The FOUR blessed looks:
1. Look back and thank God.
2. Look forward and trust God.
3. Look around and serve God.
4. Look within and find God!
I asked God, 'How do I get the best out of life?'
God said, 'Face your past without regrets, handle your present with confidence, and prepare for the future without fear!'
Without God, our week is: Mournday, Tearsday, Wasteday, Thirstday,Fightday, Shatterday and Sinday. So, allow Him to be with you every day!'
Life is short, so forgive quickly. Believe slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably.
Never regret anything that makes you happy.
Time is like a river. You cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again.
Enjoy every moment of life.
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
The Axe Story
Once upon a time a very strong woodcutter asked for a job with a timber merchant, and he got it. The salary was really good and so were the work conditions. For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.
His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work.
The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees
"Congratulations, " the boss said. "Go on that way!"
Very motivated by the boss¢ words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but could bring 15 trees only. The third day he tried even harder, but could bring 10 trees only. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.
"I must be losing my strength", the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.
"When was the last time you sharpened your axe?" the boss asked.
"Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees..."
Moral of the story:
Working hard is not enough; one has to keep on sharpening one¢s skills.
His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work.
The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees
"Congratulations, " the boss said. "Go on that way!"
Very motivated by the boss¢ words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but could bring 15 trees only. The third day he tried even harder, but could bring 10 trees only. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.
"I must be losing my strength", the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.
"When was the last time you sharpened your axe?" the boss asked.
"Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees..."
Moral of the story:
Working hard is not enough; one has to keep on sharpening one¢s skills.
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Winner Frog
Once upon a time there was a bunch of tiny frogs.... who arranged a running competition.
The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants. ...
The race began....
Honestly:
No one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower.
You heard statements such as:
"Oh, WAY too difficult!!"
"They will NEVER make it to the top."
"Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!"
The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one....
Except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher....
The crowd continued to yell, "It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!"
More tiny frogs got tired and gave up....
But ONE continued higher and higher and higher....
This one wouldn't give up!
At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top!
THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?
A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal?
It turned out....
That the winner was DEAF!!!!
*********
The wisdom of this story is:
Never listen to other people's tendencies to be negative or pessimistic. ...
because they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you -- the ones you have in your heart!
Always think of the power words have.
Because everything you hear and read will affect your actions!
Therefore: ALWAYS be.... POSITIVE!
And above all: Be DEAF when people tell YOU that you cannot fulfill your dreams!
Always think: God and I can do this!
The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants. ...
The race began....
Honestly:
No one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower.
You heard statements such as:
"Oh, WAY too difficult!!"
"They will NEVER make it to the top."
"Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!"
The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one....
Except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher....
The crowd continued to yell, "It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!"
More tiny frogs got tired and gave up....
But ONE continued higher and higher and higher....
This one wouldn't give up!
At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top!
THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?
A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal?
It turned out....
That the winner was DEAF!!!!
*********
The wisdom of this story is:
Never listen to other people's tendencies to be negative or pessimistic. ...
because they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you -- the ones you have in your heart!
Always think of the power words have.
Because everything you hear and read will affect your actions!
Therefore: ALWAYS be.... POSITIVE!
And above all: Be DEAF when people tell YOU that you cannot fulfill your dreams!
Always think: God and I can do this!
Monday, 28 April 2008
Rules for being human
1. Your will receive a body. You may like it, or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full time informal school called life. Each day in this school you have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think they are irrelevant and stupid.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works".
4. A lesson is repeated until learned... A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go to the next lesson. Periodically, the lesson will be re- presented to see if you still remember it.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there ar e lessons to be learnt. If no lessons is being presented, it is likely that you are no longer alive.
6. "There" is no better than "here". When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply acquire another "there". That will again look better than "here".
7. Others are simply mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you make of them is up to you; the choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie inside you. The answers to life's questions lie inside you. All you have to do is look, listen and trust.
10. You will forget all this. That fact is itself a lesson.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full time informal school called life. Each day in this school you have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think they are irrelevant and stupid.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works".
