Living the life you like, working in what you are passionate about, having a happy family, can you ask for more? Many would say no, and one of those who says no is Diana. She was living the sweet life. Well, she had all these things, and she felt quite complete. She is passionate about music and lives and even kills for it, well no, I'm joking. She has been working for many years as a violinist in a famous orchestra in her country. She has traveled many parts of the country on tours and concerts with the orchestra. But besides being famous nationally, she is also known internationally because she has traveled with the band to different countries. In a band, it is said that each instrumentalist is part of the chain, as if they were a link in it.
This is true in theory, but in practice, many times, no one is indispensable when problems arise. Up to this point, she had been a star in the orchestra and was one of the most well-known faces in it. But as we know, an orchestra is not made up of one member, but of all of them, so a large part of the recognition she had was due to her colleagues. But she was a bit proud and did not want to see it. In her head, the orchestra was successful because she was in the lead with the violins and always gave her opinion even if no one asked her to. Let's say that she was a bit outstanding.
As expected, this attitude of hers bothered several people and members of the orchestra, because she always wanted to surpass him, but not in a positive way, but with an air of superiority that did not bring anything good. You cannot take away the merit from her that thanks to this way of being she had gotten her position, but sooner or later when you try to be better than others at any cost, it will bring you problems. And this would come sooner rather than later.
And she did arrive early, because it all happened one morning, very early. When she was at home about to leave for work, since they had some rehearsals, her boss called her on the phone. He told her that instead of going to the rehearsal directly, she should go to his office. This caught her attention because the boss never calls her in such a strange way, almost always he goes to see her, but this time it was the other way around. It seemed very strange to her and that's why she was wondering all the way there why he wanted to see her. She told herself that maybe it was to give her a raise for having stood out in her last live performance or maybe to give her a prize or bonus.
She spent the whole way there assuming good things, but she didn't leave room for thinking bad things, things that until now she never thought would happen. When the boss arrived, he looked at her fixedly and spoke clearly and without any beating around the bush, perhaps he was too direct. He told her that the orchestra was going through a bad financial moment and that they could no longer afford to have so many violinists. So they would have to cut staff. Diana told her why she was telling her that if she was the best violinist in the whole orchestra. Her boss only told her, unfortunately for this reason you are fired, we will give you financial compensation for not telling you before, but as of today you can no longer work with us, perhaps if we need more violinists one day we will keep you in mind.
She became very upset and started talking loudly in the office. She quickly said to her boss's face, "I have given my life for this orchestra, I have worked harder than anyone else. Why fire me when there are people with less talent still in the orchestra?" Her boss did not answer her, he only repeated, "It is a decision that has already been made, there is nothing more to say." But behind all this something had happened that Diana did not know. The financial problems of the orchestra were true, but what she did not know was why she had actually been fired even though she was one of the best.
Days before this meeting with her, the board of directors that sponsors the orchestra met with directors and teachers from each section of the orchestra and presented the problems they had with money. They told her that each one would have to fire some of the staff under their command. At that same meeting, they all voted to see who they would fire. And yes, the majority decided that Diana was superfluous. They thought that way because she was very arrogant. Maybe it was true that she was very good at playing, but her way of being was no longer healthy for her team. So they decided that she was the one who had to go. At least until one day she changed her ways.
Diana felt devastated and crushed after leaving her boss's office. How was it possible that despite being the best, she had been fired? She immediately thought about suing them for not giving her enough notice before firing her. But she was so broken that she simply did not have the strength at that moment to do so. She spent the next few months at home, trying to find work in other orchestras, but none of them wanted to accept her, since almost all of them already had good violinists in them. So it was not necessary to hire more, everyone told her the typical thing, "if we need someone we'll call you," but they never called.
And between waiting and waiting, the money began to run out. Until now she had maintained a luxurious life with everything she wanted, but without money she could not maintain that status for much longer. So something came to her mind that she never thought of doing, playing in the street. She had always criticized street musicians and said that this was for losers, just because of these comments some of her colleagues in her previous orchestra did not like her. Because she was very proud. Who would have thought that now he would have to do what he hated so much. He had to swallow his pride and do it, because otherwise what awaited him was bankruptcy and that would be worse.
Days after this idea occurred to her, she saw that there was no way out; she would have to do it no matter what. It was very difficult for her to do it, because going from international fame to street violinist was a big leap. She grabbed a top hat she had in the house, put the violin on her shoulder and went out into the street. So that no one in the neighborhood would see her, she traveled several kilometers to the neighboring city and play there and be less embarrassed. She saw that there was a very crowded square with people so it seemed like a good idea to try to play there. She put the hat on the ground in case someone wanted to tip her and took a deep breath. Then she began to play her Stradivarius violin. She was afraid that when people saw her they would start to make fun of her, seeing how low she had fallen, but what a surprise she was going to get.
When she began to play, people cheered her, and immediately many stopped to listen. They were very happy that someone of her category was in the city playing, so they began to tip her. That day was very good for her financially, because she made a lot of money. But she gained something more special: humility. As time went by, she no longer felt ashamed, now she began to enjoy it. It was more special to play in direct contact with people than to be on stage. She felt very bad about the times she criticized her colleagues for having come off the street. That's why she called them one by one to apologize.
Her new personality, the humility she was gaining, and her desire to apologize greatly pleased her bosses and colleagues. In the end, as proud as she had been in the past, they believed that they had been too hard on her. So as soon as they had the opportunity, they hired her again. But this time she was a different Diana, now she was no longer proud or arrogant, she had learned her lesson.
Credits: The images used are free to use and royalty free. They were taken from pixabay.