KISS: Keep it Simple Silly!!

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KISS: Keep it Simple Silly!!
by Iqbal Latif
13-Oct-2012
 

(Life and Management Lessons Entwined with Aesop tales- Training manual that I presented to 100 fresh management trainees yesterday in Paris, hopefully I will like this to be used by my grandchildrens too as bedside stories)  "Prioritize your life around sharing your life . Think are you utilising your capacities to their best?Chart a course of your life, constitution and a roadmap that should include flexibility and ability to change. When you synergise your thoughts with your actions, you will have an open mind and you will reject conspiracies. A complete holistic life is better than emphasis on parts. 

1.Don't ever bamboozle people, tell the truth, precision is not hard to articulate, you don't need to remember truth, it stays imprinted in your mind and it has the longevity to become an established tradition. When liars tell the truth, they are never believed. The liar will lie once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth.” A bored shepherd boy amuses himself by calling “wolf” so that the villagers will run to help him… only to find that it’s a false alarm. When a wolf actually comes, no one takes his cries for help seriously, so he loses his sheep to the wolf.

2.Don't oversell yourself, don't bark all the time needlessly. Let people expectations of your ability be a modest portion of what you are. Exceeding expectations is far satisfying than underperformance. When you open your mouth or pick up the pen you expose your soft belly. There was once a Dog who used to snap at people and bite them without any provocation, and who was a great nuisance to everyone who came to his master's house. So his master fastened a bell round his neck to warn people of his presence. The Dog was very proud of the bell, and strutted about tinkling it with immense satisfaction. But an old dog came up to him and said, "The fewer airs you give yourself the better, my friend. You don't think, do you, that your bell was given you as a reward of merit? On the contrary, it is a badge of disgrace." Unsavoury reputation is often mistaken for eminence. 

3.Things that you can't have are not all that bad, try to live with the ideas that certain things are beyond your reach. A hungry Fox saw some fine bunches of Grapes hanging from a vine that was trained along a high trellis, and did his best to reach them by jumping as high as he could into the air. But it was all in vain, for they were just out of reach: so he gave up trying, and walked away with an air of dignity and unconcern, remarking, "I thought those Grapes were ripe, but I see now they are quite sour."

4.Don't ever be carried away by false praises. Every day learn something, whatever you do, wherever you are find time to learn and revise. A Crow was sitting on a branch of a tree with a piece of cheese in her beak when a Fox observed her and set his wits to work to discover some way of getting the cheese. Coming and standing under the tree he looked up and said, "What a noble bird I see above me! Her beauty is without equal, the hue of her plumage exquisite. If only her voice is as sweet as her looks are fair, she ought without doubt to be Queen of the Birds." The Crow was hugely flattered by this, and just to show the Fox that she could sing she gave a loud caw. Down came the cheese, of course, and the Fox, snatching it up, said, "You have a voice, madam, I see: what you want is wits."

5.Be practical ! Hard work pays off, while squandering is a hazard. You are as you are today because of the choices you made yesterday. Learn from The Grasshopper and the Ants. A grasshopper (or cicada, in the original Greek) spends the warm months singing and playing while the ants work for months to store food for the cold winter…when winter comes, the grasshopper begins to starve, while the ants reap the benefits of their hard work.

6.Keep your mind and eyes open. Craft your principles. Life is fashioned twice. First in your head and second on implementation. Observation, incessant learning and understanding of self limitations makes one stronger. A Dog and a Sow were arguing and each claimed that its own young ones were finer than those of any other animal. "Well," said the Sow at last, "mine can see, at any rate, when they come into the world: but yours are born blind."

7.Sometime most unfortunately, Wolves circling around you will not leave you anyway, they are hungry any explanation will not be good enough. A Wolf came upon a Lamb straying from the flock, and felt some compunction about taking the life of so helpless a creature without some plausible excuse; so he cast about for a grievance and said at last, "Last year, sirrah, you grossly insulted me." "That is impossible, sir," bleated the Lamb, "for I wasn't born then." "Well," retorted the Wolf, "you feed in my pastures." "That cannot be," replied the Lamb, "for I have never yet tasted grass." "You drink from my spring, then," continued the Wolf. "Indeed, sir," said the poor Lamb, "I have never yet drunk anything but my mother's milk." "Well, anyhow," said the Wolf, "I'm not going without my dinner": and he sprang upon the Lamb and devoured it without more ado.

