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Address to school children at the Kodava Samaj Auditorium, Bangalore
Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Corporation

6 December, 2003      

I am very happy to be here with you. It is always wonderful to be with young people, as there is so much to learn from you.

You may think that I am going to talk about Wipro or myself. But I am not. Once upon a time I was also in your place as a child. I know that some times what older people say seems to make no sense. So all I will do is tell you a few stories.

Each of these stories has what is simply called a “moral”. But I am not telling you these stories because of these “morals”. I am telling you these stories because I have learnt the lessons of these stories through many years of experience and the stories communicate the lessons that I have learnt much more easily than a boring description of my experiences.

Let me first tell you about a little girl Veena, who was born with a muscle missing in her foot. She wears a brace all the time.

She came home one beautiful day to tell her father that she had competed in her school’s sports day. Her dad was really surprised. And started thinking how to console his dear daughter who he was sure would have lost all races.

But there was a bigger surprise! Before the father could get a word out, Veena said “Daddy, I won two of the races! You know I had an advantage." Ah. The father thought, she must have been given a head start...some kind of physical advantage. But again, before he could say anything, she said, "Daddy, I didn't get head start...My advantage was I tried harder!!”

Little Veena was aware of her weaknesses. She has also learnt to work around her weakness by putting in extra effort! Isn’t that great!

Like Veena I also slowly learnt that everyone has weaknesses, but hard work is a strength that everyone can acquire. I also learnt that there is no substitute for hard work.

Now let me tell you a story about a donkey that I admire.

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried and cried for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally the farmer decided that the animal was old and also that the well needed to be covered up anyway. So it just wasn't worth trying to get the donkey up and out.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and begin to shovel mud into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly, because he was being buried alive. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down.

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