The StoryBank

Send us Fan Mail Many professionals spend their entire career sharpening the same set of skill. Because it is initially rewarded because it gets the job done, many double down on what has already made them successful. That is why many eventually plateau. But as the famous saying goes, what got you here won’t get you there.  Today’s story is a reminder that breakthrough performance and exponential...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes it seems companies build fortresses to protect themselves from customers rather than bridges to welcome them in. We have all been in situations where we have an issue. Perhaps small. A damaged item. A blotched service. A promise not kept.  We make the call, send the email, and follow the process. We are polite. We are patient. We just want someone to listen, to take owne...

Send us Fan Mail Revenue numbers, quarterly goals, stretch KPIs are all very important. The problem starts when those become the only focus. When the focus should be on the TASK, we have people stressing about the ASK.  When we obsess over outcomes alone, shortcuts replace discipline and anxiety replaces clarity. The more obsessed we become with outcomes, the harder those outcomes become to achiev...

Send us Fan Mail When I heard that over the last 60 years, Japanese school children learn a story about a Sri Lankan athlete, I was intrigued. Sports and sportsmen often teach us lessons that transcend way beyond sports. The Olympics of 1964, held in Tokyo, taught us one such lesson. In a world obsessed with winning, this incident teaches us about the responsibility of finishing things.  If I had...

Send us Fan Mail Wishing your loved ones and you a year when your best stories are written.  In one of my favourite non-fiction books, “Influence” by Robert Cialdini, he speaks about seven levers of influence—but today’s story is anchored in just one: Reciprocity. This is a deeply human story. One that restores faith. And I couldn’t think of a better way to begin the year. I hope you enjoy the sto...

Send us Fan Mail Have you heard of the multi-purpose lubricant WD-40? Any idea why it’s called WD-40? I’ll give you a hint: the number is the entire story. Most of us look at successful products and assume they must have gotten it right the first time — a spark of brilliance, a stroke of luck, a single breakthrough moment.  But the truth, more often than not, lies in the quiet, unseen grind of cou...

Send us Fan Mail Many years ago, a real estate broker in Kolkata surprised me simply by being on time. Being punctual has always been non-negotiable for me. While I tried to instil the same discipline in the teams I worked with, I had resigned myself to accepting a certain level of sloppiness from the rest of the world. So when a broker arrived on time for an inspection, I was genuinely taken abac...

Send us Fan Mail Necessity is the mother of invention. Some of the biggest revolutions in business didn’t come from brilliant technology or billion-dollar R&D budgets. They began with frustration — someone standing at a bottleneck, asking,“Why does it have to be this way?” That question changed the way the world trades today. A single insight turned a slow, fragmented process into a seamless g...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever caught yourself chasing just a little more? A little more polish before you send that deck. A little more growth before you feel secure. A little more success before you allow yourself to breathe. It’s strange how “more” never seems to end. It keeps moving the finish line just as we’re about to cross it. This week’s Saturday Story is about two brilliant minds, a part...

Send us Fan Mail Imagine this. You’re about to give a big talk. The curtains are down, the stage lights are warm, and your heart is racing. Out of nervous curiosity, you take a quick peek at the audience. And what you see shocks you out of your wits. What would you do? Well, Brené Brown — the author of several bestsellers including ‘ Dare to Lead’ — had this exact experience. And from it, she lear...

Send us Fan Mail In business, we often assume that people will choose what’s rational, efficient, or clearly beneficial. But if that were always true, every superior product would succeed, every sensible policy would be adopted, and every data-backed argument would win the day. Reality shows us otherwise. Why? Because humans don’t make decisions like machines. We’re influenced by perceptions of st...

Send us Fan Mail In business, the questions we ask are often more powerful than the data we collect. Most leaders ask: “What do the facts tell me?” Great leaders also ask: “What if the opposite were true?” That simple shift—entertaining a hypothetical you don’t necessarily believe—forces you to look at the same information through a different lens. It’s a playful mindset, but far from frivolous. B...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes, the shortest distance between doubt and conviction is not another slide deck with tons of data, analysis and logic — it’s the right metaphor. We’ve all sat through presentations packed with data, logic, and charts — only to walk away without being convinced. Why? Because while facts inform, they don’t always move people. What truly shifts mindsets is when complex ideas...

