When I was in Grade 5, something unusual happened. I won first place in a handwriting competition. The result surprised not only me but also my parents and teachers….because by then I was already well known for my bad handwriting.
That day, however, I slowed down, copied a familiar text, and focused only on shaping each letter. The result turned out so well that my parents even went to school to double-check the sheets.
But the real memory wasn’t the handwriting itself… it was the prize book I received: A Bread and Dew Stories by Moldavian writer Grigore Vieru.
It was a beautifully bound book, with colored illustrations and thick, silken-feel pages. I held it like a treasure.
During my last visit to India, I found that book again after more than four decades — and only now do I fully understand the meaning of “bread and dew.”
In business and in life as well, nothing is truly old. Nothing is truly new. It’s all bread and dew.
🔹 Bread is what sustains us — the fundamentals of trust, execution, and customer value. These never go out of style.
🔹 Dew is what refreshes us — fleeting opportunities, emerging technologies, and new market shifts. They appear fresh each morning, and if you don’t absorb them quickly, they disappear.
Too often, we chase only the dew — the hype cycles, the buzzwords — and forget the bread that keeps a business alive.
Other times, we cling only to the bread — the old ways — and miss the freshness that brings growth.
The truth is: business thrives on both. Rather an ongoing balance for both
The timeless and the timely.
The steady and the fleeting.
The bread and the dew.
👉 What do you think matters more in business today — holding on to the bread or catching the dew?
