Shoot For The Moon

Archimedes, the father of Mathematics, once thought of conducting a big contest for all the mathematicians around the world with 10+ years of experience. He just advertised and branded about his very own contest on every platform. He got a huge positive response from all the great mathematicians in various parts of the world. Since the prize amount was very huge, the response he had was even more huge.

Archimedes shared all the necessary details of the contest like the date of the event, place, prize amount and all the Dos and Don'ts of the contest. "All the participants will be given a single mathematical problem to solve, the one who solves it first will be announced as a Winner". The most shocking and controversial thing about the event was that the problem would not be an advanced one, instead, it would be basics(even lesser than the beginner level). This instruction made the participants very happy since they possess a lot of experience, they thought it would be much easier to crack the test.

Even though they had a month to prepare for the contest, no one did prepare since they believed that they were good enough already. But only one participant, Leonhard Euler, took up the contest seriously and utilized the learning period to the fullest by revisiting the school books. On the day of the contest, no one was scared except Euler. Because everyone hoped that they had enough knowledge of the advanced concepts, which essentially includes the basics. But Euler was very anxious about the question since he had no time to revisit all the basics from school. But he put his best efforts to learn the basics during the learning period. Later the contest got over and the results were out. Obviously, the winner was Euler but the reason for others getting failed is because they did not put any effort to revise the basics and also they took the contest in a very lethargic manner. So, what is more important is that we need to focus on bigger things like achieving the contest/ putting genuine efforts to clear the question, than taking it just like that.

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”

Yeah, the Writing prompt - 4 reminded me of this famous quote. In the story, revising the full syllabus of the basics to win a contest is compared to the moon. Of course, Euler could not make it to prepare the entire syllabus, but he tried his best to revise more of the basics. So, he shot the moon, while others did not and so Euler landed among the stars (winning the contest).

And again, for you guys,

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”

[P.S This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.]