As You Believe So You Achieve

A Business executive was deep in debt and could not see any way out.Creditors and Suppliers were demanding payments. He sat in the park,
wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.
Suddenly an old man appeared before him and asked,
"I can see that something is troubling you seriously".

After listening to the executive the old man said,
"I believe I can help you".
He asked the...man his name, wrote out a cheque and put it into his
hands saying,
"Take this money, meet me here exactly one year from today
and you can pay me back at that time".
Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come.
The business executive saw in his hands a cheque for $ 500,000
signed by Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world.
"I can erase my worries instantly" he realized.
But instead, the executive decided to put the uncashed cheque in his safe
knowing that it might give him the strength to work out to save his business
and to use this only in case of dire emergency.
With changed thinking he negotiated better deals,
restructured his business and worked rigorously with full zeal
and enthusiasm and got several big deals.
Within few months, he was out of debt and started making money once again.
Exactly one year later he returned to the park with the uncashed cheque.
As agreed, the old man appeared.
But just as the executive was about to hand him back the cheque
and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man.
"I’m so glad I caught him" she cried.
"I hope he hasn’t been bothering you much.
He always escapes from the mental hospital and tells people that he is
Warren Buffet", saying this she took the old man away.
The surprised executive just stood there, stunned!
All year long he had been dealing thinking that
he had half a million dollars behind him.

Its not the money, real or imagined that turns our life around
It is our newly found self-confidence that gives us the power
to achieve anything we want

Respect a Woman

When I was born, a woman was there to hold me… My Mother

As I grew up as a child, a woman was there to care and play with me… My Sister

I went to school, a woman was there to help me learn… My Teacher

I needed compatibility, company & love, a woman was there for me… My Wife

I became tough, a woman was there to melt me… My Daughter

When I will die, a woman will be there to absorb me in… My Motherland

If you are a man, value every woman  

&

If you are a woman, be proud to be one.

AN INTERESTING STORY- THE LUCK FACTOR!

Ten years ago, a psychologist set out to examine luck. He wanted to know why some people are always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently experience ill fortune. And placed advertisements in national newspapers asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me.

Hundreds of extraordinary men & women volunteered for his research & over the years, he had interviewed them, monitored their lives & had them take part in experiments.

The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts & behaviour are responsible for much of their good & bad fortune. Take the case of seemingly chance opportunities. Lucky people consistently encounter such opportunities, whereas unlucky people do not.

He carried out a simple experiment to discover whether this was due to differences in their ability to spot such opportunities. And gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it & tell me how many photographs were inside. He had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying, "Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $50."     

This message took up half of the page & was written in type that was more than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it & the lucky people tended to spot it.

Unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected. As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties'; intent on finding their perfect partner & so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements & miss other types of jobs.

Lucky people are more relaxed & open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for. My research eventually revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four principles. They are skilled at creating & noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

Towards the end of the work, he wondered whether these principles could be used to create good luck. He asked a group of volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think & behave like a lucky person. Dramatic results ! These exercises helped them spot chance opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck. One month later, the volunteers returned & described what had happened. The results were dramatic : 80% of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives & perhaps most important of all, luckier.

The lucky people had become even luckier & the unlucky had become lucky. Finally, he had found the elusive "luck factor".

Here are Professors four top tips for becoming lucky:

1) Listen to your gut instincts - they are normally right

2) Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine

3) Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well

4) Visualize yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone call.

IF A LIZARD CAN, WHY CAN'T WE?

In order to renovate the house, someone in Japan breaks open the wall. Japanese houses normally have a hollow space between the wooden walls.

When tearing down the walls, he found that there was a lizard stuck there because a nail from outside hammered into one of its feet. He sees this, feels pity, and at the same time curious, as when he checked the nail, it was nailed 5 years ago when the house was first built !!!  

What happened? The lizard has survived in such position for 5 years!

In a dark wall partition for 5 years without moving, it is impossible and mind-boggling. Then he wondered how this lizard survived for 5 years without moving a single step-since its foot was nailed! So he stopped his work and observed the lizard, what it has been doing, and what and how it has been eating.

