The Frog And The Scorpion
by Jurgen Homola (www.jurgenhomola.com)
The Internet… WOW, what an evolution! And in such a short time! What an amazing tool to educate ourselves – constantly – about so many subjects. What an amazing tool for business, too. It levels the playing field between the “little man” and large corporations. No longer is the world such a huge place. No longer do we need a Fortune 500 presence to build a huge income generating corporation. The world is now truly our oyster.
We can communicate in ways only dreamed of before the evolution of the Internet. Before then, it seemed to take ‘forever’ to conclude business deals. To find the right resources took ages of research. The Internet made our life far simpler in many ways, virtually at the click of a finger – or rather, at the taping of several keys on a computer keyboard and connecting onto the World Wide Web.
Sadly however, with this wonderful evolution – as with most great inventions – along came the abuse and misuse of the Internet too. This is the reason for me writing this article, where I show you how you can counter one of the “stings” of abuse and misuse on the web. Before I continue though, I’d like to tell you a story about “The Frog and The Scorpion”, just to illustrate a principle we seem to forget when in comes to common sense: Every creature is true to its nature. People are true to their nature. What do I mean? Well, just read the story about…
“The Frog and The Scorpion”
On a sunny day in the dessert, straight after the summer rains, with the river filled to the brim from bank to bank, there was a Mr. Scorpion who wanted to cross this river. He knew it was pointless for him to attempt this on his own. He knew he would merely drown if he did try – scorpions cannot swim. And he also knew, for him to walk till he found somewhere to cross could take days, possibly weeks. Who knew if he would find a place to cross anyway? Mr. Scorpion would die just trying. So what to do?
As he was contemplating a way across, he saw Mr. Frog swimming in the river. He called out: “Mr. Frog, I want to cross the river. I cannot swim. Could you please help me get to the other side? I could sit on your back and you could swim me across.”
Mr. Frog replied: “Mr. Scorpion, how do you think I could help you? You are a scorpion and scorpions sting frogs. If I let you on my back you are going to sting me while I swim across to the other side and I will die.”
Mr. Scorpion replied: “Don’t be silly, Mr. Frog. I wouldn’t sting you. I would drown too if I did. I don’t want to die. I want to get to the other side. Now why would I sting you if I knew I would drown? And what’s more, if I don’t get to the other side I am going to die here anyway. So, why would I sting you? It just doesn’t make sense now, does it? Could you please help me cross the river?”
Mr. Frog considered Scorpion’s answer for a while: “Well, what Mr. Scorpion says makes a lot of sense. He wouldn’t sting me because he would die too if he did. Mr. Scorpion wants to get to the other side to stay alive.” So Mr. Frog agreed to swim across the river with Mr. Scorpion on his back.
All was well. But then the unthinkable happened. About half way across the river, Mr. Frog saw in the reflection of the water how Mr. Scorpion was lifting his tail across his back slowly, aiming to sting him at the base of his neck.
Then, like lighting, before Mr. Frog could say anything, he felt the excruciating burning sensation where the aculeus – or the stinger, for the non-biologists like me – penetrated the soft skin at the base of his neck and Mr. Scorpion released his full load of poison into the flesh of Mr. Frog. Almost immediately, his vision became blurry, his breathing shallow and his muscles grew weaker by the second from the poison spreading rapidly through his body.
Mr. Frog couldn’t believe it! Mr. Scorpion stung him, even though it didn’t make any sense! With weakness in his voice Mr. Frog said in disbelief: “I don’t believe it! Mr. Scorpion, you said that you wouldn’t sting me. We are half way across the river. And now we are both going to die. Why did you do this?”
There was this almost unbearable silence between the two of them. Life was draining from Mr. Frog. The scorpion replied: “I am a scorpion and scorpions sting frogs. I am just being true to my nature.”
This is Jurgen Homola. For about 2 years I contemplated writing what you are reading now. Hopefully it will inspire you, leaving lots of nuggets behind for your use. I started out by talking about the Internet. Then I moved on to the story you just read. Why would I do that?
Remember I said too that sadly, with this revolutionary evolution of the Internet came the misuse too? Well, here are some questions for you that you may not have considered before:
What would you do if someone launched a defamation – or smear – campaign against you?
What would you do if you piggyback someone on your back to help them across to the “other side”, and they “sting” you – and use the Internet as one of their “stingers”?
Daunting questions you never had to answer before, right? At least most haven’t had to think of this question before. In the past, you could just forget about some menial threat from someone to defame your name – or launch a smear campaign against you. But in our world today, where everyone has access to the big wide world via the Internet, you cannot – and should not – ignore such threats.
This was the brief introduction to the article of How to Effectively Handle a Smear Campaign Against You. Go ahead and read Part 2, where the saga continues and where you can learn about the exact strategy of how you can handle a smear campaign against you if one is ever launched against you.
Until then. Again, I am Jurgen Homola. I will see you on the other side at Part 2. And remember, as in the story of The Scorpion and the Frog, people will always be true to their nature.
To read Part 2 of “How to Effectively Handle a Smear Campaign Against You”, please follow the following link: http://therealjurgenhomola.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/handlesmearcampaignpart-2/. Alternatively, you can also copy and paste the link into your browser address bar.
Wishing you the best – ALWAYS.
Jurgen Homola
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