I visit China regularly, and my recent trip teach me something that I would like to share with you, it’s a “Hand Pump”

Hand Pump

Have you use such the pump before? “I have never seen one in Singapore”. You might say. Yes, because this type of pump is only constructed in the location where drought is common. And Singapore is not known for drought area, anyway there is pipe water in Singapore. …

So what is it about the hand pump?

When I went to the village that time for the business trip and visited one of my colleague home, it was a hot day in southwest of China, and I was very thirsty and he said he will get the water for me.

I went together with him into the yard at the back of his house and I found the pump as you can see in the picture.

There is one old man there and he said “Hi Young Man, thirsty? Let me get water for you”

But I told him “Never mind Uncle, let me do it”

I moved the handle up and down, up and down. 3 times
There wasn’t a drop water come out.
In my mind I was talking to myself
May be I just TRY? I didn’t do my best let me do my best now”

This time, I moved handle up and down even harder, faster, double the speed of the first time about 15 times. And again there wasn’t water come out. My sweat grand start to activate and I start to perspire.

I stopped and talked to the uncle “I think there is no …” I haven’t finished my sentence and he replied. “Hey!! Young man, don’t stop!!! The water will go down again if you stop the pressure now, continue.”

I did continue, harder than before, real fast. While I’m pumping, he said “The water during this time of the year is very deep, and that good, because the deeper the water, the cleaner the it get, the better it taste”

I listened to him and counted number of times I’m pumping up and down, for 30-40 times, and you could see I perspired all over my body. I turned to him “Uncle, I think there is no water in ther”

The moment I finished my sentence… the first drop of water came out.

“Wow, my hard work pay off” I told myself.

See, young man, I told you. There is water in there, it was deep. Taste the water, it taste real good” the uncle said.

He continued “Ok, from now you just pump normal, no need to move the handle as fast as before, just keep constant normal pressure and the water will just continue, help me get the bucket over there now”

The story ends here.

And I learn 2 lessons.

Key learning points.
1) Start anything with faith and wisdom
If I start new project just to see how it is going to workout and do it lightly, it will never come true. I must have faith and wisdom to know what I should do and courage and conviction to follow thru until it show result. Remember to have measurement criteria when we talks about “Result”

Have you ever start any project or any activity when you put 100% and yet it doesn’t show the result you want, and then the momentum die off and you move on with other new project? Faith and wisdom is what you must have.

Wisdom means the flexibility in your thinking.

2) When the result shown, I must continue to keep the consistence afford to get the result constantly: SYSTEM
No need to be so hard or head-on like in the beginning but I must have pattern that is Do-able and repeatable to get the consistence result.

Have you ever done something that you so proud of (e.g. dance, or physical fitness, write poet, play musical instrument) but if I ask you to do it again now, you may not be able to do as good as before? Do-able and Repeatable pattern is what you must have.