A year that will be new
A year came by and went
With 365 days/nights of news
Some pleasant, some painful
Painting our lives in various hues
A child crawls to walk
A boy learns to cheat
A girl loses her innocence
A woman claims her feat
Poor finds solace in dirt
Rich turns pauper in spirit
Humanity loses soul in crowd
A candle of smile waits to be lit
Flood, quake, tsunami, drought
War, battle, violence, fight
Blast, terror, kill, murder
Facing all of it is our birthright
Waiting for a selfless smile
Looking out for a friendly hand
Missing hugs, praises, ovation
Yet to find on our earthy land
Where a person is treated equal
Where Osama will love to be Obama
I am searching for a worthy kingdom
Where Allah will sit together with Rama
So, before bidding goodbye to 2008
Let’s learn the fair of past years
And pledge to make the world a better place
Say yes to LIFE and no to tears
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
A trail of warm thoughts
It all started in a train, and before I knew, it finished when I alighted at the station. I was returning to Bhopal from Kerala after attending the wedding of my friend who is now based in US.
My happiness knew no bounds when I got an opportunity to visit my hometown alone with my school friends. Being the youngest among three brothers, I was pampered but not allowed to even go out to the nearest shop to buy anything. My childhood years were spent in going to school, playground and church apart from the social functions that the family was invited to. Imagine seventeen years under the watchful eyes of big brothers!
So, the trip to Kerala with my friends was a dream come true in many ways. During our onward journey, since the train took the Konkan route we bought Fenny (the Goan Cashew Fenni). Life’s small indulgences and simple pleasures.
The masti and dhamaal that all of us (stags) had during our stay at a hotel near my friend’s paternal house in a remote village still gives me a kick even after ten years.
I was the odd man out during the marriage party because apart from my friend — the groom, only I was wearing a suit. The rest were wearing the traditional Kasavu Mundu and white or cream shirt. I was a bit embarrassed but my ‘groom’ pal was feeling proud to show off his ‘handsome’ friend to the bride’s family.
The party ended and soon I was back in the train for my return trip. There was this girl of about 17-18 years in the compartment who was accompanying her parents. I was reading a novel to pass the time when she, obviously bored of talking to her parents, started a conversation with me and soon a volley of questions and answers followed and the three days and two nights passed like a fast-paced movie. Her parents also found me a harmless soul and left us to our discussions.
As I was to disembark at 4 am, we were talking till late night. I told her that if she will be awake to see me off then I will gift her something (these words just came impromptu). She agreed even though I had nothing to give her. I do not know whether she slept or not but when I opened my eyes after my short nap she was smiling at me. I told her that I am going to the washroom and will be back. As the compartment was dark since I was the only passenger to get down, so I made my way to the washroom of the second class compartment and when I came out she was standing near the washbasin. I looked at her eyes that were searching for something and before we could grasp the situation, I planted a soft kiss on her right cheek.
She smiled and said that she will never forget this moment and my gift — a statement that I had already imprinted in my mind.
Soon my stop came, I got down the train and she waved at me. Both of us did not cry or felt sad. We did not even felt the need to ask each other’s address or made any promise of keeping in touch.
Even after so many years when I think of that incident, the feeling is still the same — a composed acknowledgement of the true emotion of togetherness.
My happiness knew no bounds when I got an opportunity to visit my hometown alone with my school friends. Being the youngest among three brothers, I was pampered but not allowed to even go out to the nearest shop to buy anything. My childhood years were spent in going to school, playground and church apart from the social functions that the family was invited to. Imagine seventeen years under the watchful eyes of big brothers!
So, the trip to Kerala with my friends was a dream come true in many ways. During our onward journey, since the train took the Konkan route we bought Fenny (the Goan Cashew Fenni). Life’s small indulgences and simple pleasures.
The masti and dhamaal that all of us (stags) had during our stay at a hotel near my friend’s paternal house in a remote village still gives me a kick even after ten years.
I was the odd man out during the marriage party because apart from my friend — the groom, only I was wearing a suit. The rest were wearing the traditional Kasavu Mundu and white or cream shirt. I was a bit embarrassed but my ‘groom’ pal was feeling proud to show off his ‘handsome’ friend to the bride’s family.
The party ended and soon I was back in the train for my return trip. There was this girl of about 17-18 years in the compartment who was accompanying her parents. I was reading a novel to pass the time when she, obviously bored of talking to her parents, started a conversation with me and soon a volley of questions and answers followed and the three days and two nights passed like a fast-paced movie. Her parents also found me a harmless soul and left us to our discussions.
