One day a wise man came to Emperor Akbar's court and he said he wanted to challenge his courtiers by testing how intelligent they were. Akbar readily agreed. The wise man kept a pot covered by a cloth and asked them to tell him what it contained. Every one was dumb founded and kept starting silently at each other.
Then Birbal came forward, he opened the cloth and said there was nothing in the pot. It was empty.
"But you opened it." said the wise man.
"You did not tell us that it can't be opened" shot back Birbal the clever minister.
The wise man was cornered. He quietly left.
What can we learn: Often the barriers, the inhibitions about things around us are in our minds. We set limits and boundaries, even those that never existed in the first place.
Just because someone thought it so... it became the accepted norm. How often we face this in our organizations. Soon someone questions and then all assumptions seem to no longer hold good.
In hind sight it seems so simple. But the creative view or creative solutions needs to be different from what is normally understood or expected.
We can also realize that there are others around us who can be more intelligent than we are. Those that outsmart you, those you never expected to. The world is full of people who are operating at a fraction of their potential when it comes to achievement or even thinking.
Other posts on learning from stories
Power of Patience
Egotism: Lessons from Stories
Zen Story: What can you infer from this.
Then Birbal came forward, he opened the cloth and said there was nothing in the pot. It was empty.
"But you opened it." said the wise man.
"You did not tell us that it can't be opened" shot back Birbal the clever minister.
The wise man was cornered. He quietly left.
What can we learn: Often the barriers, the inhibitions about things around us are in our minds. We set limits and boundaries, even those that never existed in the first place.
Just because someone thought it so... it became the accepted norm. How often we face this in our organizations. Soon someone questions and then all assumptions seem to no longer hold good.
In hind sight it seems so simple. But the creative view or creative solutions needs to be different from what is normally understood or expected.
We can also realize that there are others around us who can be more intelligent than we are. Those that outsmart you, those you never expected to. The world is full of people who are operating at a fraction of their potential when it comes to achievement or even thinking.
Other posts on learning from stories
Power of Patience
Egotism: Lessons from Stories
Zen Story: What can you infer from this.
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