Later, not knowing from where it came, appears another lizard, with food in its mouth. Ah! He was stunned and touched deeply. For the lizard that was stuck by nail, another lizard has been feeding it for the past 5 years.

Imagine? it has been doing that untiringly for 5 long years, without giving up hope on its partner.

Imagine what a small creature can do that a creature blessed with a brilliant mind can't. Never abandon your loved ones.

Lesson from the Story:

Never say you are busy when they really need you.

You may have the entire world at your feet.

But you might be the only world to them.

A moment of negligence might break the very heart which loves you through all odds.

Before you say something just remember, it takes a moment to break, but an entire lifetime to make.

Points to Ponder

Fall and RiseToday, when I slipped on the wet tile floor a boy in a wheelchair caught me before I slammed my head on the ground. He said, “Believe it or not, that’s almost exactly how I injured my back 3 years ago .

A father’s adviceToday, my father told me, “Just go for it and give it a try! You don’t have to be a professional to build a successful product. Amateurs started Google and Apple. Professionals built the Titanic

The power of uniqueness.Today, I asked my mentor – a very successful business man in his 70’s – what his top 3 tips are for success. He smiled and said, “Read something no one else is reading, think something no one else is thinking, and do something no one else is doing.

Looking BackToday, I interviewed my grandmother for part of a research paper I’m working on for my Psychology class. When I asked her to define success in her own words, she said, “Success is when you look back at your life and the memories make you smile.

Goodness GratitudeToday, after a 72 hour shift at the fire station, a woman ran up to me at the grocery store and gave me a hug. When I tensed up, she realized I didn’t recognize her. She let go with tears of joy in her eyes and the most sincere smile and said, “On 9-11-2001, you carried me out of the World Trade Center.”

A Door Closes To Open AnotherToday at 7AM, I woke up feeling ill, but decided I needed the money, so I went into work. At 3PM I got laid off. On my drive home I got a flat tire. When I went into the trunk for the spare, it was flat too. A man in a BMW pulled over, gave me a ride, we chatted, and then he offered me a job. I start tomorrow.

Looking BackToday, as my father, three brothers, and two sisters stood around my mother’s hospital bed, my mother uttered her last coherent words before she died. She simply said, “I feel so loved right now. We should have gotten together like this more often.”

AffectionToday, I kissed my dad on the forehead as he passed away in a small hospital bed. About 5 seconds after he passed, I realized it was the first time I had given him a kiss since I was a little boy. (Too bad and extremely unlucky person on earth)

InnocenceToday, in the cutest voice, my 8-year-old daughter asked me to start recycling. I chuckled and asked, “Why?” She replied, “So you can help me save the planet.” I chuckled again and asked, “And why do you want to save the planet?” “Because that’s where I keep all my stuff,” she said.

JoyToday, when I witnessed a 27-year-old cancer patient laughing hysterically at her 2-year-old daughter’s antics, I suddenly realized that I need to stop complaining about my life and start celebrating it again.

KindnessToday, a boy in a wheelchair saw me desperately struggling on crutches with my broken leg and offered to carry my backpack and books for me. He helped me all the way across campus to my class and as he was leaving he said, “I hope you feel better soon.”.

SharingToday, I was traveling in Kenya and I met a refugee from Zimbabwe. He said he hadn’t eaten anything in over 3 days and looked extremely skinny and unhealthy. Then my friend offered him the rest of the sandwich he was eating. The first thing the man said was, “We can share it.”

A farmer and his daughter

Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. 
The Moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer’s beautiful Daughter.
So he proposed a bargain.
He said he would forgo the farmer’s debt if he could marry his Daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the Proposal.
So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let Providence decide the matter.
He told them that he would put a black Pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag.
1) If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father’s debt would be forgiven.
2) If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father’s debt would still be forgiven.
3) But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into Jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer’s field. As They talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he Picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two {2} Black Pebbles and put them into the bag…!

He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.
Now, imagine that you were standing in the field……………….. !
What would you have Done if you were the girl ?
If you had to advise her, what would you have told her ?
Careful analysis would produce three {3}possibilities:

1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag And expose the money-lender as a cheat.
3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order To save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

Take a moment to ponder over the story…!
The above story is used with The hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral And logical thinking.
The girl’s dilemma cannot be solved with Traditional logical thinking.
Think of the consequences if she chooses the above logical answers.
What would you recommend to the Girl to do?

