The Abductive Thinking From The Grave Digger

It is my understanding that Gregory Bateson said that stories serve as models that close the gap between our experience as human beings and the stories we can create to explain our experiences. This thought process is referred to as Abductive thinking: the thinking allowing us to close the gap between Inductive thinking and Deductive thinking.

I am hoping with this article to pay justice not as much as to the full story of the grave digger but the Teachings, the Insights, the Many Opportunities and Forever Possible outcomes for business and life, for everyone to interpret it independently as it will relate to you and only you.

And to also pay justice and honour the person from whom I heard this story from: one of my mentors, whom I am taking to bed at night -virtually! that is, as I expressed in my previous article with joy: would love to have your feed-back on that one as well and know whether it brings a smile to your face, as this was exactly the intention behind my writing of it. Hoping also it takes away any 'monday blues' whether it is Monday when you read it or any other day of the week :)

... back to the grave digger: this hard-working man who, for over 30 years had been serving the cementery where he was working and who was 'laid off' this position for simply Not being able to read and write:(

And what -you may think- not being literate has to do with digging graves in a cementery? anyone will be asking the same question before they know the story however the full story is Not the purpose of this article for now. Suffice to say that the new manager had big plans for the cementery and better opportunities for his employees, wanting to give more responsibilities to the grave digger, assuming he had the skills of reading and writing which he didn't and this new manager decided he had to go.

And even though I don' want my interpretations to influence yours, I will express here that, as any human being able to feel great compassion for others, I felt for the man in the story same as I would feel for anyone losing their j.o.b.s in any circumstances. However, feeling that way does Not help anyone, least of the recipient of the misfortune and thankfully this story has more than a happy ending, same as real stories as I believe this one is, can have a happy ending for Anyone In Any Circumstances.

PLUS good lessons for us all.

So the grave digger was given notice to leave his position and, as he was walking home, totally defeated after being given the bad news and Not able to change the new? manager's mind, he reached out for a cigarrette but didn't have matches so he walked around looking for a tobacconist to buy matches from but couldn't find any on his way, realizing that he had Never paid attention to this in the past.

An idea came to his mind, had a realization and with Nothing to lose he then decided that he was going to open shop as a tobacconist: as he happened to be the only tobacconist in the area, he did really well in a short period of time and then opened another shop in another area and another and another ... over 40 shops if my memory serves me right :) hence he became very wealthy.

As his fortune was accumulating and sitting in his bank account, the bank managers noticed and one day asked him to meet with them to discuss his fortune. They told him that he should be leveraging the wealth he was accumulating by letting them invest in stocks, shares and the likes.

The former grave digger -now a very successful and wealthy man- immediately showed trust in the bank managers and agreed to everything they were saying, telling them to manage his wealth as they saw fit, to which the bank managers started laughing and said to him: "It's Not that simple! you will need to sign these documents and applications after reading them".

His anser was: "... but I cannot read or write!" he replied.

The bank managers looked at him perplexed and said: "you cannot read or write? that cannot be! you should be able to read and write to get by in life!" to which he responded:

"If I had been able to read or write in my life, I would have never been able to build my wealth, you would have never noticed me and I would Not be here talking with you now: being Illiterate has been My Blessing in disguise."

Would love to know your thoughts and Insights: I am giving you an Easy one ;) with Blessings.

#LVitin