Inspirational Story

The Carrot, The Egg, And the Coffee Bean 

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling.

It seemed that, as one problem was solved, a new one arose. Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans.

She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me, what do you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," the young woman replied. The mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water - but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened! The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

 "Which are you?" the mother asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?" Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong but, with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit but, after a death, a breakup, or a financial hardship, does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor.

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

Modern Methods for Management Education

What percent of students studying physics actually handle nucleus in their career?" asked the professor to the new batch of a management course in the introductory class. He waited for few seconds and broke the silence by encouraging the students to respond. He said, "Let your response be very approximate".

Students started replying. Some replied, "very less". Some said less than 25%; some opined less than 5% and some felt that it may be even less than 1% or even 0.1%.

"Good," he said, "Now let us ask the same question regarding students of management courses. What percent of students studying management courses actually handle management related issues in their career?"

This time the entire class replied spontaneously, "very high, almost 100%". "So, should the methods used for learning management subjects be same as those used in learning subjects like physics?" asked the professor.

The class turned into a thoughtful mode. The obvious answer is "No". Majority of students had joined the course after completion of their graduation. Some had professional degrees. Some also had working experience of few years. However, they were mostly familiar with the methods of preparing for the examinations and forgetting most of the learning after passing the examinations. Though this is not the recommended style for doing regular graduation level courses but somehow has become common.

Students of management courses need to learn concepts; should be able to build more concepts from that, apply them, internalise them and also build such capabilities that can help them in quickly applying appropriate techniques in real time in future. Passing the examinations should be secondary. In fact, the evaluation system should be such that those who built these capabilities score better in the examinations than those who remember contents taught in the class and develop the capabilities to reproduce them in the examination. Teachers in management courses are the enablers of such processes that can help students in achieving these.

"You can know the name of a bird in all the languages in the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird. So let's look at the bird and see what it is doing - that is what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something" said Richard Feynman.

This quote gives some important insight into the methodology a management student should adopt during such courses. Doubt, question, analyse, create variations, explore and see how any concept applies or doesn't apply in different situations. Try to create different examples and exercises on your own.

Remember that those problems that don't get solved easily make you learn more if used properly. If you attempt a question in a way and get the correct solution, you only validate the concept applied by you work in that situation. But, what is the learning in that? If you are not able to solve correctly and get the solution from other sources and learn, you only learn the concept which worked in that problem. This too doesn't seem to be a good deal. But, if you try solving the problem in different ways on your own, you build a capability to think about a situation with different approaches. This is one of the most important traits required in a good manager.

With easy availability of online learning resources, students of management courses are now being encouraged to adopt varied learning methodologies. Passing the examinations is not the primary objective of these learning experiences. The objective is to become industry ready.