The hats nobody needed

A man from Song brought a consignment of ceremonial caps to Yue. The people of Yue shaved their heads and tattooed their bodies, and they had no use for caps anywhere in their lives.

Zhuangzi says the man's wares went nowhere.

Then Yao, the sage emperor, governed the world until he was old. He handed power to Shun and went south to see the four sages who had retired there. When he was crossing the Fen River, he looked at the mountains and the water and forgot the whole empire. He'd brought his caps to a country where nobody wore hats, and found he didn't want them either.

Two lessons in one paragraph, which is why I like it.

The obvious one is about market fit. Someone teaches you a method for a life you don't live, and you spend years trying to make their caps fit your head.

The other one is quieter and better. Yao didn't come back and redecorate. He sat by the river and let go of the empire. Something you've been carrying since you were twenty-four can become irrelevant to you in an afternoon, if you go somewhere that doesn't care about it.

MOJOWAY asks which hats are yours and which came with the job. More people find their growth blocked by borrowed goals than by lack of ability.