The Water Problem Story

As an entrepreneur, I liked this “Water Problem Story” which so well relates to our way of life whether we are a professional, corporate executive or a business owner…So, I thought I should share it with others!

To illustrate an example of the mindset of the Employee/Self-employed person versus the Business Owner, here is the story –

All the wells that supplied water to a village dried up. So the Head of that village called a meeting of all the people to discuss how to get water from a lake that was 2 miles away and put it back into the well that supplied to the village. For every litre of water that was put into the well, any person would be paid a rupee.

Now here's the catch. It doesn't matter how the water gets there, just as long as it does. Since everyone knows they will get paid a certain amount of money for every litre of water they supply to the well, they start carrying buckets. They trade their time for rupees.

Well, one of them decides he wants to make more money and he employs people to help carry buckets. He might even buy bigger and better buckets for his employees to carry. What he doesn't realize though is that he has to manage all the aspects of employing and managing these people.

At this time, a smart guy who is observing all this says he wants to build a pipeline that connects the lake to the village well. By the way, this doesn't happen overnight. When the pipeline is only half way finished, how much water is flowing to the village? None, right? So while he is busy building the pipeline, he is getting laughed at because he isn’t making any money. But once that pipeline is complete and connected to the well, it does the work for the village and he will not need to carry buckets anymore! Now, all this guy has to do is maintain the pipeline in good condition. With this know-how, he can build more pipelines to other villages. This guy is a true entrepreneur!

Hope we all can relate to each of the types of people in this story…

Any more thoughts on this?