Struggles of Life

One day, a young woman told her father how hard her life had become. She was tired of struggling all the time. Every time she solved one problem, a new one came up. She felt like she just couldn’t take it anymore.

Her father, who was a chef, didn’t say a word. Instead, he took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed them on the stove. Once the water started boiling, he put potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second, and ground coffee beans in the third.

He let everything boil for a while without explaining anything. His daughter waited impatiently, wondering what this was all about.

After about 20 minutes, he turned off the heat. He placed the soft potatoes in a bowl, took out the hard-boiled eggs, and poured the coffee into a cup.

Then he asked, “What do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” she replied quickly.

“Look closer,” he said. “Touch the potatoes.”
She did—and noticed they were soft.

Then he asked her to break an egg. She peeled it and saw that it was hard inside.

Finally, he asked her to take a sip of the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich flavor.

Her father then explained:

“All three—potatoes, eggs, and coffee beans—went through the same challenge: boiling water. But they each reacted differently.

• The potato went in hard, but came out soft and weak.
• The egg was fragile at first, but its inside became firm.
• The coffee beans? They changed the water itself and turned it into something new.”

He looked at her and asked, “So, which one are you? When tough times come, how do you react? Do you become soft like the potato, hard like the egg, or do you transform the situation like the coffee?”

Moral of the story:
Life is full of struggles, but what really matters is how you respond to them. Don’t let difficulties break you. Instead, learn from them, grow stronger, and try to turn those challenges into something better.