I’ve read many books during my free time. When I was introduced into network marketing more than 8 years ago, one of the books that I was presented with was “Parable of the Pipelines” by Burke Hedges. It was simply a good book that was easily understood. This is a summary of the book.
Two ambitious young men, Bruno and Pablo, who were “big” dreamers lived in a small village. They dream to become the richest person in the village. Both of them were hardworking and always have bright ideas. What they needed was an opportunity to realize their dreams.
One day the awaited opportunity came to them. The villagers decided to hire them to carry water from the nearby river to the village cistern. They accepted the job and started the work immediately. Both of them carry their buckets and headed to the river. At the end of the first day at work, they had filled the village cistern to the brim. The village elder paid them a penny for each bucket of water transported.
“We are going to be rich if we continue to do this everyday! God had fulfill our dream!” shouted Bruno. But Pablo was not very sure of this as his body was aching from carrying the heavy buckets. In fact, he dreaded himself from bed the next day to continue carrying the buckets of water. Pablo vowed to find a better solution to solve the misery. He proposed to Bruno that they should built a pipeline from the river to the village. However, his idea was rejected by Bruno.
Bruno carried 100 buckets of water a day and was soon became a rich man. He bought a new house for himself. The villagers cheered for him for his hard work. On the other hand, Pablo only work half a day carrying buckets of water and spend the other half of the day and the weekends building his pipeline. Pablo had to work long hours but his earning was not as good as Bruno. The villagers mocked him and even called him “Pablo the pipeline man”. But Pablo had a dream that would help him in the future. He kept reminding himself that short-term pain equaled to long-term gain. He had to achieve his goal in building the pipeline.
Days turned into months, Pablo realized that his pipeline was almost completed. One day as he sat under a tree to take his rest, he watched his friend Bruno lugging buckets of water. Bruno was not the same person that he knew. Bruno was in pain whenever he carried the buckets; his steps slowed down as days passes by; he was an angry man and sullen, to the fact that he was doomed to carry buckets, day in day out, for the rest of his life, just to be “rich”.
Finally, Pablo’s big day arrived! The pipeline was completed! Pablo need not have to carry buckets anymore. The water from the river flowed throughout whether he worked or not; it flowed while he ate, slept! The more water flowed to the village, more and more money flowed into his pockets. The villagers lauded Pablo for his vision.
However, Pablo realized that what he had accomplished was merely a fraction of a big, big dream. He had the skills and methods to build pipelines and by working with his friend, Bruno, they could build pipelines to supply water to more villages.
Pablo came to see Bruno. He shared his plan with him… A dream to build pipelines all over the world!
What do you think?
Talk soon,
Jailani
* There are many lessons that we can learn by reading the book. It started with a dream; given opportunity; positive ideas; mindset …. Build pipeline dreams in a bucket carrying the world….