Remember the phrase: "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."
Tom Hanks plays Forrest Gump in the movie with the same title. Forrest Gump is a boy with a mental disorder. The first time when I saw the movie I didn’t see the hidden message. How stupid is that! I just watched the movie for entertainment. When I saw the movie for the second time I started to feel the deeper meaning and understood more about the hidden message.
At first sight, the life of Forrest appears to be a mixture of coincidences. He becomes an excellent runner, American Football player, had success playing ping pong, meets numerous presidents and even becomes a multimillionaire, because he invested in “fruit”. He had no idea how Apple computers would change the world. But it brought him wealth.
Intelligence
What about the people around him? They are one by one much more clever than Forrest. And… they fail desperately! Their intelligence and self-reflection are their handicaps. Forrest hasn’t got the same capacities as them but rises to great heights. His motto: "Stupid is as stupid does". When Forrest starts something he finishes it.
Mentally disordered
Today I was thinking of Forrest Gump when I visited friends in Amsterdam. Their daughter, Karin, is mentally disordered. She is 19 years old, but has an IQ of a toddler, lives in her own world and a normal conversation with her is impossible. However she manages sometimes to do the impossible.
Number lock
She is for instance quite skilful with computer games and reaches levels where a person like me can only dream of. She also loves food. To prevent that she eats too much, there’s a number lock attached to the refrigerator. It’s a lock with four numbers. If I remember my mathematics classes this means that there are about 10.000 different combinations possible. So it would take some time to break the code. And here’s the funny part. Karin regularly breaks the code! She is patient and takes her time. If her parents change the code, she isn’t bothered and starts again. Most people would think and say: "There are too many possibilities and it is too much trouble, I don’t even start trying to break the code!"
One task
But not Karin, she tries everything over and over again until she succeeds. And that is a big advantage if you aren’t bothered by a little voice in your head constantly saying: "This is pointless, just stop it here!" Forrest Gump is of course a fantasy. But Karin does exist! She concentrates without distractions to one task. And that one task she brings to a successful end.
Parallels
There are remarkable parallels with the world of the salesperson. Most salespersons that I meet are intelligent. Unfortunately their intelligence is often their bottleneck. Finding new customers isn’t easy. They will do some attempts, fail and then say: "I quit, this is pointless!" Precisely as most people will do trying to break the code on the refrigerator. They will never break the code.
Learn
We can learn a lot from "dumb" people as Forrest Gump and Karin. When they start with something, they’ll keep on trying and will fail numerous times, but they will still go on until they succeed. It is harmless to adopt a little stupidity from time to time and not to look further then your nose is long. Combine this with a little intelligence and the world is yours.
