The Smart Game ...

There once lived a great mathematician in a village outside Amritsar.
He was often called by the local king to advice on matters related to the economy.
His reputation had spread as far as Afghanistan in the west and Burma in the East.

So it hurt him very much when the village headman told him, "You may be a great mathematician who advises the king on economic matters but your son does not know the value of gold or silver."

The mathematician disturbed by the allegation, approaches his son at home that evening.
Father: "What is more valuable - gold or silver?"
Son: "Gold,"
Father: That is correct! Why is it then that the village headman makes fun of you, claims you do not know the value of gold or silver? He teases me every day. He mocks me before other village elders as a father who neglects his son. This hurts me. I feel everyone in the village is laughing behind my back because they think you do not know what is more valuable, gold or silver. Explain this to me, son!?
Son: "Every day on my way to and fro from school, the village headman calls me to his house. There, in front of all village elders, he holds out a silver coin in one hand and a gold coin in other. He asks me to pick up the more valuable coin. I pick the silver coin. He laughs, the elders jeer, and everyone makes fun of me. And then I make my way.
This happens every day. That is why they tell you I do not know the value of gold or silver."

(The father was confused. His son knew the value of gold and silver, and yet when asked to choose between a gold coin and silver coin always picked the silver coin.)
Father: Why don't you pick up the gold coin?

In response, the son took the father to his room and showed him a trunk full of hundreds of silver coins.
Son: "The day I pick up the gold coin the game will stop.
They will stop having fun and I will stop making money."

The bottom line is...
Sometimes in life, we have to play the fool because our seniors and our peers, and sometimes even our juniors like it. That does not mean we lose in the game of life. It just means allowing others to win in one arena of the game, while we win in the other arena of the game. We have to choose which arena matters to us and which arenas do not.