Ladies and Gentlemen, please answer me Yes, No, or Maybe.

If you study really hard, will you pass any test?

If you work hard, will you have a promotion?

If you fall in love with someone, and you tell them how much you love them, will they love you back?

Now that I've got your answers we'll hold on to them for later.

There is an old saying goes:

As you sow, so shall you reap.
Has everyone here heard this saying before? Of course, it’s a well-known idiom.
But do you know this saying comes from the Bible?

This moral pronouncement illustrates that people create their own destiny and everything that happens to them is a result of their own actions. Today, I would like to use this saying to talk about the importance of effort and to have a look beneath the surface of this idiom.

When I was little, I was a naïve and simple-minded kid who didn’t use his brain too much and everything I took in, I took for granted. Well, parts of me still are like that. So sometimes I genuinely think the obligation that my father held towards me, teaching me the difference between right and wrong in my younger age, was relatively easy if I compare myself to other kids. I can still remember the cliché which was always on the tip of his tongue. It went like this, “Son, It doesn’t matter what kind of things you are trying to pursue. Once you try hard enough, there is no doubt you will succeed one day.” Just as the old saying goes, as you sow, so shall you reap. In my father’s dictionary, it seemed like the word “Hardworking” always matched with the term “Success”, which is what we all are looking for. Now that I have grown up, I can tell they are quite different matters and sometimes they just pass each other by without even saying “Hi”.

You probably have heard this saying “You reap what you sow” more than a hundred times. So, I guess I can say that you are familiar with it. After all, this saying is one of those valuable insights that the elder people eagerly try to pass on to the next generation. Your parents pass this Sowing and Reaping idea to you, and you pass it on. However, have you ever questioned it? Is it true?

We have been told that if we want to succeed, we must work hard, and according to the old saying, we’re supposed to receive rewards exactly proportioned to how much effort we give. However, based on your responses to my questions earlier, all I've got is a bunch of maybes. That means even if I work hard, maybe there won’t be anything I can get out of it, right? But why? What is going on? Is the saying wrong? Should we change it to “As you sow, so maybe you shall reap”?

This saying is one of the encouraging ideas that our ancestors left for us so that we can take it to our hearts especially when we have lost ourselves. However, a distorted assumption can possibly be made out of those great concepts by people, my childhood self included.

But if this saying isn’t wrong, what is the true meaning of it then?

I would say, it is neither about sowing nor reaping, but trying.

Why wouldn’t you choose Yes or No, but Maybe?
The reason is easy. We chose Maybe rather than Yes or No, because we believe that everything can be uncertain until it is done.

That, ladies and gentleman, is what extraordinary about trying.

With trying, a slim chance can be a great opportunity.

Without trying, a potential success can mean nothing.

You may not get a high score in a test even though you study so hard, but one thing I can guarantee is that if you don’t study it hard, you won’t have a snowball's chance in hell of achieving a good grade.

You may not get a promotion at your workplace because there might be some people brown-nosing your boss. You do all the work, they get all the credit. However, if you don’t even try to impress your boss, by giving your 100% efforts, you will never catch the old man’s attention.

You try hard to make your prince or princess to change their ideas about you, so they can fall in love with you. Even so, sometimes it just doesn’t work out in the way you expected.

However, if you just sit there and do little about it, it would take forever for them to notice you. Gentleman, am I right on that one?

We may not always achieve what we want to achieve.  Our dreams may never be realized but that should not discourage anyone from chasing their dreams. If we keep focusing on what we can't do, we will never accomplish anything.  Stop wondering "what if?"  Start working to make it happen. Most importantly, try it! My friends, just try it!