4. A lesson is repeated until learned... A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go to the next lesson. Periodically, the lesson will be re- presented to see if you still remember it.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there ar e lessons to be learnt. If no lessons is being presented, it is likely that you are no longer alive.
6. "There" is no better than "here". When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply acquire another "there". That will again look better than "here".
7. Others are simply mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you make of them is up to you; the choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie inside you. The answers to life's questions lie inside you. All you have to do is look, listen and trust.
10. You will forget all this. That fact is itself a lesson.
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Seven Ways to Save Gas Right Now
Gas prices got you down? Save big at the pump with our simple car tips.
1. Pump It Up
Check your tire pressure. More than a quarter of all cars and nearly one-third of all SUVs, vans and pickups have under-inflated tires, according to a survey by the Department of Transportation. If we all keep our tires pumped up right, the nation could save 200,000 barrels of oil a day.
2. Slow It Down
Ease up on the pedal. Slowing down from 75 to 65 miles per hour will drop your highway gasoline consumption about 15 percent. That's money in your pocket.
3. Cut the Engine
If you're stuck at a freight train crossing, waiting to pick up a teenager or trapped in a huge traffic jam, turn off your engine. Across the country, idling cars waste millions of gallons of gasoline every day. If your wait is longer than 30 seconds, restarting the engine uses less gas than leaving it running.
4. Commute Smarter
Share a ride to work, telecommute or use transit. If your daily commute is just 10 miles each way (the national average) and you normally drive a 20-mpg vehicle, you would save 236 gallons of gas each year by opting to carpool, telecommute or use transit. If each commuter car carried just one more passenger once a week, we would cut America's gasoline consumption by about 7.7 million gallons.
5. Get in Tune
Take your car in for regular maintenance (check your owner's manual to find out how often your car needs a tune-up). Following the recommended maintenance schedule keeps your car running better and longer. A poorly tuned or poorly maintained engine can increase gasoline consumption by as much as 15 percent.
6. Use Good Motor Oil
Choose a fuel-efficient motor oil marked with an "Energy Conserving" label by the American Petroleum Institute. Motor oils with additives that reduce friction can increase a vehicle's fuel economy by 3 percent or more.
7. Buy an Efficient Car
If you're in the market for a new car, get one that uses less gas. Think about how big a vehicle you really need. Then compare models in the same class, and pick the one with the highest miles-per-gallon rating.
1. Pump It Up
Check your tire pressure. More than a quarter of all cars and nearly one-third of all SUVs, vans and pickups have under-inflated tires, according to a survey by the Department of Transportation. If we all keep our tires pumped up right, the nation could save 200,000 barrels of oil a day.
2. Slow It Down
Ease up on the pedal. Slowing down from 75 to 65 miles per hour will drop your highway gasoline consumption about 15 percent. That's money in your pocket.
3. Cut the Engine
If you're stuck at a freight train crossing, waiting to pick up a teenager or trapped in a huge traffic jam, turn off your engine. Across the country, idling cars waste millions of gallons of gasoline every day. If your wait is longer than 30 seconds, restarting the engine uses less gas than leaving it running.
4. Commute Smarter
Share a ride to work, telecommute or use transit. If your daily commute is just 10 miles each way (the national average) and you normally drive a 20-mpg vehicle, you would save 236 gallons of gas each year by opting to carpool, telecommute or use transit. If each commuter car carried just one more passenger once a week, we would cut America's gasoline consumption by about 7.7 million gallons.
5. Get in Tune
Take your car in for regular maintenance (check your owner's manual to find out how often your car needs a tune-up). Following the recommended maintenance schedule keeps your car running better and longer. A poorly tuned or poorly maintained engine can increase gasoline consumption by as much as 15 percent.
6. Use Good Motor Oil
Choose a fuel-efficient motor oil marked with an "Energy Conserving" label by the American Petroleum Institute. Motor oils with additives that reduce friction can increase a vehicle's fuel economy by 3 percent or more.
