Wondering what I'm referring to? Well, here's the story that
goes along with it.
Long ago, there lived a King. This King should have been content
with his life, given all the riches and luxuries he ad. However,
this was not the case! The King always found himself wondering why
he just never seemed content with his life.
Sure, he had the attention of everyone wherever he went,
attended
fancy dinners and parties, but somehow, he still felt something was
lacking and he couldn't put his finger on it.
One day, the King had woken up earlier than usual and decided
to
stroll around his palace. He entered his huge living room and came
to a stop when he heard someone happily singing away...following
this singing...he saw that one of the servants was singing and had
a very content look on his face. This fascinated the King and he
summoned this man to his chambers.
The man, his servant, entered the King's chambers as ordered. The
King asked why he was so happy? To this the man replied: "Your
Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but I make enough of a living
to keep my wife and children happy. We don't need too much, a roof
over our head and warm food to fill our tummy. My wife and children
are my inspiration, they are content with whatever little I bring
home. I am happy because my family is happy."
Hearing this, the King dismissed the servant and summoned his
Personal Assistant to his chambers.
The King related his personal anguish about his feelings and
then
related the story of the servant to his Personal Assistant, hoping
that somehow, he will be able to come up with some reasoning that
here was a King who could have anything he wished for at a snap of
his finger and yet was not contended, whereas, his servant, having
so little was extremely contended.
The Personal Assistant listened attentively and came to a
conclusion.
He said "Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made
part of The 99 Club."
"The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?" the King inquired. To
which the Assistant replied, "Your Majesty, to truly know what The
99 Club is, you will have to do the following........ place 99 Gold
Coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep, you will
then understand what The 99 Club is."
That very same evening, the King arranged for 99 Gold coins to
be
placed in a bag at the servant's doorstep. Although he was slightly
hesitant and he thought he should have put 100 Gold Coins in the
bag, but since his assistant had advised him to put 99 that is what
he did.
The servant was just stepping out of his house when he saw a bag at
his doorstep. Wondering about its contents, he took it into his
house and opened the bag. When he opened the bag he let out a great
big shout of joy...Gold Coins...so many of them. He could hardly
believe it. He called his wife to show her the coins and they were
besides themselves. He then took the bag to a table and emptied it
out and began to count the coins.
Doing so, he realized that there were 99 coins and he thought it
was an odd number so he counted again, and again and again only to
come to the same conclusion...99 Gold Coins. He began to wonder,
what could have happened to that last one coin? For no one would
leave 99 coins. He began to search his entire house, looked around
his backyard for hours, not wanting to lose out on that one coin.
Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going
to have to work harder than ever to make up for that one Gold Coin
to make his entire collection an even 100 Gold Coins. He got up the
next morning, in an extremely horrible mood, shouting at the
children and his wife for his delay, not realizing that he had
spent most of the night up conjuring ways of working hard so that
he had enough money to buy himself that Gold Coin.
He went to work as usual only not in his usual best mood,
singing
happily and whistling all day. He didn't even seem to notice that
the King was watching him as he grumpily did his daily
errands.
Seeing the man's attitude change so drastically, the King was
puzzled. He promptly summoned his assistant to his chambers. The
King related his thoughts about the servant and once again, his
assistant listened. The King could not believe that the servant who
until yesterday had been singing away and was happy and content
with his life had taken a sudden change of attitude, even though he
should have been happier after receiving the Gold Coins.
To this the assistant replied "Ah but your Majesty, the servant
has
now officially joined The 99 Club." He explained: "The 99 Club is
just a name given to those people who have everything but yet are
never content, therefore they are always working hard and striving
for that extra 1 to round it out to 100! We have so much to be
thankful for and we can live with very little in our lives, but the
minute we are given something bigger and better, we want even more!
We are not the same happy contented person we used to be, we want
more and more and by wanting more and more we don't realize the
price we pay for it. We lose our sleep, our happiness; we hurt the
people around us just as a price to pay for our growing needs and
desires. That is what joining The 99 Club is all about."
Hearing this the King decided that from that day onwards, he was
going to start appreciating all the little things in life.
Striving for more is always good, but let us not strive so hard
and
for so much that we lose all those near and dear to our heart. We
should not compromise our happiness for moments of
luxuries!