Tradesman in Desert

Once there was a group of tradesmen. They travel from place to place to sell their goods. One day while they were traveling, they came across a hot desert.

The leader of the tradesman checked nearby people. He came to know that, during the day, the hot sun heats the fine sand so much that no one walks on it, not even the camels. Also, it takes close to 3 nights to cross the desert. Hearing this, the leader decided to travel during the night when the sand cools down and camp during the day. Considering the night travel, he hired a local guide to help them cross the desert. With the help of the guide, they started their journey in the desert. The guide went in front, and all tradesmen followed him. All were traveling with their respective caravans pulled by camels.

?A couple of nights later, they crossed 3/4th of the desert. On the third night, they started their journey again. After some time, the guide considering that it would be the last night of the travel, started relaxing and fell asleep. Then his camel started walking to the side, and other camels behind followed. All the camels went in a big circle until they ended up in the same place where they had started last night. When the sun came up, the tradesman realized they were back at the same spot where they camped last night. They worried that they had only very little water, not enough to cross the desert.

?They started blaming the leader and guide, “Without water, how to survive in this hot desert?”. The leader talked to himself, “We are in a difficult situation, and If I lose courage now, lives will be lost.”

?So, he started exploring the area and found a bunch of grass. He was sure that without underneath water, it is difficult for the grass to survive. He then them that we dig this grass area, as there is a possibility of water here. Everyone agreed and started digging, soon they found a large rock, which was a challenge to break. Seeing the rock, everyone lost hope and started to blame the leader, “We wasted our time and energy.”

The leader said, “No, my friends. It is not a waste. If we give up now, all our effort will go in vain. So, we should continue our work.”

?He then put his ear on the large rock and heard the sound of flowing water. Hearing the sound, he called the strongest among them and said, “If you give up, we all will perish. So, give all your strength in breaking this rock”. The strong man lifted the hammer and hit the rock hard. Soon, the rock split open, and water gushed out from it. Then all tradesmen were overjoyed and filled up all their water pouches. The leader and the guide were relieved and continued to lead the journey.

?Moral of the story:

Being the leader of a team, we need to face challenges, either from external sources or internal sources. It will test our leadership skills. During those times, we should never lose our focus.

We should constantly work towards our team goal. Explore the opportunities around us and take what is good for our team.

The main character of a good leader is, “Do not give up easily. Keep trying until you reach the goal”.

PS: I saw this article today morning on one of my WhatsApp groups. It was too huge, so decided to ignore it at first but then now when I read it completely, it felt like sharing. #copiedasreceived #leadershipstyle #nevergiveup