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Inspirational Stories...

The Farmers Daughter (A Beautiful Mgmt Story)

Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune Of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The Money lender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer's beautiful Daughter. So he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the farmer's debt if he could marry his Daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the Proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let Providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black Pebble and a white pebble into an empty money
bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag.

1) If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father's debt would be forgiven.

2) If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven.

3) But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into Jail.


They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer's field. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag.

He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.

2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money-lender as a cheat.

3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order To save her father from his debt and imprisonment.


What would you recommend to the Girl to do?

Well, here is what she did....

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without Looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

"Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the Bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked."

Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his Dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.
MORAL OF THE STORY:

Most complex problems do have a solution. It is only that we don't ATTEMPT to think.

So henceforth that we are struck up with a problem, let’s try to analyze the situation and try to attempt resolving it rather than just giving up….

One more short story to refresh....

A giant ship engine failed. The ship’s owner tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure out how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young boy. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, from the top to the bottom.
Two of the ship’s owners were present there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped at something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for the ten thousand dollars. “What?!” the owners exclaimed, “He hardly did anything!” So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.”

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer………………$ 2.00
Knowing where to tap…………………$ 9998.00

MORAL OF THE STORY: Effort is important in life, but understanding of your product and job in applying where to put effort makes all the difference.
Here is one more story which is more inspirational ......................................

Hope all the readers enjoy such stories............
A group of frogs were hopping contentedly through the woods, going about their froggy business, when two of them fell into a deep pit. All of the other frogs gathered around the pit to see what could be done to help their companions. When they saw how deep the pit was, the rest of the dismayed group agreed that it was hopeless and told the two frogs in the pit that they should prepare themselves for their fate, because they were as good as dead.
Unwilling to accept this terrible fate, the two frogs began to jump with all of their might. Some of the frogs shouted into the pit that it was hopeless, and that the two frogs wouldn't be in that situation if they had been more careful, more obedient to the froggy rules, and more responsible.
The other frogs continued sorrowfully shouting that they should save their energy and give up, since they were already as good as dead. The two frogs continued jumping as hard as they could, and after several hours of desperate effort were quite weary.
Finally, one of the frogs took heed to the calls of his fellows. Spent and disheartened, he quietly resolved himself to his fate, lay down at the bottom of the pit, and died as the others looked on in helpless grief. The other frog continued to jump with every ounce of energy he had, although his body was wracked with pain and he was completely exhausted.
His companions began a new, yelling for him to accept his fate, stop the pain and just die. The weary frog jumped harder and harder and - wonder of wonders! Finally leapt so high that he sprang from the pit. Amazed, the other frogs celebrated his miraculous freedom and then gathering around him asked, "Why did you continue jumping when we told you it was impossible?" Reading their lips, the astonished frog explained to them that he was deaf, and that when he saw their gestures and shouting, he thought they were cheering him on. What he had perceived as encouragement inspired him to try harder and to succeed against all odds.

Moral Of the story:

This simple Frog story contains a powerful lesson. Your encouraging or positive words can lift someone up and help him or her make it through the day. Your destructive or negative words can cause deep wounds; they may be the weapons that destroy someone's desire to continue trying - or even their life. Your destructive, careless word can diminish someone in the eyes of others, destroy their influence and have a lasting impact on the way others respond to them.

ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO SUCCEED.......


