Once upon a time, there was a rich and very beloved king, who used to visit the neighboring kingdoms regularly to maintain good relations with the other monarchs. During the meetings between the kings, it was customary to exchange gifts, and the kindly king always arrived with full hands and returned to his kingdom with even fuller hands.
During a visit to a neighboring kingdom, the King was given two beautiful parrots, which had come from faraway magical forests, or so he was told. "These parrots need a natural environment to grow and flourish," they explained to the king, so when he returned to his kingdom he set up a huge garden with landscaped vegetation, clear lakes, and high waterfalls.
The King had invited thousands of professional parrot trainers from all over the kingdom and the neighboring kingdoms, and they had done their best to make the lazy parrot fly, but no matter what they tried, the parrot would not budge.
The King's advisers advised him to publish an advert, promising one thousand gold coins to whoever managed to make the lazy parrot fly. The King agreed, and that's exactly what he did.
The next morning a simple farmer arrived at the King's palace and claimed he could make the parrot leave his branch and fly. The King was very wary, he did not understand what a simple peasant could know about parrot training that the royal parrot trainers did not.
The farmer replied, "It was very easy, Your Excellency, I just cut the branch on which it sat."
This parable teaches us that, like the parrot, we all have the ability to succeed and reach new heights, but it takes courage to deal with things that are unfamiliar to us or that frighten us. We must free ourselves from our branch - our comfort zone - to explore new possibilities for success and discover what our true capabilities are. Until that happens, we will not be able to spread our wings and fly.