8.Much wants more and loses all. Don't be greedy and voracious. Think win-win for all. A Man and his Wife had the good fortune to possess a Goose which laid a Golden Egg every day. Lucky though they were, they soon began to think they were not getting rich fast enough, and, imagining the bird must be made of gold inside, they decided to kill it in order to secure the whole store of precious metal at once. But when they cut it open they found it was just like any other goose. Thus, they neither got rich all at once, as they had hoped, nor enjoyed any longer the daily addition to their wealth. 

9.Everyone should benefit from your actions, look into the eyes of a person and think interests of others ahead of yours, more often than not everyone delivers, they move up the ladder you move a notch too, when you let someone stand on your shoulder don't forget your are standing on some else's. Betray a friend, and you'll often find you have ruined yourself. An Ass and a Fox went into partnership and sallied out to forage for food together. They hadn't gone far before they saw a Lion coming their way, at which they were both dreadfully frightened. But the Fox thought he saw a way of saving his own skin, and went boldly up to the Lion and whispered in his ear, "I'll manage that you shall get hold of the Ass without the trouble of stalking him, if you'll promise to let me go free." The Lion agreed to this, and the Fox then rejoined his companion and contrived before long to lead him by a hidden pit, which some hunter had dug as a trap for wild animals, and into which he fell. When the Lion saw that the Ass was safely caught and couldn't get away, it was to the Fox that he first turned his attention, and he soon finished him off, and then at his leisure proceeded to feast upon the Ass.

10.Don't tear each other part over silly things. Resolve your differences over small things. Small battles are most destructive. One hot and thirsty day in the height of summer a Lion and a Boar came down to a little spring at the same moment to drink. In a trice they were quarrelling as to who should drink first. The quarrel soon became a fight and they attacked one another with the utmost fury. Presently, stopping for a moment to take breath, they saw some vultures seated on a rock above evidently waiting for one of them to be killed, when they would fly down and feed upon the carcase. The sight sobered them at once, and they made up their quarrel, saying, "We had much better be friends than fight and be eaten by vultures."

11.Slow and steady wins the race. Learn, read and apply, it is overtime and continuous effort you become sturdy. Try to expand your learning until grave by teaching in a simple manner. Respect the ordinary and the extraordinary. The Tortoise and the Hare: One day, a hare mocks a slow-moving tortoise – so the tortoise challenges him to a race. The hare pulls ahead quickly in the race and decides to take a nap, confident in winning. But, when he wakes up, he discovers that the slow tortoise has already won.

12.No good deed ever goes unpunished. Many a service are met with thanklessness. Two Travellers were walking along a bare and dusty road in the heat of a summer's day. Coming presently to a Plane-tree, they joyfully turned aside to shelter from the burning rays of the sun in the deep shade of its spreading branches. As they rested, looking up into the tree, one of them remarked to his companion, "What a useless tree the Plane is! It bears no fruit and is of no service to man at all." The Plane-tree interrupted him with indignation. "You ungrateful creature!" it cried: "you come and take shelter under me from the scorching sun, and then, in the very act of enjoying the cool shade of my foliage, you abuse me and call me good for nothing!"Create a winning team by entrusting and empowering people, 

13.Hone your axe sharp, be ready for the challenges. Prepare your mind, body for obstacles of giving. A Wild Boar was engaged in whetting his tusks upon the trunk of a tree in the forest when a Fox came by and, seeing what he was at, said to him, "Why are you doing that, pray? The huntsmen are not out to-day, and there are no other dangers at hand that I can see." "True, my friend," replied the Boar, "but the instant my life is in danger I shall need to use my tusks. There'll be no time to sharpen them then."

14.If you are giver you will be pelted with stones. If not enough stones are not coming your way may be you are not contributing much. A Walnut-tree, which grew by the roadside, bore every year a plentiful crop of nuts. Everyone who passed by pelted its branches with sticks and stones, in order to bring down the fruit, and the tree suffered severely. "It is hard," it cried, "that the very persons who enjoy my fruit should thus reward me with insults and blows."

15.In fame don't forget hurt. Understand wealth comes with a lot of obligations. A Fir-tree was boasting to a Bramble, and said, somewhat contemptuously, "You poor creature, you are of no use whatever. Now, look at me: I am useful for all sorts of things, particularly when men build houses; they can't do without me then." But the Bramble replied, "Ah, that's all very well: but you wait till they come with axes and saws to cut you down, and then you'll wish you were a Bramble and not a Fir.

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