As I was to disembark at 4 am, we were talking till late night. I told her that if she will be awake to see me off then I will gift her something (these words just came impromptu). She agreed even though I had nothing to give her. I do not know whether she slept or not but when I opened my eyes after my short nap she was smiling at me. I told her that I am going to the washroom and will be back. As the compartment was dark since I was the only passenger to get down, so I made my way to the washroom of the second class compartment and when I came out she was standing near the washbasin. I looked at her eyes that were searching for something and before we could grasp the situation, I planted a soft kiss on her right cheek.
She smiled and said that she will never forget this moment and my gift — a statement that I had already imprinted in my mind.
Soon my stop came, I got down the train and she waved at me. Both of us did not cry or felt sad. We did not even felt the need to ask each other’s address or made any promise of keeping in touch.
Even after so many years when I think of that incident, the feeling is still the same — a composed acknowledgement of the true emotion of togetherness.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
What is Essential Core of Meditation?
Here is What Osho Says
Once you have become aware of the way your being can remain undisturbed, then slowly you can start doing things, keeping alert that your being is not stirred. That is the second part of meditation — first, learning how just to be, and then learning little actions: cleaning the floor, taking a shower, but keeping yourself centered. Then you can do complicated things.
For example, I am speaking to you, but my meditation is not disturbed. I can go on speaking, but at my very center there is not even a ripple; it is just silent, utterly silent. So meditation is not against action. It is not that you have to escape from life. It simply teaches you a new way of life: you become the center of the cyclone.
Your life goes on, it goes on really more intensely -- with more joy, with more clarity, more vision, more creativity -- yet you are aloof, just a watcher on the hills, simply seeing all that is happening around you.
You are not the doer, you are the watcher.
That's the whole secret of meditation, that you become a watcher. Doing continues on its own level, there is no problem: chopping wood, drawing water from the well. You can do small and big things; only one thing is not allowed and that is, your centering should not be lost.
That awareness, that watchfulness, should remain absolutely unclouded, undisturbed. The essential core, the spirit of meditation is to learn how to witness. A crow crowing... you are listening. These are two-object and subject. But can't you see a witness who is seeing both? - the crow, the listener, and still there is someone who is watching both. It is such a simple phenomenon.
You are seeing a tree: you are there, the tree is there, but can't you find one thing more?-that you are seeing the tree, that there is witness in you which is seeing you seeing the tree.
Watching is meditation. What you watch is irrelevant. You can watch the trees, you can watch the river, you can watch the clouds, you can watch children playing around. Watching is meditation. What you watch is not the point; the object is not the point. The quality of observation, the quality of being aware and alert - that's what meditation is.
Remember one thing: meditation means awareness. Whatsoever you do with awareness is medication. Action is not the question, but the quality that you bring to your action. Walking can be a meditation if you walk alert. Sitting can be a meditation if you sit alert. Listening to the birds can be a meditation if you listen with awareness. Just listening to the inner noise of your mind can be a meditation if you remain alert and watchful. The whole point is, one should not move in sleep. Then whatsoever you do is meditation.
Once you have become aware of the way your being can remain undisturbed, then slowly you can start doing things, keeping alert that your being is not stirred. That is the second part of meditation — first, learning how just to be, and then learning little actions: cleaning the floor, taking a shower, but keeping yourself centered. Then you can do complicated things.
For example, I am speaking to you, but my meditation is not disturbed. I can go on speaking, but at my very center there is not even a ripple; it is just silent, utterly silent. So meditation is not against action. It is not that you have to escape from life. It simply teaches you a new way of life: you become the center of the cyclone.
Your life goes on, it goes on really more intensely -- with more joy, with more clarity, more vision, more creativity -- yet you are aloof, just a watcher on the hills, simply seeing all that is happening around you.
You are not the doer, you are the watcher.
That's the whole secret of meditation, that you become a watcher. Doing continues on its own level, there is no problem: chopping wood, drawing water from the well. You can do small and big things; only one thing is not allowed and that is, your centering should not be lost.
That awareness, that watchfulness, should remain absolutely unclouded, undisturbed. The essential core, the spirit of meditation is to learn how to witness. A crow crowing... you are listening. These are two-object and subject. But can't you see a witness who is seeing both? - the crow, the listener, and still there is someone who is watching both. It is such a simple phenomenon.
You are seeing a tree: you are there, the tree is there, but can't you find one thing more?-that you are seeing the tree, that there is witness in you which is seeing you seeing the tree.
Watching is meditation. What you watch is irrelevant. You can watch the trees, you can watch the river, you can watch the clouds, you can watch children playing around. Watching is meditation. What you watch is not the point; the object is not the point. The quality of observation, the quality of being aware and alert - that's what meditation is.
