This 11-year-old from Australia taught me a Key Life Lesson

Ralph Waldo Emerson has famously said that, “Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.”  

These are real words of wisdom. I’d go one step further to add that if the master is of a young age, then the learning can be profound. In my case, the master was an ever smiling 11-year-old from Australia, whom I only ever saw on TV.

A few days ago, I was watching Junior MasterChef Australia 2020 with my wife and son. The semi-final was a ‘Pressure Test’. The challenge was to recreate Kirsten Tibballs’ Lemon Meringue Tart. A lemon meringue tart by Tibballs featured a spiced shortbread casing, roasted white chocolate and Rice Bubbles, salted caramel, lemon cream, a lemon cake and meringue sticks. And the 5 semi-finalists had to finish this all under 135 minutes to find their spot in the top 3 for the Finals. For those of you who can’t imagine how all these ingredients would look together, here’s a picture of Kirsten Tibballs’ Lemon Meringue Tart.

Anyone who’s seen MasterChef knows that a Pressure Test in the MasterChef Kitchen is no joke. Even though I was sitting on the cozy couch in the comfort of my living room with my then 5-year-old snuggled in my arms, I perspired just looking at what the contestants had to endure to qualify for a spot in the finals.

One of the contestants was Carter, who’s the hero of this story. I found him to be an extremely cheerful and ever smiling 11-year-old, who my son was rooting for (Actually my son was rooting for all 5 of them!).

Some-time into the cook, Carter started missing the time milestones that the judges announced, giving the contestants some indication of where they should be timing wise. Initially the gap was small, but then it got wide. Half-way into the competition, Carter fell way behind the others; and got overwhelmed with the sheer number of elements he still had to complete. Eventually he broke down. It was a Pressure Test, after all.

At that moment I felt a lump in my throat, and I also felt my son twitch in my arms. Clearly, we were moved by what we saw. Reality TV was at its best (or worst?) when they showed Carter at his most vulnerable moments.

One of the judges, Jock Zonfrillo, walked up to Carter’s bench to lend some words of encouragement. Jock told him “It’s alright, buddy.” Do “one thing at a time”. “You’re good at this” “You’ve just got to think, I’m just making a lemon meringue pie. It’s easy.”

But I knew that what Jock said was futile. The writing was on the wall. No one can scale back when they’re trailing by such a huge margin. But Carter fought on. Wiping his tears, he said “I will not quit”. He chanted a Mantra “You Can Do This!” and he got back to cooking.

Unfortunately, just as Carter was beginning to put himself together, he realized that he’d forgotten to add melted butter to his cake batter. Worse, since he was already lagging, there was no way he could redo the cake. At that point, some part of me hoped that Carter would quit. Maybe I would have, if I was in his place. Why stay on and face more embarrassment? But boy, I was so wrong!

Carter persevered, and still managed to put on a complete dish just at the 135-minute mark (which by itself was an impressive feat!).

During tasting, the judges noticed that the shortage of butter made his cake “a little bit dry” but Jock mentioned it was barely noticeable. In fact, he went on to say, “If you were to stand back and relook at his cook, from beginning to end, you would not expect something to be that good at the end!”.

Ultimately, Carter was not only selected as one of the top three, but his dish was also declared as the best overall cook for that day. I was speechless, dumbfounded, and full of tears. How wrong was I. How quickly did I write him off! Had I been there, I might have hugged this 11-year-old who showed so much mental resilience. It was beyond surreal.

Carter always had two choices. Had he chosen the path of least resistance; he would have quit. And no one would have even blinked an eye. However, he might have had to deal with the question, “What if I had endured?” for the rest of his life. I’m glad he chose the path less trodden.

In my opinion, the turning point of his cook was when he realized that he missed putting butter in the cake. At that juncture, I think Carter simply reset his priority from “being in the TOP 3” to “Just try and finish the dish”. I’m sure he must have thought to himself, “If this is my last cook at the MasterChef Kitchen, let me at least enjoy myself”!  Isn’t mindfulness all about living in the present?

I think this is exactly the message that Lord Krishna gives in the Bhagwad Gita. “You are only entitled to the action, never to its fruits.” A win or a loss did not matter to Carter at that stage and that’s when he ultimately shined.

The other important variable was the other contestants – his competition. Even they were going through a Pressure Test themselves. While Carter managed to claw his way back in the game, some others also messed up without getting a chance to redo. And the rest was history. Had Carter quit mid-way, someone else may have gotten to the final with a lower quality cook.

By just staying in the competition till the end, Carter increased his odds dramatically for a spot in the TOP 3.

Concluding Thoughts

It is often said that we should not give up. Success lies on the other side of effort, and one must scale unsurmountable odds to achieve it. And sometimes, even after a lot of effort, success can still be elusive. At such times, we must remember the words of William Osler, who said that “To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals — this alone is worth the struggle”. In Carter’s case, he could have still not been selected in the Top 3. But it was still OK since he gave it his best shot.  

Another important point to note is that in Carter’s case, everything got done within one short episode. But that’s seldom the case in real life, where one needs to keep doing the work in the shadows / behind the scenes over a long period of time. The audience typically only sees the success, and not the years of toil and struggle. Take for instance the case of India’s Olympics 2020 Gold Medalist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra. The whole country got to know about him only after he won a Gold Medal. Till that time, he toiled silently. He is the perfect example of an overnight success. It just took him a decade to get there.

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