Shon Mehta

'When poor, overdress. When rich, underdress.' — Shon Mehta There  was a young man. He had started a new shop selling merchandise. However, the business was not doing as well as he had hoped. One day, he complained to his father. "Father, my goods are excellent, and the pricing is competitive. But whenever I try to meet new people for business, either they refuse or they don't pay much attention. Because of this, I don't have business connections. What should I do?" The father was a shrewd man. He looked at his son. "Don’t dress so simple. Start dressing well. You need to appear rich and powerful, for people to gain confidence in you." advised his father. The son followed his fathers advice. He started getting better attention, and his business started to flourish. Time passed by, and the young man became a wealthy merchant. But something was still missing. He went back to his father, and asked him, "As a wealthy person, I get a l...

R ecently, I was asked "What is the one most important thing that makes a person successful?” This got me thinking, and I asked many people around me, including high-level corporate executives, politicians, bankers, accountants, teachers, lawyers and even trainees who just started their careers. Different people had different viewpoints — hard work, smart work, persistence, money, connections, networking, and so on. In this and the following posts, I will bring out my points of view through parables. Persistence: There were two friends, Shy and Guy. Shy was shy, Guy was not. Once, as kids, they saw the king’s army passing through their village. They liked the grandeur so much that since then, they started dreaming of joining the army. As they grew up, the dream became their only goal. So, one day, they decided to go to the capital city and get recruited in the army. "But we don't know the road to the capital?" Said Shy. Shy was right; nobody from ...