Stone Soup

On a cold night a storyteller who knew the limitless power of words visited a famine-Stricken village and, finding no fireside for a fable, began boiling a stone in a big pot in sight of everyone. One by one the curious villagers were encouraged to join in the feast of Stone Soup and one by one they believed in and contributed to the feast that inevitably resulted. Once both stories and soup had been devoured it was agreed that in future, in tough times, a stone and a story were a marvellous way to bring people together.

Stone Soup is a modern fable about business, community, entrepreneurship and sharing. Mixing a traditional folktale with telling the story of one woman's journey through life, it contains tasty morsels of wisdom on work, team-building, leadership and courage.

This book will nourish the soul of managers, entrepreneurs, community leaders, activists and educators by giving you the fortitude to lead fearlessly in the face of apparently insurmountable obstacles and foster true innovation within your community, group or organisation.

Social networking pioneer, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Bill Liao, is the co-founder of the social network service XING (www.xing.com). He is also CEO of Finaxis AG, a privately held company in the financial services industry. Among his philanthropic endeavors is his participation as an investor and volunteer in The Hunger Project in Uganda, New York and Mexico. Bill is also a regular attendee at the TED conferences and also the World Economic Forum New Champions conference. In 2007, Liao founded Neo (www.neo.org), a non-profit social networking site where people can make a personal commitment for the future of the earth. Neo was set up to provide a forum for people to make a personal commitment for the future of the earth in the form of a Declaration of Global Citizenship.