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Throughout history, wars have left an indelible mark on human psyche. Serious debates have been held on the morality of and the strategic necessity for war. And yet, like every dark cloud that has a silver lining, wars too at times leave a society wiser. India is no stranger to wars. And there are many lessons to be learnt from each of those battles -- management lessons, to be precise. Here we present the fourth in a series of articles on management lessons drawn from Indian history. This one looks at the Battle of Plassey. Read on. . . The Battle of Plassey (1757 AD) Mir Jafar, alias Sayyid Mir Muhammed Jafar Ali Khan, is to India's history what Benedict Arnold is to that of the United States. Mir Jafar came to Bengal as a traveller and took up a job in the army of Ali Vardi Khan, then Nawab of Murshidabad (near Kolkata). He fought many successful battles for the Nawab. This earned him a promotion and his career saw a meteoric rise under Khan. Apart from showering many favours on...

1. Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind. 2. The color of the object illuminated partakes of the color of that which illuminates it. 3. He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss. 4. A good painter has two main objects to paint, man and the intention of his soul. The former is easy, the latter hard as he has to represent it by the attitude and movement of the limbs. 5. Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art. 6. One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself. 7. Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master. 8. Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind. 9. You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand. 10. Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer sin...

Behind a three-storey white house in this village north of Paris, a rickety garden table, its top painted red, is preserved from the elements in a glass cage. Battered and scarred, it is one of the world's best known pieces of furniture, immortalised in Vincent van Gogh's portrait of Dr Paul Gachet, the most expensive painting ever sold. Now Gachet's house and gardens have been opened to the public to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Van Gogh's birth, a key event in the multi-million-pound industry surrounding the penniless Dutch painter. Gachet posed for two near-identical portraits. One now belong to Paris's Musée d'Orsay and the other to a Japanese businessman who paid $82 million (£51.5m) for the version in which yellow books obscure much of the table top. A few days after the paintings were completed, Gachet was called toVan Gogh's bedside as he lay dying at the village's Auberge Ravoux from a self-inflicted bullet wound. Yet Auvers was until rece...

When Albert Einstein was making the rounds of the speaker's circuit, he usually found himself eagerly longing to get back to his laboratory work. One night as they were driving to yet another rubber-chicken dinner, Einstein mentioned to his chauffeur (a man who somewhat resembled Einstein in looks & manner) that he was tired of speechmaking. "I have and idea, boss," his chauffeur said. "I've heard you give this speech so many times. I'll bet I could give it for you." Einstein laughed loudly and said, "Why not? Let's do it!" When they arrive at the dinner, Einstein donned the chauffeur's cap and jacket and sat in the back of the room. The chauffeur gave a beautiful rendition of Einstein's speech and even answered a few questions expertly. Then a supremely pompous professor ask an extremely esoteric question about anti-matter formation, digressing here and there to let everyone in the audience know that he was nobody's fool. W...

"When you are in the valley, keep your goal firmly in view and you will get the renewed energy to continue the climb." - Denis Waitley " Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities – always see them, for they’re always there." - Norman Vincent Peale "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." - Nelson Mandela "Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts will inevitably bring about right results." - James Allen "You can give in to the failure messages and be a bitter deadbeat of excuses. Or you can choose to be happy and positive and excited about life." - A.L. Williams "Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success." - Dr. Joyce Brothers "Very often a chan...

There’s an old story of a young lady who was taken to dinner one evening by William Gladstone and then the following evening by Benjamin Disraeli, both eminent British statesmen in the late nineteenth century. “When I left the dining room after sitting next to Mr. Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England,” she said. “But after sitting next to Mr. Disraeli, I thought I was the cleverest woman in England.” Disraeli obviously had a knack for making the other person the center of his universe, if only for the evening. If you practice attentiveness to others, you’ll find it does wonders. They will enjoy it, and so will you. You will accomplish much more. Make a conscious effort to focus on others—their opinions, experiences, and stories—before you share your own. Then train yourself to focus on what unites you, rather than on what separates you. William James, the father of psychology said, “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” If you focus on other...

Nicolo Paganini (1782-1840) is still considered one of the greatest violinists of all time. One day, as he was about to perform before a sold-out house, he walked out on stage to a huge ovation but felt that something was terribly wrong. Suddenly he realized that he had someone else’s violin in his hand. Horrified, but knowing that his most prudent choice was to begin, he started playing. That day he gave the performance of his life. After the concert, Paganini was in his dressing room speaking to a fellow musician and he reflected, “Today I learned the most important lesson of my entire career. Before today, I thought the music was in the violin. Today, I learned that the music is in me.” Let us foster this kind of thinking in our students.