In 1492, Christopher Columbus made what’s probably the most profitable mistake in history. In his search for a quicker route between Europe and Asia, he stumbled upon America, which he quickly claimed for the crown of Spain.

As they explored Central and South America, the Spanish soon found gold – lots of gold. So much, in fact, that they became the most powerful nation on Earth. As the Spanish were busy filling their boots, the English looked enviously on.

How could they compete?
The English figured that, if Central and South America were full of gold, then surely North America must be, too. To claim these promised riches for England, colonists were dispatched to North America. Yet no gold was found, and most of the explorers died in the fruitless search. So another expedition was sent; this time, every last traveler perished, and no one struck gold.

Third time’s the charm, perhaps? Not quite. In 1607, the English set out once again – founding Jamestown in what is now Virginia. Again, they found plenty of death but no gold. But, though they didn’t find any precious metal, they did find something they could ship home for profit: tobacco.

Jamestown grew on the back of tobacco profits and the English presence in North America grew and grew. The rest is history.

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The way I see it: Not every mistake is profitable, and not every profit comes from a mistake. But if you want spectacular profits in life you need to BE OPEN to making spectacular mistakes!

Two monks were walking from their monastery to another one nearby. One was an old wise monk, the other a novice.

As they walked in silence, they came across a river. Unseasonal rains had caused the river to run a bit high and on the bank of the river was a young lady wearing a kimono, not sure whether it was safe for her to cross. When she saw the two monks, she looked relieved and asked for their help.

The young monk was aghast. He exclaimed, “Don’t you see that I am a monk? I took a vow of chastity!”

Continue reading Wisdom of the old monk →

Jack was an electrical engineer. His days were exhausting and mentally demanding; he would need to deal with complex physics as part of his design work. One oversight could lead to his company losing crores of rupees, or worse, him getting fired.

It was a Thursday and Jack was the most tired he had ever been. All he wanted to do was to eat dinner with his wife Jill. Jill was a chef by profession and loved treating her husband to her new experimental dishes. She was excited for him to come home so he could taste her new recipe for soup.

When Jack came home, his face was drained of colour from fatigue. He threw his briefcase on the floor, loosened his tie, greeted his wife and sat at the dining table. ‘This soup looks delicious,’ he said.

Continue reading Jack and Jill had a soup →

A man was once buying groceries from a supermarket. He was pushing his trolley whilst looking at the scribbled list his wife gave him when he crashed into another trolley. ‘Sorry!’ he exclaimed automatically. But what he saw shocked him. It was a dog pushing the other shopping trolley and picking up a variety of things! Amazed, he followed the dog around from aisle to aisle, snooping on his every move.

The dog picked up fruits, chocolate, bread, pasta; a bag’s worth of provisions. Then he went up to the cashier and pulled out a few dollar bills to make the payment. The monotonous cashier was unfazed. It seemed as if he was familiar with this furry friend. The man then saw that the cashier gave the dog $10 less. The dog barked and tugged at the cashier’s trouser leg until he gave him the correct balance. ‘How is this possible?’ ..the man thought, standing there, gobsmacked.
‘I have to find out who owns this intelligent dog!’

Continue reading The dog who forgot the keys →

Here’s a quick story to inspire you.

Brian Acton was a software engineer who graduated from Stanford. Acton worked first at Apple and then at Yahoo for around a dozen years, until in 2007, he decided to travel to South America for a year with his friend and colleague Jan Koum.

On their return, both of them applied to Facebook and Twitter for jobs but both were rejected. Acton tweeted in May 2009, ‘Got denied by Twitter HQ. That’s okay. Would have been a long commute.’

A few months later, in August 2009, he followed it up with another tweet, ‘Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life’s next adventure.’

Continue reading The man who was rejected by Facebook and Twitter →

A woman traveled a great distance to bring her son to Gandhiji and said “Please Bapu, tell my child not to eat sugar”. Gandhiji asked the woman to leave and come back in thirty days.

She agreed returning in 30 days with her son. “We are back Bapu”, she said, “please tell my son not to eat sugar”. Gandhiji tenderly looked at her son and said, “My son, stop eating sugar”. The boy immediately agreed.

Confused, his mother asked Gandhiji, “Bapu, why did you make us go away, only to travel the long distance and return in 30 days?”. Replied Gandhiji, “Because 30 days ago, I was still eating sugar.”

This was about a scientist who was studying the behavior of caterpillars. He took a flowerpot and placed a number of caterpillars in single-file around the circumference of the pot’s rim. Each caterpillar’s head touched the caterpillar in front of it. He then placed the caterpillars’ favorite food in the middle of the circle created by the caterpillars’ procession around the rim of the flowerpot.
Continue reading The Caterpillars’ Procession →

A young girl and her father were walking along a forest path. At some point, they came across a large tree branch on the ground in front of them.

The girl asked her father, “If I try, do you think I could move that branch?”
Her father replied, “I am sure you can, if you use all your strength.”
Continue reading The Fallen Branch →

There is this story about a time when Mark Twain caught pneumonia. When the doctor visited, he saw Mark Twain smoking a cigar. He asked, “How many of those do you smoke each day?” Twain said, “Oh, about a dozen or so.”

And the doctor said, “I see a bottle of whiskey. How much do you drink?” Twain said, “I’m a moderate drinker, only a bottle or so a day.”
The doctor said, “If you’ll temporarily give up drinking and smoking, you’ll recover quickly.” Twain followed the doctor’s advice, and got well.
Continue reading What are you holding on to? →

Colin Wilson, the prolific and influential British writer, was born to working-class parents from a relatively poor community in Britain. Although his ambition was to become the next Albert Einstein, he was forced to quit school at age sixteen.

Working as a laboratory assistant, he fell into despair and decided to end his own life by drinking hydrocyanic acid. In the moment before what was to be his final act, he came to a realisation.
Continue reading The Boy Idiot →

“An 85-year-old man went fishing in Louisiana. When he was winding up, he caught a frog. He was just about to release it into the marsh again, when the frog spoke. “Just kiss me passionately,” it said, “and I will turn into a beautiful young woman.”

The old man inspected the frog for a long time. The frog curled up its lips in anticipation. Then the old man put the frog into his fish bag.

Continue reading The Talking Frog →

There was a small boy who when walking down the street one day found a bright copper penny. He was so excited that he found money and it didn’t cost him anything. This experience led him to spend the rest of his days walking with his head down, eyes wide open, looking for wealth.
Continue reading Finding pennies →

A man was walking down the road with his 8 year old son. As they were walking, they heard the sounds of a dog whining. They looked around and they saw a big brown dog whining loudly.

The boy, intrigued and concerned asked his father, “Dad, why is that dog making those noises?”
“It’s whining, my son, because it is in pain,” replied the father.
“But why is it in pain?”, asked the son.
Continue reading The Whining Dog →