Once Upon a Business – Episode 91
The Sermon
Lisa Bloom: Once Nasruddin was invited to deliver a sermon. When he got on the pulpit, he asked, do you know what I’m going to say? The audience replied, no. So he announced, I have no desire to speak to people who don’t even know what I’ll be talking about. And he left.
Hi, I’m Lisa Bloom, the story coach, and you’re listening to Once Upon a Business. In each episode, we’ll explore a story, a fairy tale, folk tale, or traditional story, so that we can discover the amazing lessons relevant for business and for entrepreneurs.
The people felt embarrassed and called Nasruddin back again the next day. This time, when he asked the same question, the people replied, yes. So Nasruddin said, well, since you already know what I’m going to say, I won’t waste any more of your time. And he left. Now the people were really perplexed. They decided to try one more time, and once again, invited the mullah to speak. The following week, once again he asked the same do you know what I’m going to say? Now the people were prepared, and so half of them answered yes, while the other half replied no. So Nasruddin said, let the half who know what I’m going to say tell it to the half who don’t. And he left.
This is a perplexing story, and as with all the Hodja Nasruddin stories, it makes you think a few times before you have any idea of what it’s really about. At first, it seems almost childish. Clearly, he doesn’t want to speak to this crowd, and so he finds excuses each time to be able to walk away. And it’s amusing. Like an impertinent child, they always find a way to do the opposite of what others want. And yet this story has us examine how we show up in certain situations.
If we take the first situation in the story where Hodja asks if the crowd knows what he’s going to say, and they say no, he says he has no desire to speak to people who have no idea what he’s going to speak about. This is really familiar to me from my years as a trainer and facilitator. I was always amazed when people would come to a training session and have no idea why they were there or what they wanted to get out of our time together.
It astounded me. These were busy people who had been sent for a reason or had decided to attend for a reason. Yet they hadn’t taken even a few minutes to consider what they were there for and what they wanted to achieve. Rather than send them away, I would always ask them to take some time to contemplate, to think about what they wanted to get from the session together.
The second scenario in the story is when Hodga says he has no desire to speak to people who already know what he has to say. This is a bitter reminder for me and a confession I should make. You see, I remember a few years ago attending a workshop. If you had asked me before I went in the door if I was open minded, I would have said, yes, of course, I was convinced that I was open and willing to learn. But I noticed an hour or so into the workshop that wasn’t quite so. You see, I caught myself sitting with my arms crossed, leaning back and watching the facilitator, judging everything he did and comparing him to other course leaders I’ve worked with over the years.
I realized that I was anything but open minded and that it wasn’t fair to the facilitator, nor was I giving myself a chance to learn anything. That was when I realized that I tended to do this. I wasn’t as open minded as I’d like to think I was. So I started to really take responsibility for this and try to change my ways.
This story reminds me of how so often when we go to hear someone speak, were full of our own opinions, our judgment, and have already drawn conclusions about what the person has to say even before they’ve opened their mouths. Then there’s the final scene of the story where the audience comes more prepared. But Hodga still walks away because he suggests that the people who know what he was going to say should tell those that don’t. I wondered for a while, what could that mean? And I think it points to two things.
Firstly, that there’s a lot of learning to be had by sharing knowledge and working together. I’ve certainly seen this to be true in my years of training and creating learning experiences in person and online. The more people interact and work together, the more the learning gets embedded and has impact. And secondly, that perhaps no one should ever hold all the knowledge, but instead it should be shared out. My mentor, Danny, always says the best place to store information is in your friend’s head.
In a workshop or conference, you can’t possibly be everywhere all the time. So he says you should make enough friends so that you can share the experience and the knowledge. This is so true. Perhaps Hodja was the precursor for this. Finally, as an entrepreneur or business owner, you need to know when to listen to others and when to go with your own understanding or intuition. We can’t ask others to make decisions for us, or sometimes even to advise us. They may not have the experience. And there’s nothing worse than taking advice from someone who’s wholly unqualified to give it. Sometimes you just need to trust yourself. I like that idea.
I’m Lisa Bloom, and you’ve been listening to Once Upon a Business. You can find out more about me at story-coach.com. That’s story-coach.com. Once Upon a Business is part of the Mirasee FM podcast Network, which also includes such shows as Course Lab and Neuroscience of Coaching. To catch the great episodes that are coming up on Once Upon a Business, please like and follow us on Mirasee FM’s YouTube channel or your favorite podcast player. And if you enjoyed the show, please leave us a comment or a starred review. It’s the best way to help us get these ideas to more people. Thank you. We’ll see you next time.