Once upon a time, there were two woodcutters. They argued on which of them will cut more wood during a day. They decided to try it out. Next day morning, they took up their positions and started at almost the same speed. In an hour, one of them heard that the other one has stopped cutting trees. Realizing this as an opportunity, the first one started to cut trees with double efforts. Ten minutes later he heard that the other (second) woodcutter has started to cut trees again. They were working synchronously. In another hour, the first woodcutter heard again that the second woodcutter has stopped. First woodcutter continued working. This happened almost every hour and the first woodcutter had already sensed a victory. When the time expired, the first woodcutter, who had worked without stopping, was absolutely sure that he will win.  

He was surprised to know that he was wrong. The second woodcutter had won. 

How did it happen? Each hour I heard that you have stopped the work for ten minutes. How could you cut more trees than I? It’s impossible. The first woodcutter asked his partner.  

The second woodcutter answered – it is very simple. Each hour I stopped the work for ten minutes. And when you were cutting the trees, I sharpened the axe.  

Do you see a similarity in our day-to-day life as well? How many of us actually work harder to achieve our goals? We work tirelessly at times to beat the competition. But, do we get some time out to sharpen our skills as well? How many of us do that?  

The lesson from this story wouldn’t be complete without sharing another story. Here it is –  

Once upon a time, a giant ship engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. 

Then they brought in a clumsy looking man who had been fixing ships since he was young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom. 

Ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, this man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped 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 for ten thousand dollars. 

“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!” 

So they wrote this 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…………………….. $ 9,998.00 

Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference! 

Let’s try to analyze both of these stories together. Both of these stories have people doing the hard work, putting in a lot of effort – and yes that is important but did they solve the issue? Did they win. The answer is – NO.  

The difference between the winner and loser in both of these cases was – to know where to put the effort. In the first story – second woodcutter knew exactly how he needs to sharpen the axe as well along with cutting trees. In the second story – the clumsy looking man knew exactly where to hit the hammer. He has also worked on his skill to identify the root cause of the problem.  

Some introspection points for us – 

1. How many new skills do we learn in a year?  
2. Do we understand people better compare to how we used to understand them last year?  
3. How many books have we read last year?  
4. How many holidays have we taken last year? 
5. How much time have we spent with our family / friends last year?  

All these things teach us something that is useful in our day-to-day life. And this list may differ from person to person but important thing is – do we do something that help us grow as an individual rather than just continuing the hard work. Remember, in the end, the person who take a break and sharpens his axe will win and not the one who continued working tirelessly.  

#GyanKiBaat #LearnToLead