You have probably heard Aesop’s fable, “The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs.” The story goes:
One day a countryman going to the nest of his Goose found there an egg all yellow and glittering. When he took it up it was as heavy as lead and he was going to throw it away, because he thought a trick had been played upon him. But he took it home on second thoughts, and soon found to his delight that it was an egg of pure gold. Every morning the same thing occurred, and he soon became rich by selling his eggs. As he grew rich he grew greedy; and thinking to get at once all the gold the Goose could give, he killed it and opened it only to find,—nothing.
If you want, you can read more about this fable here.
Usually the story is told as a warning about greed, but I think the story is about something more fundamental. I think it’s about Production and Production Capacity. I first heard about Production and Production Capacity from Stephen Covey’s book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”
Production (P) vs Production Capacity (PC)
Production is the stuff we produce. In the Aesop fable, production is the eggs. In living our calling,”production” is the meaningful impact we make to the world.
Production Capacity is our ability to produce. In the Aesop fable, production capacity is the goose. In living our calling, “production capacity” is our ability to make the contribution we want to make.
Often times in order to get more of the production, we diminish our capacity to produce. In the workplace, sometimes a company will burn out it’s employees to get higher output from them. But this only lasts a short while, then the employee is burned out and quits. Her capacity to produce goes to zero. A company like this will churn through employees at a high rate leaving burned out drained people in their wake.
If instead we focus on increasing our production capacity, our ability to produce, we can create a sustainable system that can continue to produce much for many years into the future.
P vs PC In Our Calling
We can look at the company example and say, “see how dumb companies are,” but we often do the same thing in our own lives. We have had clients who are giving large amounts of money to help someone, but are in our office scared because they received a foreclosure notice from their bank. These folks have hurt their capacity to be generous by harming their own financial situation.
When we pursue our calling, we need to not only guard our production capacity but also make sure we focus on increasing our production capacity. The punch line is this:
We are the “goose” that “lays golden eggs”
Our production capacity flows from us. If we want to increase our production capacity, we need to improve ourselves. Here are a few ways that we can do this:
- Read books
- Connect with God
- Find a coach or mentor
- Get out of our comfort zone and try something new
- Learn new skills
- Take on new responsibilities at work
- Attend workshops or classes
Now it’s your turn. How have you worked to improve yourself lately?