Remember one thing: meditation means awareness. Whatsoever you do with awareness is medication. Action is not the question, but the quality that you bring to your action. Walking can be a meditation if you walk alert. Sitting can be a meditation if you sit alert. Listening to the birds can be a meditation if you listen with awareness. Just listening to the inner noise of your mind can be a meditation if you remain alert and watchful. The whole point is, one should not move in sleep. Then whatsoever you do is meditation.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Useful words
Excerpted from Eat That Frog!
21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time
Plan Every Day In Advance
You have heard the old question, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is “One bite at a time!”
How do you eat your biggest, ugliest frog? The same way; you break it down into specific step-by-step activities and then you start on the first one. Your mind, your ability to think, plan, and decide, is your most powerful tool for overcoming procrastination and increasing your productivity. Your ability to set goals, make plans, and take action on them determines the course of your life. Conversely, as Alec Mackenzie wrote, “Taking action without thinking things through is a prime source of problems.”
Increase Your Return on Energy
One of your top goals at work should be for you to get the highest possible return on your investment of mental, emotional, and physical energy. The good news is that every minute spent in planning saves as many as ten minutes in execution. It takes only about 10 to 12 minutes for you to plan out your day, but this small investment of time will save you up to two hours (100 to 120 minutes) in wasted time and diffused effort throughout the day.
You may have heard of the Six-P Formula. It says, “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.” When you consider how helpful planning can be in increasing your productivity and performance, it is amazing how few people practice it every single day. And planning is really quite simple to do. All you need is a piece of paper and a pen. The most sophisticated Palm Pilot, computer program, or time planner is based on the same principle. It is based on your sitting down and making a list of everything you have to do before you begin.
21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time
Plan Every Day In Advance
You have heard the old question, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is “One bite at a time!”
How do you eat your biggest, ugliest frog? The same way; you break it down into specific step-by-step activities and then you start on the first one. Your mind, your ability to think, plan, and decide, is your most powerful tool for overcoming procrastination and increasing your productivity. Your ability to set goals, make plans, and take action on them determines the course of your life. Conversely, as Alec Mackenzie wrote, “Taking action without thinking things through is a prime source of problems.”
Increase Your Return on Energy
One of your top goals at work should be for you to get the highest possible return on your investment of mental, emotional, and physical energy. The good news is that every minute spent in planning saves as many as ten minutes in execution. It takes only about 10 to 12 minutes for you to plan out your day, but this small investment of time will save you up to two hours (100 to 120 minutes) in wasted time and diffused effort throughout the day.
You may have heard of the Six-P Formula. It says, “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.” When you consider how helpful planning can be in increasing your productivity and performance, it is amazing how few people practice it every single day. And planning is really quite simple to do. All you need is a piece of paper and a pen. The most sophisticated Palm Pilot, computer program, or time planner is based on the same principle. It is based on your sitting down and making a list of everything you have to do before you begin.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Success Secrets and Motivation
Important Long Article (7-10 min)
Success Secrets and Motivation from Steve Jobs of Apple
I want to invite you to read the message below from Steve Jobs of Apple that he delivered to the students of Stanford University in California, USA (at the bottom of this page you'll find link to watch and listen to this message on the YouTube.com).
IMPORTANT: Even if you want to read just one article from me, read this article because it is so important. It will motivate you to achieve more success in your life.
-- start of Steve Job's talk ------
"I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much."
-- end of Steve Job's talk ------
Success Secrets and Motivation from Steve Jobs of Apple
I want to invite you to read the message below from Steve Jobs of Apple that he delivered to the students of Stanford University in California, USA (at the bottom of this page you'll find link to watch and listen to this message on the YouTube.com).
IMPORTANT: Even if you want to read just one article from me, read this article because it is so important. It will motivate you to achieve more success in your life.
-- start of Steve Job's talk ------
"I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much."
-- end of Steve Job's talk ------
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Facts of faith
VATICAN - “You heard it said, but I say to you …” - intervention by Prof. Michele Loconsole - Jesus the Jew: n authentic historic discovery or a storicist reduction?
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - This month Kos magazine, published by San Raffaele, Milan, and edited by don Luigi Maria Verzè, dedicated a whole issue to the figure of Jesus the Jew, with authoritative contributions. The aim was to investigate the complex but simple personality of the most important 'man' in the history of humanity, Jesus of Nazareth. The authors of the articles included Gianfranco Ravasi, Magdi Cristiano Allam, Ornella Melogli, Simonetta Della Seta and Ermanno Olmi. The contribution of the latter, a well known film director of many films on Jesus and Christianity, was seen commented in a widely read Italian national newspaper under the title “I love Jesus more than God because he taught me to be free ”.
