Parables Of Success: Appearance (Stories Of Jivavarta)

'When poor, overdress. When rich, underdress.' — Shon Mehta

There was a young man. He had started a new shop selling merchandise. However, the business was not doing as well as he had hoped.
One day, he complained to his father. "Father, my goods are excellent, and the pricing is competitive. But whenever I try to meet new people for business, either they refuse or they don't pay much attention. Because of this, I don't have business connections. What should I do?"
The father was a shrewd man. He looked at his son.
"Don’t dress so simple. Start dressing well. You need to appear rich and powerful, for people to gain confidence in you." advised his father.
The son followed his fathers advice. He started getting better attention, and his business started to flourish.
Time passed by, and the young man became a wealthy merchant. But something was still missing.
He went back to his father, and asked him, "As a wealthy person, I get a lot of attention. But nobody admires me. Everybody thinks that I am a show-off. What should I do?"
The father again looked at him."
"Don't appear so lavish. Be modest in your appearance." said the father.
"I don't understand! In the past, when I was poor, you told me to dress lavishly. But now, when I am rich, you are telling me to live modestly. Why?” asked the son.

"Simplicity of appearance can cause hindrance to success when you are poor. But the same simplicity is admired in a rich and successful person." explained the father.

Shon Mehta is an author and philosopher, creator of the Jivavarta Universe—a grounded sociopolitical world exploring human resilience, social dynamics, and moral philosophy through systems thinking. Her novels (The Timingila, Lair of the Monster), poems, aphorisms, parables, and stories are used in academic curricula internationally and featured by Oxford University Press. 

At the core of her work is the Jivavarta Framework, which includes tools such as the Jivavarta Systems Equation: Outcomes = Choice×Structure×Constraint, and the "Survive, Thrive, Strive" Jivavarta hierarchy. Together, her writing and framework form a literary and philosophical system recognized for its clarity, depth, and enduring relevance

Parables Of Success: Appearance by Shon Mehta (Illustration)