Striving towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Got this story as an email forward. Has a brilliant message and would like to share with you all.

Enjoy!

A sage presented a prince with a set of three small dolls. The prince was not amused.
"Am I a girl that you give me dolls?" he asked.
"This is a gift for a future king," said the man. "If you look carefully, you'll see a hole in the ear of each doll."
"So?"
The sage handed him a piece of string.
"Pass it through each doll," he said.
Intrigued, the prince picked up the first doll and put the string into the ear.
It came out from the other ear.
"This is one type of person," said the man. "Whatever you tell him, comes out from the other ear. He doesn't retain anything."
The prince put the string into the second doll. It came out from the mouth.
"This is the second type of person," said the man. "Whatever you tell him, he tells everybody else."
The prince picked up the third doll and repeated the process. The string did not reappear from anywhere else.
"This is the third type of person," said the man. "Whatever you tell him is locked up within him. It never comes out."
"What is the best type of person?" asked the prince.
The man handed him a fourth doll, in answer.
When the prince put the string into the doll, it came out from the other ear.
"Do it again," said the sage. The prince repeated the process. This time the string came out from the mouth. When he put the string in a third time, it did not come out at all.
"This is the best type of person," said the sage. "To be trustworthy, a man must know when not to listen, when to remain silent and when to speak out."

 

-Karthik Gurumurthy

 Shobana and I had a great time in Orlando for Achievers'09. It was totally relaxing and a great learning experience. It also gave a great buzz and excitement about what is coming up next. 

It also gave us an opportunity to know our mentors well and pick their brain. One of my favorite entrepreneur was sharing about the quality of leaders which separates them from followers. He said leaders are rich in the action part and poor people are rich in excuses. So true..Isn't it?

I do not know how or why but I can always know it when someone is giving me excuses and not real reasons. Perhaps after so many years of working the business, I began to understand and read the signals that is subconsciously shared. I learnt that to be accountable to others, one must be accountable to oneself first. He also shared about passion. You cannot influence without passion. Passion can be seen in our eyes. if we have it, others will know it. I really liked what Brad said when he was wrapping up that "You have not lived today if you have not done something for someone who can never repay you."

It is so true. We are often so blinded by the busyness of our daily lives that we forget to think about others. We forget that we have been given the ability by God to help and touch someone else's life. Let us go out and help more people achieve what they want.