Before commenting on the article I take the opportunity to explain what struck me about this review. I think it is now clear, that historical, cultural and theological investigation on the person of Jesus of Nazareth two thousand years after his birth is far from completion. Indeed year after year bibliography produced all over the world on this fascinating subject continues to grow. A growth which intensfied particularly following Vatican II, but especially with Pope Benedict XVI, who devoted two lengthy volumes to the Jesus of the Gospels (the first, Jesus of Nazareth 2007), is assuming exceptional dimensions. In fact after almost 50 years of positions taken by Jewish essayists and historians on the person of Jesus of Nazareth, from beginning of the last century onwards, only in recent years have we seen an organic “Catholic” answer to the happy, but in my opinion partial, Jewish claim on the fathomless Mystery surrounding the Teacher from Galilee.
Returning to Olmi, I was pleased to note that he too contributed to the massive mosaic documenting the historicity of the person of Jesus of Nazareth, of which Christianity of the 3rd millennium has such great need. I say during centuries, at least since the Enlightenment, the historic person of the founder of Christianity became blurred and faded, causing a series of misunderstandings and mistake and not only among Protestant Christians– most affected by this evanescence -, but even among Catholics. A crisis from which the whole of Christianity is striving to recover, thanks to authoritative studies of Jewish researchers and though the teachings of the recent Pontiffs– principally Benedict XVI who has this theme deeply at heart–, and thanks to numerous studies by Catholic and secular authors. A chorus on the historic data amply confirms the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish Rabbi and the founder of the world's most widespread religion.
Of course, like all “fashions” this can have its risks. The first and perhaps the most serious is that the Jewish identity of Jesus may not be understood as a characteristic which connects Him with Judaism in the strict sense. Jesus was undoubtedly a Jew and always will be, but this was precisely why he criticised, as the Rabbi he was, the Judaism of his day, bringing to completion and to perfection what had been announced by the prophets of Israel; He restored the originality of the message which God entrusted to the Patriarchs with numerous different Revelations recorded in the Old Testament. What Jesus did essentially was to connect the ancient revelation to Abraham, with his own person, human and divine which recapitulated in itself that salvation which God inaugurated with Abraham. A soldering achieved after encountering, teaching and in some cases, converting, some followers of the composite Jewish thought of the times, which we know was remodelled to meet legalistic and nationalist criteria which had emerged after the Mosaic experience and above all after the exile in Babylon.
The second risk, is only apparently less dangerous. The fact that many intellectuals, religious and non, Jews and Catholics, atheists and indifferent are rediscovering the historic dimension of Jesus of Nazareth, is a double edged sword. Although on everyone's lips, it is also true that the terms used are often approximate, exaggeratedly personal, relativist and sentimental. You cannot make Jesus say something He never ever said, or worse, precisely because he is an historical personage, the clear and simple message which he addressed first of all to the Jews and through them to all humanity. He said several times that He was the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity: true man but also true God and therefore God in person. Things being thus, the Jews cannot reduce his historical message to that of a prophet or a Rabbi, however authoritative, and others cannot say “I love Jesus more than God”. Jesus is God and to affirm the contrary means to misunderstand his message or distort it.
In the valid article by Olmi interesting parts reveal a rediscovered and more profound friendship with Jesus; a most deserving fact, but in no few parts - as we see in many other testimonies which ride the fortunate mode of the historic dimension of Jesus of Nazareth, sad to say often the work of distinguished experts in History of world religions– what is distorted, emptied and relativised is precisely Jesus' way of thinking and acting. How can one believe in Jesus, the Son of God, and question the virginity of his mother Mary? Or say I love men more than God and that this is what God wants? Or say that Jesus, the Verb made flesh par excellence, came not to teach us the Word of God, understood as words pronounced, instead he came as the Word of God to live human life? How can they compare the teachings of Jesus with those of Tolstoj or Gandhi, all figures, models, proposals for life? And ultimately, that you can be there His disciple without “getting up on the cross"?
Remarks which on the one hand communicate an essence more than a form of religiosity of which men and women today have such dire need, on the other deny the unicity and specificity Jesus' incarnation, mission, death and resurrection. So study and rediscovery of the Jesus of history and his Jewish identity, root and foundation of Christianity, an historical event not an ideology, is to be encouraged, but it is intellectually essential to avoid the mistake of relativising or bending Jesus of Nazareth, hypostasis of the Trinity, with all the weight of this statement, to one's own personal needs, even if this were to be done in good faith. (Agenzia Fides 27/6/2008)
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - This month Kos magazine, published by San Raffaele, Milan, and edited by don Luigi Maria Verzè, dedicated a whole issue to the figure of Jesus the Jew, with authoritative contributions. The aim was to investigate the complex but simple personality of the most important 'man' in the history of humanity, Jesus of Nazareth. The authors of the articles included Gianfranco Ravasi, Magdi Cristiano Allam, Ornella Melogli, Simonetta Della Seta and Ermanno Olmi. The contribution of the latter, a well known film director of many films on Jesus and Christianity, was seen commented in a widely read Italian national newspaper under the title “I love Jesus more than God because he taught me to be free ”.
