Lessons in Life and Leadership from the Game “Snakes and Ladders”

When I was young, we used to play this game of Snakes and ladders. It was one of the best pastimes I had. So, I look at it with a lot of fond memories. Yesterday, I stumbled onto this version of the game and it made me think a lot about how insightful the game was at multiple levels. The game offered insightful glimpses into life, risk and a lot more. As I have mentioned before, as humans, we are meaning making creatures. As leaders, we would all do really well to make our own meaning of this game and […]

Life Lessons from The Last Lecture of Randy Pausch

This was the title of the last lecture delivered by Randy Pausch at the Carnegie Mellon University lecture hall. He was terminally ill and only had a few days to live. If you have not watched this video, I would strongly encourage you to spend the hour and 15 mins that it takes to watch the video and while you do so, please do have a notebook close to you and take notes. In his humorous talk, he shares some great wisdom on life and how to live a life worth living. You can watch the video here. When there […]

Life Lessons from the Tao Te Ching

Almost all the religious and philosophical texts have some very insightful ideas about leadership and how to lead our lives. One such text is the Tao Te Ching. Chapter 3 in the book reads as below (from the English translation by  Derek Lin): Do not glorify the achievers, so the people will not squabble Do not treasure goods that are hard to obtain, so the people will not become thieves Do not show the desired things, so their hearts will not be confused! Thus the governance of the sage: Empties their hearts, Fills their bellies Weakens their ambitions, Stengthens their […]