I usually don’t read books written by paid employees of large consulting firms, they mostly contain their larger employer agenda. I prefer to read books written by risk takers, like listening a war veteran. But when I picked up Ruchir Sharma’s ‘Rise and Fall of Nations – Ten Rules of Change in The Post Crisis World’ for my Kindle read, little did I know, that this guy, unlike other investment bankers, could differentiate insights from analysis.
The first page of his book has a story which shows us the extra sensory perception required to win in a world full of stimuli.
Here it is.
“For each of the past twenty five years, I have gone on a safari, either to India or Africa. On a trip to Africa, I heard a story of a king who sends his son out to learn the rhythms of the jungle. On his first outing, against the din of buzzing insects and singing birds, the young prince can make out only the roar of lions and the trumpet of the elephants. The boy returns again and again and begins to pick up less obvious sounds, until he can hear the rustle of a snake and the beat of butterfly’s wings. The king tells him to keep going back until he can sense danger in the stillness and the hope in the sunrise. To be fit to rule, the prince must hear that which does not make a sound.”