Before commenting on the article I take the opportunity to explain what struck me about this review. I think it is now clear, that historical, cultural and theological investigation on the person of Jesus of Nazareth two thousand years after his birth is far from completion. Indeed year after year bibliography produced all over the world on this fascinating subject continues to grow. A growth which intensfied particularly following Vatican II, but especially with Pope Benedict XVI, who devoted two lengthy volumes to the Jesus of the Gospels (the first, Jesus of Nazareth 2007), is assuming exceptional dimensions. In fact after almost 50 years of positions taken by Jewish essayists and historians on the person of Jesus of Nazareth, from beginning of the last century onwards, only in recent years have we seen an organic “Catholic” answer to the happy, but in my opinion partial, Jewish claim on the fathomless Mystery surrounding the Teacher from Galilee.
Returning to Olmi, I was pleased to note that he too contributed to the massive mosaic documenting the historicity of the person of Jesus of Nazareth, of which Christianity of the 3rd millennium has such great need. I say during centuries, at least since the Enlightenment, the historic person of the founder of Christianity became blurred and faded, causing a series of misunderstandings and mistake and not only among Protestant Christians– most affected by this evanescence -, but even among Catholics. A crisis from which the whole of Christianity is striving to recover, thanks to authoritative studies of Jewish researchers and though the teachings of the recent Pontiffs– principally Benedict XVI who has this theme deeply at heart–, and thanks to numerous studies by Catholic and secular authors. A chorus on the historic data amply confirms the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish Rabbi and the founder of the world's most widespread religion.
Of course, like all “fashions” this can have its risks. The first and perhaps the most serious is that the Jewish identity of Jesus may not be understood as a characteristic which connects Him with Judaism in the strict sense. Jesus was undoubtedly a Jew and always will be, but this was precisely why he criticised, as the Rabbi he was, the Judaism of his day, bringing to completion and to perfection what had been announced by the prophets of Israel; He restored the originality of the message which God entrusted to the Patriarchs with numerous different Revelations recorded in the Old Testament. What Jesus did essentially was to connect the ancient revelation to Abraham, with his own person, human and divine which recapitulated in itself that salvation which God inaugurated with Abraham. A soldering achieved after encountering, teaching and in some cases, converting, some followers of the composite Jewish thought of the times, which we know was remodelled to meet legalistic and nationalist criteria which had emerged after the Mosaic experience and above all after the exile in Babylon.
The second risk, is only apparently less dangerous. The fact that many intellectuals, religious and non, Jews and Catholics, atheists and indifferent are rediscovering the historic dimension of Jesus of Nazareth, is a double edged sword. Although on everyone's lips, it is also true that the terms used are often approximate, exaggeratedly personal, relativist and sentimental. You cannot make Jesus say something He never ever said, or worse, precisely because he is an historical personage, the clear and simple message which he addressed first of all to the Jews and through them to all humanity. He said several times that He was the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity: true man but also true God and therefore God in person. Things being thus, the Jews cannot reduce his historical message to that of a prophet or a Rabbi, however authoritative, and others cannot say “I love Jesus more than God”. Jesus is God and to affirm the contrary means to misunderstand his message or distort it.
In the valid article by Olmi interesting parts reveal a rediscovered and more profound friendship with Jesus; a most deserving fact, but in no few parts - as we see in many other testimonies which ride the fortunate mode of the historic dimension of Jesus of Nazareth, sad to say often the work of distinguished experts in History of world religions– what is distorted, emptied and relativised is precisely Jesus' way of thinking and acting. How can one believe in Jesus, the Son of God, and question the virginity of his mother Mary? Or say I love men more than God and that this is what God wants? Or say that Jesus, the Verb made flesh par excellence, came not to teach us the Word of God, understood as words pronounced, instead he came as the Word of God to live human life? How can they compare the teachings of Jesus with those of Tolstoj or Gandhi, all figures, models, proposals for life? And ultimately, that you can be there His disciple without “getting up on the cross"?
