Motivational Stories

Saving Lives by Saving Time

This is a great motivational story about saving time. It teaches how to inspire and motivate others to pursue a worthy goal. This excerpt was taken from an article written by Andy Hertzfeld in 1983 called “Saving Lives”. One of the things that bothered Steve Jobs the most was the time that it took to … Read more

A Spoon With Oil

A man sent his son to learn the secret of happiness from a sage. Forty days the young man walked through a desert until he saw, on top of a mountain, a magnificent castle. The sage lived there. The castle was full of people. The sage walked slowly around the guests, and the boy had … Read more

The Stonemason

Once upon a time there lived a stonemason, who went to the mountains every day to dig out and break stones. He enjoyed his work, so he was constantly singing, satisfied with what he had, bothered by nothing. One time, he was invited to work in a mansion. Upon seeing the luxurious palace, the stonemason … Read more

Clay

After God formed the first man from clay, he noticed that he still had a small piece of clay left. – What else do you want me to create for you, man? The man thought a bit and said: – Create me happiness! But God, did not know what happiness the man wants. So, he … Read more

Sheep – A Motivational Story About Leadership

A prince inherited a kingdom. And, like all kings, he had everything in abundance. But suddenly the troubles began. The drought killed many, the diseases even more. And then, an enemy state stormed the kingdom and killed the ones who survived. The king somehow managed to escape. He went to his childhood friend, who ruled … Read more

The Emperor and the Crane

A certain sage brought a glass of living water to an emperor and said: – “If you drink this water – you will become immortal. If you don’t – you will eventually end up in the country of the dead. Just like everybody else.” The emperor thought a while about the offer, but couldn’t decide … Read more

One Hundred or Two Hundred

Once upon a time, there lived one merchant. And like all merchants, he bought goods from one place, and travelled to sell them in another. From time to time, he would stop his caravan, and after resting a while, he would move on forward. But, once, after making few stops, he discovered that he had … Read more

The By-Products of Life

It often happens that a by-product of a manufacturing process proves worthier than the original product of that process. For example, many people know the name of the most famous product of the Bayer Chemical Corporation of Germany. But few are aware that it was discovered by an accident. Namely, while manufacturing other chemical products, … Read more

The Muddy Road

Hara Tanzan was a Soto Buddhist monk who lived for most of the nineteenth century. He was well revered in life and even before his death, there were many stories retold about him. It’s hard to distinguish which of them are true and which are not. This, nevertheless, is the most famous one. Tanzan was … Read more

A Spider

One evening, as he was meditating, a young Tibetan monk suddenly noticed a small spider crawling slowly towards him from the corner of the ceiling. He tried to shake off his fear, but couldn’t do it, so he had to end his meditation early. He tried finding the spider afterwards, but the spider was nowhere … Read more

Would You Mind Coming Back Tomorrow?

A Motivational Story About Dedication   At the advice of his respected mentor, a young student of philosophy retreated to his room and decided to spend the rest of his life reading and studying. He was determined to find the answers to the most important questions in life. Every night, his mentor would visit him … Read more

Elephant

There is a story about a man who, as he was passing some elephants, suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break away from their … Read more

tree of life quote toast

The Problems Tree

A contractor that I hired to to do some repair work had just finished a rough first day on the job. A flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric saw broke down, and now his old pick-up truck refused to start. While I drove him home, he sat in total silence. On … Read more

Airplane Tickets

Here is a time management story about airplane tickets. Consider for a moment the price of an airplane ticket. Each airplane has a limited amount of space. And the goal of the airline is to fill the airplane as much as possible. When an airplane leaves the gate with empty seats, the price of those … Read more

The Stuck Truck

Here is a “creativity story” that I heard from a friend. It shows the power of creativity and that anything is possible if we take a different perspective.   There was an accident – a big truck got stuck under a bridge in the middle of a road. It was trying to pass through the … Read more

Toast About a Wave

There is a story of a little wave, bobbling along in the ocean, having a great time. He’s enjoying the wind and fresh air – until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore. “My God, this is terrible”, the wave says, “look what’s going to happen to me”. Then … Read more

The Blind Men and The Elephant

There is an ancient story from the East of 4 blind men and an elephant. 4 blind men got a chance to touch an elephant and were later asked to describe the elephant. The first one said that the elephant is long and skinny, like a snake. The second said that the first one doesn’t … Read more

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