Meeting notes and a life lesson

Imagine you are getting rid of your old jeans or shirt that you have not used for a while. You are checking the pockets just to be sure that there is nothing. You then magically find a thousand bucks stashed in one of the pockets. Even though you might have millions in your bank account, finding this thousand bucks will give you a momentary happiness. It is not about the money itself. It is about the joy of finding something after a long time. Your own archaeology in your own way. 

I was going through some of my old notebooks and I found some handwritten notes a few days back with 9 points from Richard Branson’s book, Like A Virgin.  So when I looked at the bound notebook in my hand that I had picked up to shoo a fly, I was curious to know if I can find anything in there. Nothing interesting from the front part so I started looking from the backside of the notebook. I have this weird habit of writing interesting things or doodling in the last pages of my notebook. This probably stems from my habit of reading the newspaper from the last pages for I thought sports news are interesting and the only positive aspect of the newspapers. Few pages over, I found this notes from  meeting over two years ago:

Looking at this, I am sure that it must have been from a meeting which I could have avoided. Clearly, I seem to have been frustrated with the fact that I was sitting in that meeting when I could have done gazillion other things. While I couldn’t remember the content of the meeting or who were there or what was being discussed, I suspect that somebody in the meeting must have something stupid. Or I might have said something stupid that backfired. In that case though, I most probably would not have written down anything as evidence. History, after all, is an account written by the winners.

Here are the seven key points from the image (for searchability)

• Do not wrestle with pigs
• You cannot reason with fools
• Age is not an indication of maturity
• A wise man once said nothing 
• Keep your mouth shut and mind open
• Silence is golden
• Patience is a virtue

I do not remember the sentiments from the meeting but now when I look back, it is kind of funny. This is how most issues in our life are. They look like the world’s gonna end right now but the truth is that they don’t matter in a few days and you won’t even remember that issue a couple of years later. So, sit back, enjoy the moment and let it all pass. 

Have you found anything from the past that gave you a smile or triggered a train of thoughts?