Remarks which on the one hand communicate an essence more than a form of religiosity of which men and women today have such dire need, on the other deny the unicity and specificity Jesus' incarnation, mission, death and resurrection. So study and rediscovery of the Jesus of history and his Jewish identity, root and foundation of Christianity, an historical event not an ideology, is to be encouraged, but it is intellectually essential to avoid the mistake of relativising or bending Jesus of Nazareth, hypostasis of the Trinity, with all the weight of this statement, to one's own personal needs, even if this were to be done in good faith. (Agenzia Fides 27/6/2008)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
OUR LADY OF FATIMA
Saint of the day
OUR LADY OF FATIMA
TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2008
May 13 is the anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady to three shepherd children in the small village of Fatima in Portugal in 1917. She appeared six times to Lucia, 9, and her cousins Francisco, 8, and his sister Jacinta, 6, between May 13, 1917 and October 13, 1917.The story of Fatima begins in 1916, when, against the backdrop of the First World War which had introduced Europe to the most horrific and powerful forms of warfare yet seen, and a year before the Communist revolution would plunge Russia and later Eastern Europe into six decades of oppression under militant atheistic governments, a resplendent figure appeared to the three children who were in the field tending the family sheep. “I am the Angel of Peace,” said the figure, who appeared to them two more times that year exhorting them to accept the sufferings that the Lord allowed them to undergo as an act of reparation for the sins which offend Him, and to pray constantly for the conversion of sinners.Then, on the 13th day of the month of Our Lady, May 1917, an apparition of ‘a woman all in white, more brilliant than the sun’ presented itself to the three children saying “Please don’t be afraid of me, I’m not going to harm you.” Lucia asked her where she came from and she responded, “I come from Heaven.” The woman wore a white mantle edged with gold and held a rosary in her hand. The woman asked them to pray and devote themselves to the Holy Trinity and to “say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war.”She also revealed that the children would suffer, especially from the unbelief of their friends and families, and that the two younger children, Francisco and Jacinta would be taken to Heaven very soon but Lucia would live longer in order to spread her message and devotion to the Immaculate Heart.In the last apparition the woman revealed her name in response to Lucia’s question: “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”That same day, 70,000 people had turned out to witness the apparition, following a promise by the woman that she would show the people that the apparitions were true. They saw the sun make three circles and move around the sky in an incredible zigzag movement in a manner which left no doubt in their minds about the veracity of the apparitions. By 1930 the Bishop had approved of the apparitions and they have been approved by the Church as authentic.The messages Our Lady imparted during the apparitions to the children concerned the violent trials that would afflict the world by means of war, starvation, and the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father in the twentieth century if the world did not make reparation for sins. She exhorted the Church to pray and offer sacrifices to God in order that peace may come upon the world, and that the trials may be averted.Our Lady of Fatima revealed three prophetic “secrets,” the first two of which were revealed earlier and refer to the vision of hell and the souls languishing there, the request for an ardent devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the prediction of the Second World War, and finally the prediction of the immense damage that Russia would do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist totalitarianism. The third “secret” was not revealed until the year 2000, and referred to the persecutions that humanity would undergo in the last century: “The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated'”. The suffering of the popes of the 20th century has been interpreted to include the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981, which took place on May 13, the 64th anniversary of the apparitions. The Holy Father attributed his escape from certain death to the intervention of Our Lady: “... it was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path and in his throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death.”What is the central meaning of the message of Fatima? Nothing different from what the Church has always taught: it is, as Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has put it, “the exhortation to prayer as the path of “salvation for souls” and, likewise, the summons to penance and conversion.”Perhaps the most well known utterance of the apparition of Our Lady at Fatima was her confident decalaration that “My Immaculate Heart will triumph”. Cardinal Ratzinger has interpreted this utterance as follows: “The Heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her heart, has changed the history of the world, because it brought the Saviour into the world—because, thanks to her Yes, God could become man in our world and remains so for all time. The Evil One has power in this world, as we see and experience continually; he has power because our freedom continually lets itself be led away from God. But since God himself took a human heart and has thus steered human freedom towards what is good, the freedom to choose evil no longer has the last word. From that time forth, the word that prevails is this: “In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). The message of Fatima invites us to trust in this promise.
