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Playing second fiddle..!

By Robert Clements. Dated: 3/22/2017 10:48:32 PM

Many, many years ago I went to hear a businessman speak. I was young and energetic and like all youngsters all set to conquer the world. I hoped this man would give me a few tips how to go about it:
"To whom do you attribute your success?" asked a girl sitting next to me.
"To my chairman and managing director!" said the businessman.
"But aren't you the chairman and MD?"
"No," said the tough businessman and his face broke into a smile, "God is my Managing Director, I only play second fiddle! But look what music we have performed together!"
Those words have stuck in my mind ever since: Second Fiddle!
Do you know which is the hardest instrument is to play in an orchestra?
Second fiddle!
All instruments have their own sections; the violins divided into two parts - "first" and "second" violins. First violins are often the stars of the show. They get the melody lines. They get to show off. They sit next to the audience.
Back behind, where they are hard to see, are the second violins. They play a supporting role. They play harmony to the first violins. Theirs is a service role. Their job is to round out the sound of the other instruments. They serve the orchestra. They do what is not glamorous so that the whole will be beautiful. Without the second violins or fiddles, the orchestra would sound incomplete.
You know what is the hardest role to play in life is? Second fiddle. To play second fiddle is to play a supporting role. And it is sometimes a service role; doing what is not glamorous, usually behind the scenes, so that the whole melody can be more beautiful.
When my dad passed away a few years ago, my brother and I wondered what to write on his tombstone, "The Lord Is My Shepherd!" I said and my brother readily agreed, because those words on a placard had hung in our living room.
The words meant that he followed the Lord like a sheep, without doing any thinking of his own: In other words he played second fiddle!
It's not easy playing second fiddle. How often I have seen famous musicians who have been called by a soloist to accompany them as they sing. The good accompanist buries his or her ego and plays under the soloist, knowing it is the soloist who is taking centre stage and her job is merely to go along. But ever so often and many, many times indeed have I seen the opposite. Lately I was present at a charitable project where the vice president of the club tried through microphone and voice to steal the show. Many were irritated with him after the event.
But when we learn to play second fiddle, what comes through is a life, a business, a job of delightful, heavenly harmony!
Learn to play second fiddle and become a winner..!
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