7. Buy an Efficient Car
If you're in the market for a new car, get one that uses less gas. Think about how big a vehicle you really need. Then compare models in the same class, and pick the one with the highest miles-per-gallon rating.
THE LAW OF THE SEED
Take a look at an apple tree. There might be five hundred apples on the Tree, each with ten seeds. That's a lot of seeds!
We might ask, "Why would you need so many seeds to grow just a few more Trees?"
Nature has something to teach us here. It's telling us: "Most seeds never Grow. So if you really want to make something happen, you better try More than once."
This might mean:
You'll attend twenty interviews to get one job.
You'll interview forty people to find one good employee.
You'll talk to fifty people to sell one house, car, vacuum Cleaner, insurance policy, idea...
And you might meet a hundred acquaintances to find one special friend.
When we understand the "Law of the Seed", we don't get so disappointed.
We stop feeling like victims. Laws of nature are not things to take personally.
We just need to understand them - and work with them.
We might ask, "Why would you need so many seeds to grow just a few more Trees?"
Nature has something to teach us here. It's telling us: "Most seeds never Grow. So if you really want to make something happen, you better try More than once."
This might mean:
You'll attend twenty interviews to get one job.
You'll interview forty people to find one good employee.
You'll talk to fifty people to sell one house, car, vacuum Cleaner, insurance policy, idea...
And you might meet a hundred acquaintances to find one special friend.
When we understand the "Law of the Seed", we don't get so disappointed.
We stop feeling like victims. Laws of nature are not things to take personally.
We just need to understand them - and work with them.
5 DON'TS when you go to sleep
1 DON'T SLEEP WITH WATCH
Watches can emit a certain level of radioactivity. Though small, but if you wear your watch to bed for a long time, it might have adverse effects on your health.
2 DON'T SLEEP WITH BRA
Scientists in America have discovered those that wear bras for more than 12 hours have a higher risk of getting breast cancer. So go to bed without it.
3 DON'T SLEEP WITH PHONE
Putting the phone beside your bed or anywhere near you is not encouraged. Though some of us will use phones as alarm clocks, but please put the phone as far as possible. Scientists have proved that electrical items including mobile phone and television sets emit magnetic waves when used. These waves can cause disruptions to our nervous system. Therefore if you need to put your mobile phone near you, switch it off first.
4 DON'T SLEEP WITH MAKE UP
People who sleep with make up might have skin problems in the long run. Sleeping with make up will cause the skin to have difficulty in breathing and problem in perspiring. You will also need a much longer time to go into deep sleep.
Lastly.....
5 DON'T SLEEP WITH OTHERS' WIFE / HUSBAND
You may never wake up again.
Watches can emit a certain level of radioactivity. Though small, but if you wear your watch to bed for a long time, it might have adverse effects on your health.
2 DON'T SLEEP WITH BRA
Scientists in America have discovered those that wear bras for more than 12 hours have a higher risk of getting breast cancer. So go to bed without it.
3 DON'T SLEEP WITH PHONE
Putting the phone beside your bed or anywhere near you is not encouraged. Though some of us will use phones as alarm clocks, but please put the phone as far as possible. Scientists have proved that electrical items including mobile phone and television sets emit magnetic waves when used. These waves can cause disruptions to our nervous system. Therefore if you need to put your mobile phone near you, switch it off first.
4 DON'T SLEEP WITH MAKE UP
People who sleep with make up might have skin problems in the long run. Sleeping with make up will cause the skin to have difficulty in breathing and problem in perspiring. You will also need a much longer time to go into deep sleep.
Lastly.....
5 DON'T SLEEP WITH OTHERS' WIFE / HUSBAND
You may never wake up again.
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Be aware with bottled water in car
Bottled water in your car.....very dangerous, woman!!!!
This is how Sheryl Crow got breast cancer. She was on the Ellen show and said this same exact thing. This has been identified as the mostcommon cause of the high levels in breast cancer, especially in Australia .
A friend whose mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The Doctor told her: women should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car.
