Are You a Spoon or a Fork?

No matter how many times I do the dishes, I still get startled when I wash a spoon and water splatters everywhere. Even a little teaspoon will spray water at a surprising intensity. When I wash a fork, however, there’s no spraying. Water just falls through. I think there’s a metaphor here.

There are two types of people in life: spoons and forks. Just as a silverware spoon will take a small stream of water and spray it back even stronger, a person spoon will take a small advantage and leverage it to do something even bigger. When you give a spoon a little opportunity, they will take that and magnify it back at you 10x. On the other hand, some people are forks. They’re given all the right opportunities, connections, and training, but they produce nothing from it. They could have the strongest faucet pouring down on them, but the water just flows right through.

I have been both a spoon and a fork at different points in my life. Out of all the times I’ve been a spoon, there are two common denominators: humility and hard work. When I catch myself acting like a fork, I must ask, “Am I being humble enough to learn from this experience or is my ego in the way?” and “Am I putting in enough effort to take advantage of this opportunity or am I letting it pass me by?”

Forks are a dime a dozen, but the world is run by spoons. Society rewards people who can make something from almost nothing. What will you be?