Ji-young HONG_HW3

In the context of extract from TB's political memoirs, what is meant by the 'proverbial dog with a bone'?

 

People who are considered successful figures meet a good mentor in their lives. Tony Blair's mentor was Derry Irvine, for instance. From TB's memoirs, he said, "Faced with a legal problem, Derry was like the proverbial dog with a bone." This is from one of famous fables. The story is that there was a dog with a bone. When the dog crossed a stream he looked down and the other dog had a bigger bone than his. To get bigger one, the dog opened his mouth and he lost his own bone eventually. The lesson from this proverb is "Don't be greedy. If you are greedy, you will loss all you have." However, compare to original story, Derry was regarded as one of the best and brightest junior counsels at the Bar according to TB's memoirs because Derry was greedy not for everything just for his profession as a junior counsel. From Tony Blair's memoirs, about the legal problems, Derry would gnaw it, examine it, turn it over, bury it, dig it up, step back and stare at it. Finally he approaches totally different point of view for some legal problems. From Derry as a pupil master, Tony learned how to think and he was impressed a lot. In the context of TB's political memoirs, he said "I was scared of him, admired him and adored him; but most of all, I was grateful to him." Lesson in this context is that if you are like the proverbial dog with a bone just in your profession, you will be successful and also can be a good mentor.

 

 

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What does DI mean when he says he wants TB to be personally responsible?

 

   Have you ever watched TV reality program 'Apprenticeship'? It was one of popular TV show made in U.S.A. Apprenticeship can be a good opportunity to have a job and from this period, job seekers can meet a good mentor or his/her role model. For TB's case, he met DI as his pupil master. Tony said "Derry taught me how to think" in his memoirs. Tony thought his work was considered modified by Derry because Tony was a pupil and he just helped Derry's opinion writing so total responsibility is on Derry not him. This thought made Tony's work in half-completion. For final work completion, Tony needed to have a whole responsibility not hoping someone correct and modify his work. Don't expect help or free gain when you don't do your best but as long as you did your best, it's okay if you make mistakes. DI trained TB like this way. From the mistakes you may go up to the next level for completion. Do your best. That is the answer.