Talk by Ecuador President

On the past Monday, former President Jamil of Ecuador gave my class a private talk. He shared many meaningful experiences with us during his years in the politics and his short but eventful presidency. Through his experiences, I got an impression of how delicate it is to be the head of state of a country during crisis time.

Whatever was portrayed in the media and perceived by the people can be so different by what was actually faced by him. Towards the end, a classmate of mine asked him to provide some advice on how to achieve our goals.

To this, he decided to tell us a story he learned. So he began:

Long time ago, in a rural village in China, there was a farmer. He had a very beautiful horse. One day, his neighbor came by and said:

"Wow, you have a very beautiful horse. You must be a very lucky man! How do you feel?"

The farmer simply replied, "Hmm ... it is just a horse. I don't feel anything"

A week later, his neighbor came by but did not see the horse. So he asked" What happened to your horse?" The farmer said, "A few days a go, my horse ran away". His neighbor, feeling sorry for him added on, "I am sorry. You must be very sad now." But to his surprise, the farmer told him, "Well, it is just it is. I don't feel anything."

Some time has passed by and his neightbor stopped by again. The farmer told him, "Guess what? My horse returned! ... and he brought with him a female horse. Now, I have 13 horses altogether." Upon hearing this, his neighbor said, "Wow, you must be very lucky. How do you feel?"

The farmer gave the same answer, "Well ... I don't feel anything. It is just the same." Feeling puzzled, his neighbor left. Then, a week later, his neighbor came by for dinner. This time the farmer told him, "You know ... my only son was trying to train the new horses. Yesterday, while training, he fell from a horse and broke his leg." Upon hearing this, the neighbor said, "You must be sad ... he is your only son." The farmer calmly replied again, "Well, it is just it is."

Soon, China went to war with Mongolia. The farmer met his neighbor again and told him. "Hey guess what, the Imperial came over and took all young men to war ... but when they saw my son lying in the bed with his leg broken, they left him alone."

So ... after my classmates and I listened to this story. We were thinking ... why did he tell us this story. To this ... shortly, President Jamil replied ... "In life, many things are what they turn out to be. We can give our best but in the end, nature has its say."

My main takeaway from this privileged interaction is:

Do our best and have no regrets.