He dared not take on success!

There was once a poor old-fashioned Chinese family who staunchly believed that the male children in their family were the most important. That was especially true of the eldest son.

You see, according to olden-day Chinese belief, the eldest son, not the eldest daughter, is the one who buy flowers and water for the dead parents at their funeral. Not only that, the sons will be the ones to continue with the family’s surname. Well, that is true as the women and their children are expected to take on the surname of the husbands.

So, it is not surprising to find that boys are more equal than the girls in a family if the parents consider such old fashioned beliefs important.

There was this family where the daughter was cleverer than the eldest son. Still, intelligence does not bring special privileges. The girl had to work hard in the kitchen as well as other chores at home while the son had a fairly easy life, attending merely school with no necessity to do anything else.

The girl grew up strong and clever as she had to think of managing her time to complete her school assignments as well as help manage the home with cooking, washing and cleaning. The boy played more and soon slacked in his studies. He found it difficult to continue his studies and his loving parents allowed him to drop-out of school after only six years of education.

The day came when the girl entered a teacher training college and soon became a qualified teacher.

Attractive in many ways, she soon found someone to marry.

After her marriage, the girl wished to help her brother to have a better future. The girl found someone to teach her brother how to make noodles and the sauce to go with it. Do you think his brother jumped at the opportunity?

No, he didn’t. He was by then so used to the easy life of doing whatever odd job there was available. He was not too anxious to make his own life more stressful. Furthermore, he had been promised the job of school gardener by a headmaster.

Reluctantly, he agreed to learn noodle-making. Months later, he returned to inform the sister he had learned all there was to learn. The sister offered to get a stall and all other necessary utensils to start a noodle business. You would expect that brother to be enthusiastic with the idea. But, that was not the case.

Instead of delightfulness at the opportunity, the brother raised many questions. You would have thought that since everything was to be provided for by the sister, there would have been no problem starting the stall.

Alas, the brother wanted to know who was to help him. He wanted to know who was to prepare the stall for him each day. The most ridiculous question was 'how was he to manage if business was good!' I know many people would never believe this part of the story. I do not blame them. I would too if I had not known the details personally.

Here is a guy given everything to start his own small business without any worry of loss. If there be loss, more money could be put into it. Yet, he feared this; he fear that! He just dared not even take on success! What a joke!

How come a man can be thus? Knowing him and his background, I can only conclude that he was over protected by his loving parents. He never had to make his own decisions. Although he was poor, he had never known true hardship. He had never needed to survive. Despite being poor, he had a sheltered life. He never had the opportunities to face challenges. Everything had been done for him. Even a wife was found for him.

Would anyone want a son to be like this man?