Leadership story: The stateless king who was born and bred to be a leader

There was once a prince which inherited a kingdom after his father died. And, like all kings before him, he had everything in abundance growing up. But now only a couple of months when he was king suddenly trouble began in his kingdom. The drought killed many plants, animals, and people, and the diseases that followed killed even more. And then, when things were getting better an enemy state stormed the kingdom and killed or imprisoned the ones who survived. The young king somehow managed to escape. On his way to his childhood friend, who ruled the neighboring state our young king contemplated how could all of this happened to him. He was born and bred to be a leader of the most powerful and richest kingdom in all the lands known to his people, but now he has lost everything. He believed that he had bad luck as nothing like this happened to his father or any other king he knew.

However, when our young king finally reached the capital of his friend’s kingdom, the guards did not let him in the palace as they did so many times before. They didn’t believe that he was a king because of his rags. So, the king had to get a job and earn some money to buy decent clothes before attempting to enter again. When he finally got new clothes he was allowed to appear before his friend. His friend listened to the young king’s story…