The Star Wars Saga has been a rich source of inspiration to extract life lessons. J.J. Abrams’ The Power Awakens also contains some unique life lessons.
The first lesson: The life is a constant struggle, so be prepared for the next challenge.
The stage of success is temporary and the forerunner of a new challenge. At the end of the Star Wars VI, Luke Skywalker kills the emperor and a period of peace and tranquility begins in the galaxy.
The film ‘Shall We Dance’ by Masayuki Suo provides a powerful lesson on the importance of breaking routines in both personal and professional life. The film’s main character, Sugiyama, is an accountant with a monotonous and uneventful life. He follows the same routine every day, using the same train, bike, and time to get to work. However, he finds a glimmer of hope in a mysterious and beautiful young woman he sees at a dance school window. Despite his fear, Sugiyama finally decides to enroll in dance classes to have a chance to meet her. To his surprise, he discovers a new passion for dance that helps him rediscover himself, his family, and his friends.
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“The Little Red Riding Hood” is a timeless fable that provides valuable insights into effective management practices, such as experience, results-driven approach, and intelligent decision-making.
The main character, Little Red Riding Hood, represents an inexperienced young person, while the wolf embodies an experienced and goal-oriented manager. The wolf has a clear goal and vision of staying safe and increasing his food supply. He achieves his goal through intelligent management practices, such as identifying potential threats, delaying his impulses, and collecting information to identify opportunities.
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is a thought-provoking work that encourages us to reflect on various themes, one of which is the importance of confronting reality and making necessary adjustments. The Loman family depicted in the play refuses to accept the truth and instead lives in a world of illusions. They present themselves as something they are not and create a false facade of happiness, success, and contentment. However, when one looks beneath the surface, they find disappointment and failure.
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar offers a valuable lesson about the importance of predicting the future. Throughout classical works, there is often a soothsayer who provides insight into the future, and there are various signs that suggest the prophecy may come true. In Julius Caesar, for instance, a soothsayer warns Caesar of “the Ides of March” in the first act, and later Caesar’s wife Calpurnia shares her concerns about his potential assassination due to a nightmare she had. Despite these warnings, Caesar does not take them seriously, and he meets a tragic end. Likewise, other characters in the play, including Brutus and Cassius, fail to predict the consequences of their actions. Continue reading
Antigone, a play written by Sophocles, is a remarkable example of leadership that is not often discussed in management textbooks. While most leadership examples come from assigned leaders such as CEOs or departmental managers, leadership often starts with rebellion from someone who is not in a position of authority. Antigone, the titular character of the play, serves as a prime example of an informal leader who challenges authority.
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The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe explores the theme of change and the difficulties of adaptation that come with it. The protagonist, Okonkwo, experiences two different phases of change. The first phase is his exile to his wife’s village for seven years. This change involves moving to a new place, where he loses his power and has to learn the rules and norms of the new village. Okonkwo copes well with this change because he knows the reasons, potential results, and the length of his stay in the new place. Knowing the framework of the change helps him to adapt.
To foster creativity in the workplace, it’s essential to embrace diversity. A business thrives on new ideas and innovative approaches, which can only come from a team made up of individuals with different backgrounds and ethnicities. Historically, the American workforce lacked diversity, and most white-collar positions were filled exclusively by white individuals. The civil rights movement in the 1960s helped break down the barriers that had kept black people out of white-collar jobs. While there are still many challenges to overcome, progress has been made, and people from all ethnic origins are now contributing to the workforce in a variety of capacities.
The question of whether leaders are born or made is a subject of debate, but the life of Gandhi provides a clear answer: leaders are made. Gandhi was an ordinary lawyer at the beginning of his life, but the incidents he experienced helped him to find his purpose. One such incident was his humiliation and discrimination in the first-class section of a train in South Africa, which spurred him to fight for a cause.
The Guest, by Albert Camus, is a thought-provoking story that encourages us to think about making wise choices with a free mind. The protagonist, Daru, is an isolated teacher who lives on a plateau, teaching irrelevant French geography to Algerian students in North Africa in the midst of war. One day, he is tasked with delivering a supposed criminal to a police station two hours away. The gendarme forces him to complete this strange task by using the excuse of war.