MANAGEMENT LESSONS FROM A FIVE HUNDRED RUPEE NOTE

MANAGEMENT LESSONS FROM A FIVE HUNDRED RUPEE NOTE
Prakash Iyer, MD, Kimberly-Clark Lever and Executive Coach from Pune shares two important management lessons he learnt from a 500-rupee note.
1.
I was in an audience listening to a motivational guru.
He pulled out a 500-rupee note.
Holding it up, he asked, "Who wants this 500-rupee note?"
Lots of hands went up. Including mine.
A slow chorus began to build as people began to shout "Me!" "Me!"
I began to wonder who the lucky one would be who the speaker would choose.
And I also secretly wondered -- and I am sure others did too -- why he would simply give away 500 rupees.
Even as the shouts of "I want it" grew louder, I noticed a young woman running down the aisle.
She ran up onto the stage, went up to the speaker, and grabbed the note from his hand. "Well done, young lady," said the speaker into the microphone.
"Most of us just wait for good things to happen. That's of no use. You've got to make things happen."
The speaker's words have stayed with me ever since.
'Simply thinking about doing something is of no use'
Our lives are like that. We all see opportunities around us. We all want the good things.
But the problem is we don't take action.
We all want the 500-rupee notes on offer but we don't make the move. Get up, and do something about it. Don't worry about what other people might think. Take action.
2. Several years later, it was another day, another time and another motivational guru.
As I watched him pull out a 500-rupee note and hold it up for all to see. I thought I knew what he was going to do next. But he just asked a simple question. "How much is this worth?"
"Five Hundred rupees!" the crowd yelled in unison.
"Right," said the speaker. He then took the note and crumpled it into a ball and asked "How much is it worth now?"
"500 rupees!" screamed the audience.
He then threw the note on the ground, stamped all over it and picked up the note and asked one more time: "And how much is it worth now?"
"500 rupees!" was the response.
"I want you to remember this," said the speaker.
"Just because someone crumples it, or stamps on it, the value of the note does not diminish.
We should all be like the 500 rupee note.
In our lives, there will be times when we feel crushed, stamped over, beaten. But never let your self-worth diminish. Just because someone chooses to crush you -- that doesn't change your worth one bit!
Don't allow your self-worth to diminish because someone says something nasty -- or does something dirty -- to you."
'Never let your self-worth diminish