Importance of Story-Telling

People feel that storytelling is a childish or outdated act. But the importance of this skill cannot be overemphasized, especially, in the present political and business scenario.

Storytelling is the process of conveying events in words, and images, often by improvisation or beautification. It is a means of sharing and interpreting experiences. Storytelling is very compelling and has a lasting impression on the audience. It is universal in the sense that it has the power to transcend the age and cultural barriers. There would be no one in the world who cannot be moved by a great story. Human anatomy is so built that we are natural storytellers and story-listeners.

 Stories have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, and instilling moral values and ethics. Long before paper was invented, people were the masters in passing on the knowledge and wisdom across generations through story telling.  

Storytelling develops our imagination and creativity. It also develops our ability to describe and harness various emotions. Studies suggest that storytelling helps one to gain self-confidence and self-esteem. Storytelling makes you laugh and helps you make others laugh. It creates an immediate bonding with the listeners. It can improve your lifestyle. Storytelling develops empathy which is the most important quality of a leader. The storyteller feels empowered as he/she has the ultimate authority to decide the direction of the story and let us maneuver through the virtual world created by him/her. 

 Learning any content is easiest if done through an enjoyable story. The famous physicist George Gamow wrote a series of story books - Mr. Tompkins to explain the most abstract ideas of theory of relativity to a layman. 

Some great storytellers are Martin Luther King Jr, Adolf Hitler, and Mahatma Gandhi. These three names are enough to tell you how powerful a story can be. A powerful story can help one to connect strongly and instantaneously with the enormous audience from various parts of the world and across the time horizon. A narrative can be used to interpret the past and shape the future – Jesus Christ is the master in doing this. In my view, storytelling is the most important attribute a leader must possess.

The best politician has always been the best story teller.

One can watch the interviews of all time top 20 CEOs in the world - each one of them has a unique and inspirational story to tell the world. Stories have the power of manipulating the perceptions of people. In the business world of information overload, the compelling story has become a necessity for the customer to remember the company or its products. Stories make presentations better. Stories make ideas stick. They can be used to manage conflicts. 

Every one of us have many stories to tell to everyone we meet – both personal and professional. Let us make them interesting and long lasting. We can do so only by practice.

 First tell the story to yourself. Once you get enough confidence, you can go on to share it with your mates with whom you are most comfortable. When you are comfortable enough to improvise impromptu, it can be said that you had mastered the story. The life stories change – with time and also based on the context. You must keep trying to make it apt and interesting.

There are many ways to develop storytelling skills. It can be developed through dramatics and skits. Novel reading is process which helps us listen to the stories told by expert storytellers. This will sharpen our storytelling acumen. Singing, dancing, music instruments, painting, martial arts etc always tell stories. Students must be encouraged to participate in various arts. 

Importance of Courage

Lord of the Rings is a movie with a knee-high protagonist who is destined to fight against an infinitely powerful enemy. The hero is not fearless, not even as powerful as an average human being. In the beginning, his life was of no significance. Some unexpected events pull him towards an enormous burden of carrying the ring and destroying it. As he set forth he did not have any clue as to how he can achieve such a herculean task. But he knew it is right thing to do it and is determined to make the first stride ahead.

This character very well explains the virtue of courage. Courage is not the absence of fear, it is not the rashness of an indiscreet. Courage is not even bravery. Bravery is the willingness to take risks while courage is the ability to make the right decision and act accordingly when it is not easy. Courageous people have fear of death, fear of losing the close ones. They fear repentance. But they do not fear for silly things at unreasonable proportions. Courage is the midway.

Courageous people value their value system more than anything else in the world. They are at peace with themselves because they do not have any inconsistency within themselves. They have simple life.Their feet are firmly on the ground. They are mindful of consequences of their acts.They weigh options based on their value system.  If they feel doing A is better than not doing A, then they do A. If saying No is better than saying Yes, then they will say No (they try not to hurt others while doing so). If it is right to say Sorry, they do not hesitate to say so.
Courageous people can genuinely laugh at themselves. They can forgive themselves for goofing up publicly because they know it is not a crime and that trying is the only way of improving. They know they are neither the smartest nor the weirdest.

The virtue of courage is the back bone of character and it is a per-requisite to inculcate any other virtue. It is one thing to know the right thing to do and it's another thing to actually do the right thing. Lack of courage leads to inaction and procrastination. Without courage we simply give lip service to our convictions.

So, how can we develop the virtue of courage at the early age?
Kids must be encouraged to fail in controlled environment. By being too protective, parents fail to teach their kids to be courageous. Encouraging independence and rewarding the effort rather than the end results will help students to strengthen their convictions.Fears are natural part of childhood. Let the students to talk about them and name them. Never ridicule them.Help them see a realistic view of what they are afraid of and then come up with a plan to overcome with that fear. Students must be grouped according to their fears and give them seminar projects on how to combat them.

False praises do not help the students to gain self confidence. Students with confidence gained through genuine accomplishment and resilience in the face of difficulty is likely to also have good self esteem and self-worth which are the most important factors in developing moral courage. Learning about others' culture and celebrating them is seen to be reducing the fear of unknown. Socializing with people who have least in common with you is a true test of courage. It is mandatory for the students to celebrate all kinds of festivals and to go on expeditions. Ability to express one's feelings and emotions will instantly develop self confidence. Students who have the exposure of debating and elocution are seen to have more self confidence and conviction. Helping others is a best way of of developing self-worth. Community services can be arranged periodically with NGOs and government offices.