Well, here is what she did ….
The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble.
Without Looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path
Where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles…{!}
“Oh, how clumsy of me,” she said.
“But … never mind, if you look into the Bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I Picked.”
Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one.
And since the money-lender dared not admit his Dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into An extremely advantageous one.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY:
Most complex problems do have a solution ! It is only that we don’t Attempt to Think

A letter from a Father to a Son

Dear Son,
I am writing this to you because of 3 reasons…… 

Life, fortune and mishaps are unpredictable, nobody knows how long he lives. Some words are better said early. I am your father, and if I don’t tell you these, no one else will. What is written is my own personal bitter and better experiences that perhaps could save you a lot of unnecessary heartaches. 
Remember the following as you go through life…. 
Do not bear grudge towards those who are not good to you. No one has the responsibility of treating you well, except your mother and I. To those who are good to you, you have to treasure it and be thankful, and ALSO you have to be cautious, because, everyone has a motive for every move. When a person is good to you, it does not mean he really likes you. You have to be careful, don’t hastily regard him as a real friend. No one is indispensable, nothing in the world that you must possess. Once you understand this idea, it would be easier for you to go through life when people around you don’t want you anymore, or when you lose what / who you love most. Life is short and every day counts. Do not look for another day or event or person or a thing to give you happiness. Staying happy is your decision and you can be happy in any situation, if you desire to be so. Trust me, I have lost a major part of my life waiting for “something from some to happen at some time” to give me happiness. Finally, I have realized that “something is my decision to stay happy and enjoy life”, that “some one” who can give me happiness is myself and that “some time” is “now” and ever. Trust me I feel like being a new born and wish that I realized it 60 years ago. Better late than never. I would advice you to start being happy from today. Do not postpone actions. If you have something to do, do it now. Keep saying to yourself “If not me, who”. If not now, when?”. It is better to finish the work and stay relaxed later.Love is but a transient feeling, and this feeling would fade with time and with one’s mood. If your so called loved one leaves you, be patient, time will wash away your aches and sadness. Don’t over exaggerate the beauty and sweetness of love, and don’t over exaggerate the sadness of falling out of love. A lot of successful people did not receive a good education, that does not mean that you can be successful by not studying hard! Whatever knowledge you gain is your weapon in life. One can go from rags to riches, but one has to start from some rags! Do not worry about failure. Some times, failures can teach you more powerful lessons than success. The lessons learnt from failure will not be easily forgotten. Learn from your mistakes. Do not repeat mistakes. Make newer ones, so that you can learn new lessons.I do not expect you to financially support me when I am old, neither would I financially support your whole life. My responsibility as a supporter ends when you are grown up. After that, you decide whether you want to travel in a public transport or in your limousine, whether rich or poor. You honour your words, but don’t expect others to be so. You can be good to people, but don’t expect people to be good to you. If you don’t understand this, you would end up with unnecessary troubles. There is no free lunch! Even if you get one, it won’t taste as much as the one that you have bought yourself. Do not wait or plan for fortune. Work hard, learn and earn your success. Do not accept “success” as a gift, work your way to “earn” it.No matter how much time I have with you, let’s treasure the time we have together.  
Be thankful for what you have today…Your friends, your belongings, your family and everything…Nothing is permanent. Relish and value them when you have it. If you miss any of them, work your way to earn them back.Know that every step of your way, your mom and I will be there to support you…We trust you, have faith in you and love you so dearly. We are thankful to God or whatever it is, that gave you to us.I am not your friend, but your dad. That means that I am more than a friend to you. Trust me and feel free to share anything with me, with out worrying about what I will feel and how I will react. We are here to help you.Do not worry about others laughing at you. The laughing ones will stay there and you will move on and up your way to success. Do not be distracted from your journey and focus.There will be some to bully you, but learn to maneuver your way through them and beyond them. If things go out of hand, escalate to your Teacher / Mom / Myself / Police based on the case.