The doctor said that the heat and the plastic of the bottle have certain chemicals that can lead to breast cancer. So please be carefuland do not drink bottled water that has been left in a car, and, pass this on to all the women in your life.
This information is the kind we need to know and be aware and just might save us!!!! The heat causes toxins from the plastic to leak into thewater and they have found these toxins in breast tissue. Use a stainless steel Canteen or a glass bottle when you can!!!
Let every one that has a wife/girfriend and daughter know please.
This is how Sheryl Crow got breast cancer. She was on the Ellen show and said this same exact thing. This has been identified as the mostcommon cause of the high levels in breast cancer, especially in Australia .
A friend whose mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The Doctor told her: women should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car.
The doctor said that the heat and the plastic of the bottle have certain chemicals that can lead to breast cancer. So please be carefuland do not drink bottled water that has been left in a car, and, pass this on to all the women in your life.
This information is the kind we need to know and be aware and just might save us!!!! The heat causes toxins from the plastic to leak into thewater and they have found these toxins in breast tissue. Use a stainless steel Canteen or a glass bottle when you can!!!
Let every one that has a wife/girfriend and daughter know please.
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Some health tips for you
Some health tips for you
1. Answer the phone by LEFT ear
2. Do not drink coffee TWICE a day
3. Do not take pills with COOL water
4. Do not have HUGE meals after 5pm
5. Reduce the amount of TEA you consume
6. Reduce the amount of OILY food you consume
7. Drink more WATER in the morning, less at night
8. Keep your distance from hand phone CHARGERS
9. Do not use headphones/earphone for LONG period of time
10. Best sleeping time is from 10 pm at night to 6 am in the morning
11. Do not lie down immediately after taking medicine before sleeping
12. When battery is down to the LAST grid/bar, do not answer the phone as the radiation is 1000 times
1. Answer the phone by LEFT ear
2. Do not drink coffee TWICE a day
3. Do not take pills with COOL water
4. Do not have HUGE meals after 5pm
5. Reduce the amount of TEA you consume
6. Reduce the amount of OILY food you consume
7. Drink more WATER in the morning, less at night
8. Keep your distance from hand phone CHARGERS
9. Do not use headphones/earphone for LONG period of time
10. Best sleeping time is from 10 pm at night to 6 am in the morning
11. Do not lie down immediately after taking medicine before sleeping
12. When battery is down to the LAST grid/bar, do not answer the phone as the radiation is 1000 times
So You think you Know everything
A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.
A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours!
A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
A snail can sleep for three years.
Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
Almonds are a member of the peach family.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
Butterflies taste with their feet.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10. "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.
It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.
On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.
The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.
The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes) .
There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
There are more chickens than people in the world.
There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."
There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.
Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.
A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours!
A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
A snail can sleep for three years.
Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
Almonds are a member of the peach family.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
Butterflies taste with their feet.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10. "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.
It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.
On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.
The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.
The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes) .
There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
There are more chickens than people in the world.
There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."
There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.
Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.
Monday, 21 April 2008
Managing Self-Esteem
10 Tips for Managing Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is how we feel about ourselves, how confident we are, how accomplished we feel. For some of us, however, it can go up and down. One day we might feel really on top of things, great about ourselves, unafraid to try anything. Another day, we're just as likely to feel completely at the bottom, unsure of ourselves, afraid to say or do everything.
What is it about self-esteem that keeps it on this rollercoaster path? How can we even it out to raise or eliminate those lows?
Here are 10 tips to help us conquer those low days and level out our self-esteem track:
1. Review a previous accomplishment: Most of us have learned how, at an early age, to master something, such as riding a bicycle. Learning to ride one of those contraptions isn't easy, either. It requires a process of hand/eye/brain/ body/machine coordination that takes time. Getting on a bike for the first time is an unsettling experience. Nothing could feel more foreign than sitting on a chunk of rubber-tired metal trying to steer it, pedal it and stay on it all at once, while avoiding obstacles. In fact, on a bike, it's most likely that during the first few attempts at learning to ride, we see and then head straight for the very obstacle we need to avoid.
