- Khawaja Saud Masud
Be an ant
Father to son - a short letter

Photo by Egor Kamelev from Pexels
Simba from Lion King is a great character no doubt and I have always reminded you to be courageous like a lion. And now as you have grown past your 12th year M.A. (MashaAllah — Arabic for God has willed), its time I introduce you to a different kind of inspiration.
Before you saw eeeww, what is that creepy-crawler pic of an ant for, let me first impress you on behalf of Mr. Creepy here.
Did you know there are 1 million ants for every human on this planet? Were you aware ants don’t have ears or lungs but have two stomachs, one to store food for themselves and one to share food with other ants? Here is another one; ants have been around since the dinosaurs some 130 million years ago and are estimated to have started farming around 70 million years ago. And, by the way, you will love the fact ants can lift weight 10–50x heavier than themselves — that means if you had ant strength you could literally carry our sedan over your head!
Cool…
Alright, now lets get back to why I am writing this article. Life has a reward system that may be unclear to you at this time. I am going to share with you how and why acting like an ant will significantly help your chances of success in life.
Here are five simple reasons why ants should impress you beyond their physical prowess:
1. Fantastic collaborators
A typical ant colony may have tens of thousands or maybe even millions of ants in it and yet the colony operates as one unit. Ants communicate with each other through sound, touch, scent and body language. They make use of all their abilities to coordinate and collaborate on tasks from foraging to storing food to defending themselves. Miscommunication in such a large and complex ecosystem across many different specifies of ants can create havoc, right?
Become a great communicator and collaborator. You ability to be patient in understanding others both verbally and non-verbally will likely be one of your biggest strengths in life. The world you are growing up in is essentially turning into a giant global ant colony!
2. Highly competent
Ants are clear about what they have to do and they do it very well. Ants serving inside the nest and those outside the nest have their unique roles and responsibilities. The queen only lays eggs, then there are soldier ants who defend the colony if under threat, also don’t forget the foragers who search for food, those ants that guard the foragers, gardeners, nurses, excavators and trash handlers. Each ant is clear about its role and what specifically needs to be done without someone constantly telling them. Though we call the egg-laying ant the queen, she does not give orders to others — she just does her role in increasing the population of the nest.
So whatever you end up doing in life, make sure you are good enough at it that you stand out. Whether you are a ‘gardener’ or a ‘guard’, your skill should be developed over time to serve others just like the ants serve each other. Start poorly at anything and gradually build your competence till you become someone of tangible value to others.
For complete article please click here.
#ant #discipline #perseverance #personaldevelopment #inspire