The Uncertainty Principle

Two sailors ran into each other in a pub. Over a few beers, one of the men told the other about his last voyage, "After a month at sea," he said, "we discovered our masts had been eaten through by termites! Almost nothing left of them."

"That's terrible," said the second sailor.

"That's what I thought at first too," the first sailor said, "but it turned out to be good luck. As soon as we took the sails down to fix the masts, we were hit by a squall so suddenly and so hard, it would surely have blown us over if our sails were up at the time."

"How lucky!"

"That's exactly what I thought at the time, too. But because our sails were down, we couldn't steer ourselves, and because of the wind, we were blown onto a reef. The hole in the hull was too big to fix. We were stranded."

"That is bad luck indeed."

"That's what I thought, too, when it first happened. But we all made it to the beach alive and had plenty to eat. But now here's the real kicker - while we were on the island whining about our terrible fate, we discovered a buried treasure!"

Morale of the story: Do not assume immediately things are either good or bad. Life is a developing story. Always assess the situation for the possibilities and how you can take advantage of them.