The Copper Ladle: A Business Fable for Innovators

The most popular version, in America, of the children's fable Stone Soup, is masterfully told by Marcia Brown, for which she was a 1948 Caldecott honoree. I embellished the folk tale with the “copper ladle” of the most eminent grandmother or babushka in the village.

The central element of the Stone Soup myth is identical to that of its modern cousin, Kung-Fu Panda: are the magic, it’s not the stones or the secret recipe.

Both of these marvelous stories weave together two threads in the fabric of human success, one ancient and one new. The heart of shoshisha 初 心 者, the “empty cup” philosophy, is humility that loves to serve because it is part of the journey of becoming the best version of ourselves. The concept of “business intimacy” (twitter hashtag #bizint) is understanding your customer’s needs so well that you can anticipate and solve them.

By peeling away layer after layer of out-dated myths and False Evidence Appearing Real, the soldiers in Stone Soup deliver on the promise that good theatre is effective marketing. When the village’s lead babushka brings her celebrated copper ladle to sample the soup, the soldiers have arrived—and so my question is for you, dear readers:

What is y.o.u.r copper ladle? What measure of success integrates technical achievement and social rewards for you? Does this measure help or hurt in your journey to become the best-version-of-yourself? Get answers you can implement  with your own copy of .