This is slightly off-topic but its something I would really like to share. Many of you might have read this story a dozen times, but every time I read it I get a new vibe going through me that makes me realize how important it is to express.
Here’s the story:
One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers. That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
We often get so engrossed in our work that we get utterly serious. We forget that it is important to create a playful environment because our minds work better that way.
In the following video, Tim Brown, CEO of “innovation and design” firm Ideo talks about the powerful link between Creativity and play.
We all get these. We keep thinking about something and even though we realize we are not getting anywhere, we continue to stress our mind in the same direction, with no use. For times like these Doug King said
“Learn to pause…or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you.”
Success, sometimes doesn’t exactly produce the results we intented. What I mean is, we might get the short-term results we hoped for, but it might not be the right thing for our long-term plan.
Here are a couple of examples to explain this better:
In mid-1960’s, the Japanese resort town of Atami made great effort to build a high-speed train between Atami and Tokyo, which was three hours away at that time. After the railway was completed, tourism declined – in part because a lot of people wanted to take that drive to get away from the hustling world, which isn’t as charming if you can reach the place in fifty minutes.
France’s mobilization efforts in the first weeks of WWII were so great that tens of thousands of war industry workers enlisted. As a result, these industries were practically brought to halt, thereby placing the country at even greater risk. Several months later, the new recruits were returned to their jobs.
What do I learn from these?
It’s vital to think your plan through. You have to take these ideas more or less as a chess game and see what would be your move, several rounds ahead. Also, we should take every failure as a lesson; its not a failure if you learn something out of it.
