Undaunted spirit

The story of a forester protecting a group of merchants from 500 robbers

KHURAPPA-JATAKA

"When many a bow the shaft at speed let fly--
Hands grasping blades of tempered steel were nigh--
When Death had marshalled all his dread array--
I felt a great and mighty joy this day.

"And this my joy gave me the victory;
I was resolved to die, if need should be;
He must contemn his life, who would fulfil
Heroic deeds and be a hero still."

Reference

The Jataka, Volume 2, tr. by Robert Chalmers, [1895], at sacred-texts.com
THE JATAKA OR STORIES OF THE BUDDHA'S FORMER BIRTHS.

TRANSLATED FROM THE PALI BY VARIOUS HANDS
UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF PROFESSOR E. B. COWELL.

Too Stubborn to Fail

Some legendary businessmen are just too stubborn to fail.

Once the Daewoo founder needed to give bribes to a Japanese official. Just to see the official he had to wait at that officials gate every morning  for a month.

The same thing happened during the Genting founder's trip to Japan to sell his mines. The Japanese simply refused to take him seriously at first.


The same thing repeated when Matsushita/Panasonic tried  to work with Phillips in the 50's. In Matsushita's words, the Dutch company with more advanced technology tried to "throw its weight."

Are you stubborn enough to succeed?

Some Outrageous Claims Made in History

Konosuke Matsushita : "No problem with labor," workers and talent. He's sure his company, now known as Panasonic will get as many workers and managers as they need.

Thomas Watson Sr 1914 : International Business Machines at a time when the company was doing only cash registers, meat slicers, coffee grinders, butcher scales etc.

Thomas Watson Jr : superiority in performance over the company's competitors, implying their company IBM will outdo others at all times. A bit presumptuous, unless and until you read the fine print and his real meaning.

Modern communists and a perspective

Modern communists sounded super-foolish this way.

At some times in South-East Asia, communism was a bit fashionable.

Communism in Myanmar context meant "dumb," "misguided," "impatient," "impractical," and "cruel."

But then Myanmar was a "socialist" "one-party" country too and the national doctrine was that without its extremes and cruelty, communism can become "socialism" and that that brand of "socialism" was a cure-for-all! (Drum roll, or trumpets depending on the type of theatre you are in.)

Then Burmese author, U Aung Thin questioned in one of his literary criticism books: Lenin may have been concerned more with raising the poor than with bringing down the rich. So, Myanmar Commies, are you driven just to destroy the rich and the educated? What else do you have to say and do for raising the poor and the disadvantaged?

Mao and a perspective

In those days in South-East Asia, being a communist was a bit fashionable.

When you said you were a commie in those times, people may think you were misguided but they still allowed that you were idealist and you sought justice and the general good.

At that time, Mr Mao was rather eager to export his revolutions to near-by countries, including ours. 

Then Burmese author, U Thein Pe Myint wrote in the papers how hostile Mao was to Myanmar. It shook us. We simply could not understand why he would harbour such hostility to a country like ours --- peaceful, cowardly and rather in self-isolation.

If you cannot be nice to a docile, cowardly, subservient country, you must be truly out of control. Nero style.

Freud and a perspective

Freud sounded super-foolish this way.

He hypothesized that couples in the Victorian age had psychological troubles because their puritanical upbringing made them despise or fear sex.

Then Burmese author, Pi Moe Nin argued that if it was so, those Victorian parents must have been more persuasive and convincing than Lord Buddha Himself. Buddha taught and implored people to abstain from even sexual thoughts, and failed miserably. But these parents had succeeded in just one generation!


Maybe Sir Freud forgot logic and clear think during the hypothesis-formulation stage of his research.

A Time for Storytelling

Maybe this is a time for storytellers.

Maybe they have never been out of fashion.

Can you tell empowering narratives for your country, company and for yourself?

Can you tell narratives that we can franchise and customize?

Can you use existing views as bridges to new and better ones? 

Do you have this flexibility of mind?

What is your story?