Pressure At Work?

This is a classic motivational story worth sharing…

I hired a plumber to help me restore an old farmhouse, and after he had just finished a rough first day on the job, a flat tyre made him lose an hour of work, his electric drill quit and his ancient one-ton truck refused to start. While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence.

On arriving he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked towards the front door, he paused briefly at a tree, touching the tips of the tree. When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation.

His tanned face was wreathed in smiles and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss. Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.

Problem Worry TreeOh, that’s my trouble tree,” he replied. “I know I can’t help having troubles on the job, but one thing’s for sure, those troubles don’t belong in the house with my wife and the children.

So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home and ask God to take care of them. Then in the morning I pick them up again.

“Funny thing is,” he smiled, “when I come out in the morning to pick them up, there aren’t nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.”

1 Response to “Pressure At Work?”


  • What a great story. We often worry about things that are not so bad once we get perspective.

    We find a similar thing with development of Electronics and the Printed Circuit Boards that go with that. You focus on detaisl for a long time and not every aspect of the product can be easily delivered simultaneously, but whan you sit down and go throguh the sissues with a client they will often know what tradeoffs make sense commercially and many technical headaches are then readily resolved.

    Thanks for sharing

    Ray Keefe
    Award Winning Electronics Design and Embedded Software Development

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