OUR LADY OF FATIMA
TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2008
May 13 is the anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady to three shepherd children in the small village of Fatima in Portugal in 1917. She appeared six times to Lucia, 9, and her cousins Francisco, 8, and his sister Jacinta, 6, between May 13, 1917 and October 13, 1917.The story of Fatima begins in 1916, when, against the backdrop of the First World War which had introduced Europe to the most horrific and powerful forms of warfare yet seen, and a year before the Communist revolution would plunge Russia and later Eastern Europe into six decades of oppression under militant atheistic governments, a resplendent figure appeared to the three children who were in the field tending the family sheep. “I am the Angel of Peace,” said the figure, who appeared to them two more times that year exhorting them to accept the sufferings that the Lord allowed them to undergo as an act of reparation for the sins which offend Him, and to pray constantly for the conversion of sinners.Then, on the 13th day of the month of Our Lady, May 1917, an apparition of ‘a woman all in white, more brilliant than the sun’ presented itself to the three children saying “Please don’t be afraid of me, I’m not going to harm you.” Lucia asked her where she came from and she responded, “I come from Heaven.” The woman wore a white mantle edged with gold and held a rosary in her hand. The woman asked them to pray and devote themselves to the Holy Trinity and to “say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war.”She also revealed that the children would suffer, especially from the unbelief of their friends and families, and that the two younger children, Francisco and Jacinta would be taken to Heaven very soon but Lucia would live longer in order to spread her message and devotion to the Immaculate Heart.In the last apparition the woman revealed her name in response to Lucia’s question: “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”That same day, 70,000 people had turned out to witness the apparition, following a promise by the woman that she would show the people that the apparitions were true. They saw the sun make three circles and move around the sky in an incredible zigzag movement in a manner which left no doubt in their minds about the veracity of the apparitions. By 1930 the Bishop had approved of the apparitions and they have been approved by the Church as authentic.The messages Our Lady imparted during the apparitions to the children concerned the violent trials that would afflict the world by means of war, starvation, and the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father in the twentieth century if the world did not make reparation for sins. She exhorted the Church to pray and offer sacrifices to God in order that peace may come upon the world, and that the trials may be averted.Our Lady of Fatima revealed three prophetic “secrets,” the first two of which were revealed earlier and refer to the vision of hell and the souls languishing there, the request for an ardent devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the prediction of the Second World War, and finally the prediction of the immense damage that Russia would do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist totalitarianism. The third “secret” was not revealed until the year 2000, and referred to the persecutions that humanity would undergo in the last century: “The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated'”. The suffering of the popes of the 20th century has been interpreted to include the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981, which took place on May 13, the 64th anniversary of the apparitions. The Holy Father attributed his escape from certain death to the intervention of Our Lady: “... it was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path and in his throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death.”What is the central meaning of the message of Fatima? Nothing different from what the Church has always taught: it is, as Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has put it, “the exhortation to prayer as the path of “salvation for souls” and, likewise, the summons to penance and conversion.”Perhaps the most well known utterance of the apparition of Our Lady at Fatima was her confident decalaration that “My Immaculate Heart will triumph”. Cardinal Ratzinger has interpreted this utterance as follows: “The Heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her heart, has changed the history of the world, because it brought the Saviour into the world—because, thanks to her Yes, God could become man in our world and remains so for all time. The Evil One has power in this world, as we see and experience continually; he has power because our freedom continually lets itself be led away from God. But since God himself took a human heart and has thus steered human freedom towards what is good, the freedom to choose evil no longer has the last word. From that time forth, the word that prevails is this: “In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). The message of Fatima invites us to trust in this promise.
Customer is the king
Leadership lesson
Customer Complaint
There’s an old saying in the service business:
“The customer is always right!”
For five star teams, it’s not just a timeworn phrase – it’s a guiding principle.
No matter the situation, regardless of the issue, the team’s job is to make sure the customer always FEELS that he or she is right.( Irrespective of the fact that 40% of the time customer when complaint is wrong.)
Sam Walton of Wal-Mart gave Two Rules of Customer service
Rule no. 1: Customer is always the king
Rule No. 2 : If at any case Customer is wrong then refer to Rule No. 1
Certainly, there will be occasions when a patron’s request (or demand) is either unreasonable or just plain impossible to satisfy. But even in those cases, there’s always something that can be done to ensure the customer comes out a winner.
As one top-notch server put it,
“Customers have an absolute right to be right. It’s their money!”
L E A P into handling customer complaints:
LISTEN – focus on understanding their concerns.
EMPATHIZE – imagine yourself in their shoes.
ACKNOWLEDGE – tell them you understand.
PAMPER – go the extra mile to make it right.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Hit Wicket
With the IPL chairman Lalit Modi’s statement that Shoaib Akhtar will not be allowed to play in the Indian Premier League despite being cleared by the Pakistan Cricket board, all hopes for the fast bowler displaying magic with the red cherry in the near future is all but out.
The Rawalpindi Express had been banned by PCB for five years on charges of indiscipline, but a PCB panel confirmed he was free to play outside the country after the bowler tendered an unqualified apology.
