Beauty and value from pain

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The story of the pearl is quite an interesting one. Pearls are formed from a defense action (adaptive
immune system like function) to a potentially threatening irritant such as a parasite inside the shell or an attack that injures the tissue of a shelled mollusk. The mollusk then creates a pearl sac to seal off the irritant and the membrane deposits or secretes layers of calcium carbonate over the irritant. This process is repeated many times until a pearl is produced and this happens over a couple of years. Perfectly round pearls are rare to find and so are fine quality natural pearls, which are deemed rare jewels whose values are determined in the same way as precious gems subject to size, colour, shape, quality, surface, orient and luster. What is the point to the story of the pearl? Life is not much different from the story of a pearl. Not every high flying successful person has had it easy sailing to be where they are. Most have grown through life by creating counter measures, defense mechanisms and immune systems to irritating situations, some even painful and

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threatening. Every difficulty and challenge is an irritant that needs to be covered in a pearl sac with secretions of positive words and encouragement until it is totally covered up and a pearl comes out after a while. There are business empires founded on difficulty and irritant issues on someone's personal life or on society in general. It is how we look at things that determines our destiny. If an irritant is something we cannot get over, it can pull us down, but if we can get over it and cover it with our zeal and passion for life and overcome it, we will rise and create something of more value. How do you overcome irritants, get the right input into your difficult situation, especially the positive kind. Get the right speech on your tongue and you will rise above it. Remain confident that you will overcome and believe in yourself and you will become a highly prized pearl after you have engulfed that irritant. When people see the result of your private fight against odds, adversity, difficulty and battles you face in life, they will only admire the value they see without knowing the struggles you have been through and the time it has taken for that value creation process. Nothing of sustainable value happens overnight, black gold (oil) develops over years, diamonds are a result of rock, carbon extreme heat and pressure and the pearl is a result of years of fighting an irritant. Keep calm and create value for yourself.