Vishal Thakkar

vishal@brianna.co.in



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Education of Business or Business of Education



If we look around for admitting any child into the school today, we really start pondering over the title of this post. Education of Business results into a person going into a business school and becoming an MBA. But entering into business of education promises big money and is often referred to as “Big Moolah” in the corporate lingo.
Education has become the most money making industry in our country in recent times. Well everything was fine till we were in school but suddenly the bee of “profit motive” has stung the erstwhile “not for profit” schools across the country. Capitalism at its worst is depicted in hospitals and schools pan India.
Every promoter or a big business group who is already very big is forcing the administration of the school to dig the wallets of parents in any pretext. Whether it is school uniform, bags, shoes, tiffins, projects, buses and the list goes on.
Disregarding the economic conditions of parents, school is becoming number one investment in every parent’s life. Sometimes it makes you wonder whether these school promoters have conspired with the family planning commission of the country to keep the population under check.
I may sound like a socialist in my argument when I talk about investment in education by the parents disregarding their economic conditions. However, I don’t intend to be one. I have a clear entrepreneurial perspective to the whole story. Look at it this way, when parents want their child to go to the best available school, we realize that supply of good schools are much lesser then demand for them. So the opportunity is not just huge, it is gigantic. Naturally all big business houses are ready to pounce upon the opportunity.
Well the dilemma will continue to exist for the time to come. Even when we look at the west, government intervention does do its own bit. But with schools becoming market driven, I am so sure that they will have to introduce “money” as a subject of discussion in the schools and shed their image of “money being the root of all evil”.

Vishal Thakkar
www.brianna.co.in
vishal@brianna.co.in


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Renaissance in the Financial World…

It is very interesting to observe how India as a country is shaping up in the regulatory and compliance domain in the recent times. The evolution of laws which was expected to happen gradually through amendments and case laws have suddenly picked up such a pace that we are now forced to sit up, take notice and start updating ourselves in almost all the laws that have to do with the economy of our nation.
It all started with a small change in a small law called Sales Tax. We saw, for the first time in India sheer political will succeeded in changing Sales Tax into VAT. All the states agreed and complied with the same. Since that time onwards there is no looking back. The following is an interesting list, which forces one to reflect, that how many of these I personally have to learn or update myself with:
1.       State Sales Tax becomes VAT: The concept of levy itself has changed. The regime of one point levy became multi-point levy. Thus, the concept of Tax credit which was restricted to excise earlier now became a term of a common business person in the country. This change triggered what we call as the “Renaissance in the Financial World…

2.       Accounting Standards becomes IFRS: All the Indian Accounting Standards also known as Indian GAAPs are now becoming IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) starting from 2011-12 to 2013-14. This has actually led to globalization of Indian financial statements. So apart from having Balance Sheet, P&L, Cash Flow and Summary notes, now we shall have SCIE (Statement of Changes in Equity), Statement of Comprehensive Income and Extensive Notes to accounts including points like Critical Judgments, Estimation Uncertainties, etc. The Good News is that the Balance Sheet is to have some logical format.

3.       Companies Act Getting Leaner: With Companies Amendment Bill coming out this year, The New Companies Act will offload its excess baggage i.e. the Rules, the forms etc and the main provisions of the Act will reside in the Act and all the balance stuff will be logically dissected.

4.       Indirect Taxes taking the shape of GST (Goods & Services Tax): The latest amendment on the Cards is the Excise and the Customs and the Service Tax is taking a new shape and are coming to us as one common Goods and Services Tax, which is promising to remove a lot of anomalies in the current taxation regime.

5.       Income Tax Act, 1961 to become DTC (Direct Tax Code): This Law was considered to be one of the most unchangeable laws in the country. It came to all as a surprise when government decided to overhaul the law which was affecting the common man in the nation. DTC promises to be fair, user friendly, simplified and considers the ability to pay of today’s time.

The current government has fostered a lot of courage to overhaul the laws governing our economy at a stroke. One would actually have to consider updating on the sample list of changes captured above and much more to come. From an organization’s perspective a company would have to now get evaluated with newer set of parameters than earlier. From a professional’s perspective, self development would be the mode that one would have to get into.
Revolutions like these create a lot of opportunities for industry professionals in the country. They also create threats for a lot of people. One thing is for sure, we all would have to fasten our seat belt and take the ride to a newer world, which is hope fully more integrated and more simplified for our fellow countrymen.
Vishal Thakkar
Brianna Knowledge Resources Pvt Ltd 
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