"The Secret of Leadership"

Have you heard the story of the Zen master and the dogs in the temple? It has a message that has changed lives.

While travelling through a little Himalayan kingdom,the master decided to visit the temple there.As he walked in through the temple gates with his local guide,he saw two large,ferocious dogs chained to the iron grilles at the entrance.They were straining at their chains,their tongues were wagging,the saliva was dripping and they were barking non-stop.Just the kind of sight that could instill fear in anybody's mind!

Don't worry,master! said the helpful guide.'I know they look really scary.But the chains are very strong and there is no way the dogs can break free!" The master continued to walk down the long courtyard towards the main temple.Even as he tried to concentrate on the temple's history that the guide was narrating,he kept looking back at those dogs.The sound of their barking seemed to be echoing in his ears.

And as he looked back one more time,he could not believe what he saw.The dogs had broken free from their chains and were running towards him.Instantly the master started to run too directly towards the dogs! Yes he began to run not away from the dogs,but towards them! And guess what happened? The dogs were so surprised to see the master running towards the gate!

Think of those ferocious dogs as symbolizing the biggest fears in your life.What do we all tend to do? We tend to run away from our fears.Confront your fears,embrace them and you will find that you can conquer them!

Source of the article:

From the book "The Secret of Leadership" by Prakash Iyer (Foreword by Rahul  Dravid)

Amarnath Shetkar

amar15@ediindia.org