Send us Fan Mail In business, perfection is often overrated. Some of the most powerful breakthroughs don’t emerge from flawless plans or carefully controlled environments. They come from moments that look like accidents… the kind of situations most of us might dismiss as “mistakes.” The difference lies in how we respond. 👉 Do we discard the unexpected because it doesn’t fit our plan? 👉 Or do we...

Send us Fan Mail In business, the biggest risks often don’t come from what we see… but from what we assume. Today’s story is about how numbers, dashboards, and reports tell us a lot—but they don’t tell us everything. Many costly mistakes happen not because of bad data, but because of blind spots in the way we interpret the world. That’s where a shift in mindset helps: thinking less like a data ana...

Send us Fan Mail The weekly story for our StoryBank is back. Today's story is about when “better” quietly turns into “too much.” In business, it’s tempting to think: * If fast is good, faster must be better. * If growth is good, more growth must be better. * If we delight customers today, we must delight them even more tomorrow. But there’s a point where improvement stops adding value and sta...

Send us Fan Mail Ever had that feeling—“I just know how to do this, I can’t explain it”?That’s instinct. It’s powerful. But here’s the thing—instinct doesn’t scale. So many of us—whether we’re in sales, training, strategy, or design—rely on gut feel. It works... for us. But what about the rest of the team? What happens when we’re not in the room? That’s why the real power lies not just in knowing...

Send us Fan Mail Not all breakthroughs begin with a whiteboard. Sometimes, they begin with something that feels like a mistake. An inconvenience. A “Huh, that’s odd…” But here’s the catch—most of us are too busy to notice. True innovation doesn’t always knock. It whispers. And only the curious hear it. This week I share a story about how staying curious in the face of something unexpected led to a...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s story from a famous sporting rivalry carries many messages. Here are two:-   1. In business, we lean heavily on numbers — performance metrics, dashboards, ROI. But what if the numbers are only half the story? 2. The real competitive edge may not come from superior data or analysis but from the questions you ask, the details you notice, and the patterns only the human eye c...

Send us Fan Mail Innovation doesn’t always come from chasing new ideas. Sometimes, it comes from revisiting what you’ve already solved—and asking, what’s the inverse? What are we not seeing? We shouldn’t just celebrate success. Interrogating it may lead to more innovations. Look at the obvious and ask counterintuitive questions. Create space for curiosity—even when the problem seems "done.&qu...

Send us Fan Mail What makes great leaders different isn't that they avoid problems—it's how they respond when faced with them.1984. An airport in Puerto Rico. Flight cancelled. No alternate options. Everyone is frustrated, stuck, and waiting for someone else to fix the problem.   In such situations most people wait. Some complain. A few give up. But then… there are the rare ones who crea...

Send us Fan Mail What if a single sentence could define an entire culture? When I was in school I heard a story about workers who were working at a construction site. A passerby curious about the work happening, asked the first worker “what are you doing here?”, the worker replied, “I am a labourer working in this site”. When the second worker was asked the same question, he answered, “I am a labo...

Send us Fan Mail When faced with a problem that seems insurmountable, we have often heard or said "What difference can I alone make?" This story would be familiar to all teams I have ever led because I have told this story over a hundred times. The lesson from this story is clear: we don't have to wait for perfect conditions or complete solutions. Start where you are with what you h...

Send us Fan Mail Standing still to move faster.  In a world obsessed with speed and action, the greatest breakthroughs often come from standing still. A struggling company in Japan, faced with operational inefficiencies, didn’t turn to cutting-edge technology or external consultants. Instead, a single exercise—seemingly too simple to matter—sparked a global business revolution. What was this uncon...

Send us Fan Mail We have all heard a lot of “Man on the Moon” stories and myths. But did you hear about this one? In business, we often search for groundbreaking innovations, cutting-edge technology, or outside expertise to solve our biggest challenges. But what if the answer isn’t out there—but right in front of us? History has shown that the most ingenious solutions often come from unexpected pl...