Earlier today I sat drinking chai and watched three surfers at play. Each of the three had his own strategic approach to the surfing.
The first, who seemed most accomplished on the board, simply caught every wave which came his way, big or small. He was totally non-selective, enjoying whatever the ocean offered up. Of course, he missed some of the best waves, through being out of position at the critical moment. He certainly got to ride a lot of waves though.
Another of the three took the opposite approach. He was waiting for the big one. In the whole hour that I watched, I only saw him attempt to surf two waves. They were both monster waves and his tactic might have paid off. However, my feeling was that his approach meant that he was not actually that well practised. The first of the two waves he failed to catch at all and the second he only managed to surf for a few seconds before being toppled.
The third man adopted a middle way. He ignored the smaller waves, waiting for something bigger. However, he didn’t take it to the extreme of waiting for the big one. Any reasonably sized wave saw him up on his board having a good surf.
Watching the surfers, I realised that we are all adopting one of these strategies with the opportunities that life offers us. Do we wait for the perfect relationship? Or engage with every possible partner who appears before us? Do we take any work opportunity at the risk of missing out on something better? Or do we sit around waiting for the ideal job to manifest? Or do we take a middle way, accepting reasonably good offerings without insisting on perfection, whilst also upholding some standards?
Whichever strategy we choose, it is always a gamble!
