It is always fun to catch up with my friends during the summer and listen to their interesting stories about the student interns they hired. Here’s one that is too hilarious not to share it with you.

“One day the supervisor of the company XYZ, Mr. Chan, wanted to fax a two-page document to his client. So Mr. Chan asked his student intern, John, to fax it for him.

John went over to the fax machine, placed the document onto the tray and started to fax it. The 4-in-1 machine started to “eat” the document and a loud high pitch tone followed. The document then appeared on the other side of the machine on another tray. John was puzzled. He had no clue whether the document went through to the customer or not. So he asked Mr. Chan, “Why is the document still here? How am I supposed to know that the client got it?”

Mr. Chan looked at the document, then at John and said to him, “Why don’t you go to the client’s office and make sure they got the document?”

Needless to say, everyone around who heard this comment giggled. The next day, John called in sick and he resigned from the job the day after.

Indeed, John’s case is a wee bit extreme and you may think that he is such a wimp not able to take criticism from others.

However, what is worrying about this story is that it is true.

While we sang “We are ready” during the Olympics, do you think you are truly ready for the real-world.

Here are some reflections for us all.

• To what degree are you similar to John? 
• How do you treat criticism and comments about your performance? Do you see them as judgement about you or do you see them as opportunities to learn and improve?
• Are you driven enough to continue going after what you want even though many challenges stand in-between you and your goals?