On the eve of Thanksgiving Day, a school teacher asked her class of nursery school children to draw a picture of something they were thankful for. She thought of how little these…
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One set of footprints
A man died and went to Heaven and met God. God showed him his past life and his complete journey on Earth. The man observed all the scenes from his life and…
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Making a difference
This is a story about some students of literature in a university. They were all very talented. There were would-be poets, novelists and essayists among them. There were two groups among these…
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The triple-filter test
One day, an acquaintance came to meet Chanakya and said to him excitedly, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?” “Just wait a while”, Chanakya replied. “Before you tell…
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Giving & receiving
There was a Korean firm, which was exporting fabric to an Indonesian firm at the rate of 17 cents per yard. All of a sudden, due to certain policy initiatives of the…
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A pound of butter
Once there was a farmer, who regularly sold a pound of butter to a baker. One day, the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he was actually getting a…
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Strength of character
Once, a Chinese minister came to meet Chanakya, one of the Indian masters of statecraft, at his house in the evening, saying that he had heard of his greatness even in faraway…
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The thief and the zen master
One evening, Zen master Shichiri Kojun was reciting the sutras when a thief entered his house with a sharp sword, demanding “Your money or your life.” Without any fear, Shichiri said, “Don’t…
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Learn and earn
Chuan and Jing joined a wholesale company together just after graduation. Both worked very hard. After several years, Jing was promoted as sales executive but Chuan remained a sales rep. One day,…
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Solutions, not problems
One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one of Japan’s biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that…