Once there lived a potter who made beautiful and unique pottery in his workshop. His pottery had a classic touch and he worked on each detailing for the class apart finesse. The patrons always appreciated and waited for his work.
His unique ideas, methods and ways of presentation made his art special. Other artists always approached him with their clay and requested him to guide to achieve the same feat.
The potter was very passionate and particular about the quality of his product and did not want to compromise on it by getting distracted. He was happy in his limited amount of work that was best in quality. He declined the offers for long time but over the years the demand grew so much that he could not resist anymore. He thought, perhaps it was the way of sharing his knowledge and expertise so that the art would flourish and the next generation would take it to next level. He started with a small group who would bring in the raw clay and he would teach them from basics like mixing the clay with right quality and quantity of ingredients to prepare a perfect recipe for making the pottery. He was very particular and firm about everything that he followed. This group too followed his instructions devotedly and practised diligently turning their clay into beautiful artefacts. Over years they became experts by following his procedures working on each assignment. They produced the similar kind of art work which became popular soon. People got highly impressed by their work and reached out to him for his guidance and training. The potter was glad to see that he had a team who would continue the legacy.
The new group started learning with a great enthusiasm with all the attention. But soon, they got restless with his methods and rigorous ways of training. They challenged his way of doing work, objected to his unique methods of delivering the best form of art and demanded to change the rules that suited them best. They came with a lot of arguments. They wanted the best results, but neither did they have the patience nor the faith in his methods.
The resentment grew a lot among them and they started dictating terms on him. The potter tried to convince them that what they were demanding was going to affect the work procedure and ultimately the quality of the work. There was no short cut and easy way to success and they could not expect the results overnight. But they would not budge from their demands.
Finally, tired of their consistent complaints and non-acceptance of the reality, he gave them the option of either going his way if they wanted to deliver the unique art or they could adapt to their own methods but could not put the onus on him for their work. They were very happy and felt victorious by making him mend his ways. They knew that they could deliver the same best quality art but in a shorter span of time and with less efforts.
The potter watched it all and patiently worked with a smaller group who followed his instructions with faith in his way of doing work. They genuinely wanted to learn the authentic methods of doing work and giving the best of art form to the world. They were considered old school of thought and were looked down upon as rigid and not growth oriented.
Gradually over the years this victorious group saw a sharp decline in the demand for their products. The patrons rejected and discarded their work owing to substandard quality, lack of uniqueness and containing a lot of flaws in them. The finesse was missing and the durability was very poor.
The patrons started turning to the smaller group who made unique quality products which were world class. Both the groups were being trained and guided by the same person but there was this vast difference in the final products.
This was shocking for them since they had unitedly argued over the means of the pottery making and brought in the changes. They were confident of getting the same best quality with their amended and manipulated ways of doing the work.
To understand the problem, they set up a committee which did deep analysis of the situation. They went to the root cause and realised what went wrong with their products. They had manipulated the authentic and crucial basics that made the work unique. They had tried to change everything just to suit their convenience that resulted in compromising on the quality of the products and losing its uniqueness that made the art class apart. To achieve the results in shorter time they had moulded the basic structure of the art. Initially though they emerged victorious, ultimately, they had lost the game.