Navtej Kohli Business Blog

A bundle of sticks

Navtej Kohli says the best lessons in life comes through mistakes and personal experience. Here on Navtej Kohli Business Blog, he reminds us of an old story signifying the importance of unity.

Once upon a time, a father and his family of Sons lived in a village. The sons were forever quarreling among themselves, never paying heed to whatever their father said. Tired of this daily tension, he decided to taught his sons a lifetime lesson. He cast about in his mind for some very striking example that should make them see that discord would lead them to misfortune.

One day when the quarreling had been much more violent than usual and each of the Sons was moping in a surly manner, he asked one of them to bring him a bundle of sticks. Then handing
the bundle to each of his Sons in turn he told them to try to break it. But although each one tried his best, none was able to
do so.

The Father then untied the bundle and gave the sticks to his Sons to break one by one. This they did very easily.

“My Sons,” said the Father, “do you not see how certain it is that if you agree with each other and help each other, it will be impossible for your enemies to injure you? But if you are divided among yourselves, you will be no stronger than a single stick in that bundle.”

The sons realized their mistake and got reunited.

Moral:
In Unity is Strength.
Disunited families are easily injured by others.
United we stand, Divided we fall.

Navtej Kohli adds another leaf to Business Fable Category on Navtej Kohli Business Blog.

A new hotel employee was asked to clean the elevators and report back to the supervisor when the task was completed. When the employee failed to appear at the end of the day the supervisor assumed that like many others he had simply not liked the job and left. However, after four days the supervisor bumped into the new employee. He was cleaning in one of the elevators. “You surely haven’t been cleaning these elevators for four days, have you?” asked the supervisor, accusingly. “Yes sir,” said the employee, “This is a big job and I’ve not finished yet - do you realise there are over forty of them, two on each floor, and sometimes they are not even there..”

Wierd!!!!!!!

‘There is no education like adversity’ Navtej Kohli firmly believes in this statement.

A life without obstacles is as good as dead. Whether they are everyday problems or crisis situations, how we handle them will determine how good we are as a leader. The weak leaders crumble when the odds stack up and surrender even before any attempt to overcome the obstacles. The great and successful leaders on the other hand see adversity as a challenge. Against all odds, they rise above the difficulties and land up scaling greater heights than before. They do not merely survive the adversity, they thrive. Leaders should continually conquer adversity and, amid the chaos, look out for new opportunities to undertake and excel in. Like the old mule in our fable, once we have set our minds to clear all the obstacles, we will succeed in any endeavor.

Story:

Old Mule in Well

A farmer owned an old mule. One day, the mule fell into the farmer’s well. The mule brayed loudly and caught the attention
of the farmer. Upon assessing the situation, the farmer ruled out any possibility of a rescue as it was simply too much trouble to lift the mule out of the well. Out of sympathy for the animal, he decided to enlist his neighbors’ help to haul dirt into the well to put the mule out of his misery.

The old mule was hysterical upon learning that his life would thus end. However, as the farmer and the neighbors shoveled
the dirt into the well, a thought struck the old mule. He realized that if he could shake off every dirt that landed on his back, the dirt would hit the floor and he could step on the dirt.

Shovel after shovel, he continued relentlessly to shake off the dirt and step on top of it. He fought the sense of panic and
distress and just went on shaking off the dirt and climbing higher up the well.

With much determination and perseverance, the old mule eventually stepped out the well, battered and exhausted, but
otherwise triumphant that he had survived the ordeal. Through the way he handled the situation of adversity, the act of burying him in fact saved his life.

Moral:

There is a solution to every problem.
Never give up.
Adversity creates opportunity.

I stubmled across this intresting story that shows a dim light on the sexual discrimination at work place. I felt that it was something that I should mention on my Navtej Kohli Business Blog.

“God, I’ve been thinking..” says Eve one day.

“What’s on your mind Eve?” says God.

“Well, I know that you created me and this beautiful garden and all of these wonderful creatures, but lately I’ve been feeling that maybe there’s more to life.”

“Go on…” says God.

“Sometimes I get a bit bored - I fancy a bit of fun. And I get a bit fed up with all the heaving lifting and carrying, and warding off the mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers, not to mention that bloody snake. This garden can be dangerous place.”

“I see,” says God, pausing for thought.

“Eve, I have a cunning plan,” says God, “I shall create Man for you.”

“Man?” asks Eve, “What is Man?”

“Man…” says God, “Is a flawed creature. He will have many weaknesses and disgusting habits. Man will lie, cheat and behave like an idiot - in fact mostly he’ll be a complete pain in the backside. But on the plus side he’ll be big and strong, and will be able to protect you, and hunt and kill things, which might be handy sometimes. He will tend to lose control of mind and body when aroused, but with a bit training can reach an acceptable standard in the bedroom department, if you know what I mean.”

“Hmm,” says Eve, “Seems like this Man idea might be worth a try, but tell me God, is there anything else I need to know?”

“Just this,” says God, “Man comes with one condition… In keeping with his arrogant, deluded, self-important character, Man will naturally believe that he was made first, and frankly we all have better things to do than argue, so you must keep all this a secret between us, if that’s okay with you. You know, woman to woman..”

Navtej Kohli Business Blog brings a short business fable on importance of work experience.

This is adapted from (apparently) a true story. *

An elderly couple retired to the countryside - to a small isolated cottage overlooking some rugged and rocky heathland.

One early morning the woman saw from her window a young man dressed in working clothes walking on the heath, about a hundred yards away. He was carrying a spade and a small case, and he disappeared from view behind a copse of trees.

The woman thought no more about it but around the same time the next day she saw the man again, carrying his spade and a small case, and again he disappeared behind the copse.

The woman mentioned this to her husband, who said he was probably a farmer or gamekeeper setting traps, or performing some other country practice that would be perfectly normal, and so not to worry.

However after several more sightings of the young man with the spade over the next two weeks the woman persuaded her husband to take a stroll - early, before the man tended to arrive - to the copse of trees to investigate what he was doing.

There they found a surprisingly long and deep trench, rough and uneven at one end, becoming much neater and tidier towards the other end.

“How strange,” the old lady said, “Why dig a trench here - and in such difficult rocky ground?” and her husband agreed.

Just then the young man appeared - earlier than his usual time.

“You’re early,” said the old woman, making light of their obvious curiosity, “We wondered what you were doing - and we also wondered what was in the case.”

“I’m digging a trench,” said the man, who continued, realising a bigger explanation was appropriate, “I’m actually learning how to dig a good trench, because the job I’m being interviewed for later today says that experience is essential - so I’m getting the experience. And the case - it’s got my lunch in it.”

He got the job.

*Source: businessballs.com