How can we implement all these in our present school systems?!!

Impoartance of Persistence

 We, as human beings, like to be famous. We like to be recognized as important, as having made a difference in others lives. We like to be remembered even after we die. Every one of us aspire to do things which are substantial in our life so that our quest for permanence can be satisfied. We as human beings are hopeful.We like to believe that we can achieve our dreams. We desperately search for validating examples which substantiate this belief. Once in a while, we hear about some extraordinary people, who, in the face of some intimidating circumstances, were able to push themselves ahead to achieve what they want. Their lives are very motivating for rest of us and we seek them as role-models.

We often wonder - 'What underlying qualities made them extraordinary? Do I have those qualities in me? If not, can I develop them? What does it take to imbibe those qualities into my personality?'. Persistence is one of the most important qualities that help us perform some amazing things in our lives.It is a fact that no one would like to follow a quitter. Hence persistence is the core attribute of a leader.

Being persistent is not easy - it takes lot of practice. Last fight in Rocky 4 is a perfect example for persistence (Most of our tasks are much less in violence than in this fight!!) When everything seems to be working against you as you keep failing in every thing you do, you feel like giving up and you tend feel low on self-belief that makes you feel bad about yourself. At this point in time, it is easy to just quit and move on. That is exactly what vast majority of people do because it is a natural human tendency to do things that are fun and not overwhelmingly challenging. Unfortunately, this often leads to long term problems of low self esteem and feeling guilty and hollow. These will never stick with something of real significance for long enough to benefit from it. It is not about how many times you fall but whether you are able to rise and stand back.


Some people feel that being persistent may give others an opinion that they are not being smart enough to get it right the first time. Imagine that student A could solve a problem in one minute without any effort. But student B could not solve it. B had to try for the whole day thinking about it and trying to solve it in different ways but could not. Our society rewards student A for his brilliance and that is essential. But student B will be labeled as stupid and there by we discourage the habit of persistence.The educational system which aims to produce leaders can not ignore the quality of persistence.

Persistence is contagious. It can be developed by anyone who has the strong desire to do so. Sports and games always have the potential to imbibe persistence. Hence schools can not ignore games and sports.Teachers with great persistence will contribute more to students' progress in grooming them as leaders than very knowledgeable teachers but cry uncles.

Importance of reading Biographies of great leaders

If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants - Sir Isaac Newton
No scientist has developed anything from scratch to the fruition of any idea. One scientist takes the idea developed by his/her predecessors, add something to it and pass it on to future generation for further refinement. This is how science is developed.

I strongly believe that this method can surely work for any domain of one's life. Be it in business, politics, arts, languages, social causes ...... there are some greats in the past who struggled with the very problems you are facing right now, they have found their way of dealing with them and they show you through their biographies that you are not alone. If you like their solutions to the problems at your hand you can directly apply them.  Even if you don't like them, it is still fine. At least you know that they can be solved and their solutions can actually motivate you to find your own way tackling things.

Biographies, autobiographies, memoirs and diaries are the places where the precious values of life are hidden. As you read the biographies of greats, you would, at least on some occasions, feel that there are many similarities between you and the great person you are admiring. It somehow gives a belief that you can also be great - If they can do, I can also do it. This kind of company with great personalities makes you one.

As we learn what these great personalities did in the face of tumultuous situations, how they gathered themselves in the most uncertain situations, what values and virtues helped them sail through all the difficulties, we are no longer the same person as we were before the reading. They instill in us the sense of purpose and our lives will assume different meaning.

Many inventions are motivated by the reading of biographies. They can be source of innovative solutions in any spectrum of our life. We as human being don't like someone telling us what to do and what not to do. If same things are embedded in an interesting story, we are very likely to absorb it. Biographies are thriller stories with gripping twists and awe effects. Aristotle taught stories of great leaders to Alexander which eventually made him the Alexander the great.

Biographies are the journeys which enable you to travel through space and time to different parts of the world and history and it is a known fact that travel helps in self discovery. This way of self discovery is far more satisfying and has a lasting effect. You frequently come across situations in your own life which seem to be replicating the events in the biographies and they create a sense of déjà-vu.

Biographies also help you see the world with a new perspective which makes your life enriching. More importantly, they work as your mentors and guides in your exciting ride through your life.

I strongly recommend that the young adults, the future leaders, must read biographies, life stories of some great personalities or the stories they wrote. Reading such books can be most rewarding and enriching. I would like to recommend some personalities, which on any account is not exhaustive.

Business: Steve Jobs, Jack Welch, Thomas Alva Edison, Indra Nooyi, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sheryl Sandberg, Tony hsieh, Angela Ahrendts, Dheerubhai Ambani, Ratan Tata, Reed Hastings etc.

Arts: Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Johan Sebastian Bach, Amedeus Mozart, Van Beethoven, Charlie Chaplin, Kishore Kumar, Rajni Kanth etc.

Literature and Philosophy: Plato, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy,  Jane Austin, J K Rowling, Salman Rushdie, Arundati Roy, Amartya Sen, Manmohan Singh etc.

Social Cause: Raja Ram Mohan Rai, Ishvar Chandra Vidya Sagar, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar,  Mother Teresa, Malala, Barbara Mikulski, Susan B Anthony,Gwen Howard, Baba Amte etc.

Kings and Politics: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Adolf Hitler, Shivaji, Akbar, Narendra Modi, Barack Obama, Marcus Arelius, Nepoleon Bonapatre, Jhansi Laksmi bhai etc.

Unfortunately our school curriculum does not include such books.