wrestlers. So everyday the two men met on the hills to train, and in which they decided to train for a year. The first man, weak but wise, and somewhat of an intellect, brought a small calf with him to train. The other, had brought a giant bull with him, scoffed and said, “My friend, what do you hope to achieve with such a small calf?”. But the wise friend only laughed as he was a brilliant man who planned well into the future.

Everyday, the man lifted the small calf on his shoulders to train himself to become stronger. As the calf grew, he fed it more food. As a result, the man grew as bigger and stronger as well. And within a year, he became as strong as the bull that the young calf had finally become. He could even lift up the bull with ease.

The moral of the story is: We must realize that everything, including learning, takes time, patience, and small steps at a time to build up to the goal. That way, our knowledge, like the young wrestler, will grow in strength... gradually, but steadily. Most importantly, we must realize that a solid foundation is needed before moving on to bigger things. As an analogy, don't try lifting a bull on Day 1, you wouldn't be able to carry that much weight on your shoulders.

And remember the famous saying, “Rome isn’t built in a single day.”

Hope you enjoyed this! Of course, I think my teacher told the story way better :)