The other day my team asked me to detail our new purpose. I felt the conversation was constructive, but upon reflection, it ended with insufficient information for my team. The conversation was reminiscent of an old parable about a fisherman and a businessman. A fisherman once fished off the pier and caught a few big…
A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At one point, they came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross the river, they saw a young woman who was also attempting to cross. The younger monk noticed the woman, said nothing and walked by. The…
The story goes something like this, there are three bricklayers, and each is asked the same question: What do you do? The first bricklayer says, “I put down bricks.” The second bricklayer says, “I am building a church.” And the third bricklayer says, “I am building a house of God.” The point is that…
If you are ever overwhelmed with the amount of work or the number of people coming your way and feel that you can’t help them all – I’m hoping the below Parable will help. Adapted from The Star Thrower: Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean…
There’s a classic story from the book Art and Fear: The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on…
Once upon the time there was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically. “Perhaps,” the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild…
Two years ago, I wrote about the Starfish Parable. Since then, I’ve read several articles critiquing the message shared in that story. In those critiques, you’ll often find another parable with a stronger message about systemic change. The River Parable Once upon a time, there was a small village on the edge of a…