There was a man who was about to retire from his job. He was the Chief Executive of his company. He still had a year until he was going to retire. He was debating on who he should apoint to the new Chief Executive of his company. After pondering on this he called in ten of his top employees. He explained his delema and then gave them all a small envelope with a seed in it. He told them that they are to take care of this seed and write down everything that they do to it, for one year. At the end of the year he will chose who is the new Chief Executive of the company according to how well they took care of the seed.
        As the time went on some of the employees were bragging about how big their plant is getting. But one of the employees wasn't saying anything. His seed has not even sprouted yet. Over the next year this man watered the seed and took great care of it. But still it never grew. When the year was up it was time for them to bring in their plants and their record books of what they did to help it grow. This man's friend told him to just go buy a plant and show that to his boss. But the man said that that would be dishonest.
        The day finally came and still the man's seed hasn't grew. When he arrived at his job he saw everyone else had great beautiful plants. He felt really bad for not being able to have it seed grow. When his boss came in he looked at everyone's record of what they did to take care of their seed. When he got to the one man, he asked what happen to his seed. The man staited that he did all he could , but the seed wouldn't grow. The boss asked him when the last time he watered it was. The man said he watered it this morning. Then the boss anounced to everyone that this man is the new Chief Executive of the company.
        All the other employees were so mad because his plant didn't even grow and theirs did. The boss then said that the seeds that he gave to all of them were unfertilized seeds. They were all bad. This man was the only one who had enough respect and dignity to say after all he did the seed never grew. This man stook with this one seed even though it never grew. He was there to help it and care for it. Then he had the respect and dignity to tell his boss that the seed didn't grow.
         When we set goals for ourselves we need to stick with them. Even if we don't accomplish them, there is a bigger picture that we can't see. Just like this man getting the job even though his seed never grew, we will get our reward later on if we hold true to ourselves and our fellow man. As long as we set our goals and keep true to them to the end, we  will have accomplished them.