The fiery pacer is a case study on how sports can make and break a person. He has seen the highs and lows of his career in a period cut short by aggression, arguments, brawn, brawls and controversies.
The Morgah-born lad of Pakistan had never thought that his sporting career would be filled with such full tosses, yorkers and bouncers of destiny as the deliveries he is so famous for. His run of impressive performances started in 1999 in a pre-World Cup series against India. Nobody would have thought that the novice bowler would scalp eight wickets in the Asian Test championship match against India at Kolkatta in 1999, including the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid off successive deliveries. He took the wicket of Master Blaster in the very first ball of his first encounter. Shoaib's delivery at 161.4km/h (100.2mph) stands as the fastest recorded to date.
His career has been plagued with injuries, controversies, and accusations of bad attitude. After shooting to stardom at a young age due to his devastating pace, he became more interested in glamour rather than cementing his career. His attitude took its toll on his reputation as well as his fitness. He got involved in a verbal spat with Waqar Younis, caught tampering with the ball, abused South Africa’s Paul Adams, and used performance-enhancing drugs. He even claimed of getting match-fixing offers.
Youngsters who want to take up career in sports or any other field should imbibe his good qualities — aggression and zeal — and shun the traits that he is ‘infamous’ for. Shoaib’s sporting career is a best example of how energy if not channelised properly can ruin a person.
The Rawalpindi Express had been banned by PCB for five years on charges of indiscipline, but a PCB panel confirmed he was free to play outside the country after the bowler tendered an unqualified apology.
The fiery pacer is a case study on how sports can make and break a person. He has seen the highs and lows of his career in a period cut short by aggression, arguments, brawn, brawls and controversies.
The Morgah-born lad of Pakistan had never thought that his sporting career would be filled with such full tosses, yorkers and bouncers of destiny as the deliveries he is so famous for. His run of impressive performances started in 1999 in a pre-World Cup series against India. Nobody would have thought that the novice bowler would scalp eight wickets in the Asian Test championship match against India at Kolkatta in 1999, including the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid off successive deliveries. He took the wicket of Master Blaster in the very first ball of his first encounter. Shoaib's delivery at 161.4km/h (100.2mph) stands as the fastest recorded to date.
His career has been plagued with injuries, controversies, and accusations of bad attitude. After shooting to stardom at a young age due to his devastating pace, he became more interested in glamour rather than cementing his career. His attitude took its toll on his reputation as well as his fitness. He got involved in a verbal spat with Waqar Younis, caught tampering with the ball, abused South Africa’s Paul Adams, and used performance-enhancing drugs. He even claimed of getting match-fixing offers.
Youngsters who want to take up career in sports or any other field should imbibe his good qualities — aggression and zeal — and shun the traits that he is ‘infamous’ for. Shoaib’s sporting career is a best example of how energy if not channelised properly can ruin a person.
Leadership
LEADERSHIP LESSONS
This weeks’ topic: COURAGE
Being ‘Values-Driven’ means two things:
Doing what’s right –
Following our conscience; refusing to compromise ourselves, or our principles, despite pressures and temptations to the contrary, and
Taking a stand against what’s wrong –
Speaking out, and acting out, whenever we see others do things that are incorrect or inappropriate.
Unquestionably, both of those require guts, nerve, and fortitude…they require courage.
Courage is…
Following your conscience instead of “following the crowd.”
Refusing to take part in hurtful or disrespectful behaviours.
Sacrificing personal gain for the benefit of others.
Speaking your mind even though others don’t agree.
Taking complete responsibility for your actions…and your mistakes.
Following the rules – and insisting that others do the same.
Challenging the status quo in search of better ways.
Doing what you know is right – regardless of the risks and potential consequences.
How courageous am I?
Have the courage to seek the truth.
-- David Cottrell
This weeks’ topic: COURAGE
Being ‘Values-Driven’ means two things:
Doing what’s right –
Following our conscience; refusing to compromise ourselves, or our principles, despite pressures and temptations to the contrary, and
Taking a stand against what’s wrong –
Speaking out, and acting out, whenever we see others do things that are incorrect or inappropriate.
Unquestionably, both of those require guts, nerve, and fortitude…they require courage.
Courage is…
Following your conscience instead of “following the crowd.”
Refusing to take part in hurtful or disrespectful behaviours.
Sacrificing personal gain for the benefit of others.
Speaking your mind even though others don’t agree.
Taking complete responsibility for your actions…and your mistakes.
Following the rules – and insisting that others do the same.
Challenging the status quo in search of better ways.
Doing what you know is right – regardless of the risks and potential consequences.
How courageous am I?
Have the courage to seek the truth.
-- David Cottrell
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