The Story of the man and the Butterfly.

I first heard the story of the man and the butterfly years ago, later I read it in Paulo Coelho’s blog back in 2007, I’ve used the tale many times over in business talks and presentations, it’s a great tale with a lot of hidden messages.

A man found a cocoon hanging on a small bush and as he watched a small opening appeared in the cocoon and inside was a butterfly trying to get out.

He sat there and watched the butterfly for hours as it struggled and struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole that it had made in the cocoon.

Then the butterfly stopped, as if it was stuck, as if it couldn’t get out and it couldn’t go any further.

Then the man decided to help the butterfly out.

He took a pair of scissors and snipped off some of the cocoon making the opening much bigger.

The butterfly then emerged easily, but it was not as it should be, it had a swollen body and small shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch it, expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge and expand enough to support the body, though this never happened.

The butterfly then spent the rest of its life crawling around with shrivelled wings and it was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the small hole in the cocoon and the struggle required by the butterfly to get through this opening was nature’s way of forcing the fluid from the swollen body into its wings so that the wings could then unfold and enable the butterfly for flight.

The Story of the Man and the Butterfly – Author Unknown.