But we get better at it, some of us more slowly than others, until one day, suddenly we realize we're not struggling. We're not even thinking about where our hands and feet are. We're riding our bike!!
2. Start small and do a task you can accomplish easily. There's no faster way to build self-esteem than to add yet another accomplishment to your roster. And it always feels good to get something crossed off our to-do list.
3. Forgive yourself for the things you're not good at. Some of us are lousy cooks. Some of us are bad at relationships. We make mistakes, even when we're trying our best. Sometimes you just have to apologize, let it go and move on. Nobody says we all have to be experts at everything, thank goodness!
4. Praise yourself for the things you do well. Not everyone has your unique abilities and talents. Don't sell yourself short. It isn't wrong or egotistical to praise ourselves. In fact, it's a good re-parenting technique to learn how to pat yourself on the back a little when you accomplish something you do well, in record time or with excellent results. Learn how to enjoy a few minutes of self-congratulation s instead of jumping right into the next task as if nothing happened, or dismissing it as meaningless. It does mean something.
5. Ignore yourself. Sometimes the real problem isn't self-esteem at all but a tendency toward overthinking. Direct your focus to other things. Give it a rest already.
6. Consider your physical and mental states at these times of "low self-esteem. " Are you tired, hungry, overloaded? We tend to pile abuses on ourselves at such times. Let feelings of low self-esteem serve as signals that you need a break, a nap, an apple, a nice glass of water.
7. Talk to a friend who will contradict you. It's easier to see how we shape our own wrong view of ourselves when we get help from someone who knows us and can itemize what they think is great about us.
8. Examine the pattern of highs and lows. How long has it been since you felt good about yourself? Was it last week when you turned in a report at work that earned you a compliment from the boss? Was it a month ago? What happened after that? Perhaps you're just in a "praise starvation" mode-it's been too long since you got a compliment or got to do anything that someone noticed. Or perhaps you started the downward spiral when you said the wrong thing to someone. See No. 3.
9. Get some exercise, or, if you're already exercising and not getting any results or feeling like you've hit a plateau, stop for a day. Physical activity causes the body to release endorphins which make us feel better, more relaxed. If you've been focusing on one type of exercise, vary that routine and try a different type. If you don't exercise, go for a walk. Even the change of scenery will do you good. It also forces your perspective to change a little, and you may see yourself in a better light.
10. Examine your needs. Some people need more praise from others than other people do. Some people need to always be accomplishing something, or they feel let down. In other words, it could very well be that you're fine, but you're just in a slower activity period right now, so it feels like you feel bad, when you really don't. Or maybe whatever it is that you're feeling bad about (interviewing for a new job, for example) is scaring you, and your feelings of low self-esteem are just forcing you to work on being prepared.
It's always good to remember that self-esteem is a mental construct. Some professionals don't even believe it exists. Our sense of wellbeing is an illusory thing that can be manipulated by our own beliefs and attitudes, our moods, our physical health. It can also be affected, if we let it, by externals, such as other people, events, the weather, how much sleep we've had, even what we eat that day. So it isn't just "all in our heads."
Choosing to follow a practical approach for managing our self-esteem will prevent it from becoming a problem and keep us off that rollercoaster.
Self-esteem is how we feel about ourselves, how confident we are, how accomplished we feel. For some of us, however, it can go up and down. One day we might feel really on top of things, great about ourselves, unafraid to try anything. Another day, we're just as likely to feel completely at the bottom, unsure of ourselves, afraid to say or do everything.
What is it about self-esteem that keeps it on this rollercoaster path? How can we even it out to raise or eliminate those lows?
Here are 10 tips to help us conquer those low days and level out our self-esteem track:
1. Review a previous accomplishment: Most of us have learned how, at an early age, to master something, such as riding a bicycle. Learning to ride one of those contraptions isn't easy, either. It requires a process of hand/eye/brain/ body/machine coordination that takes time. Getting on a bike for the first time is an unsettling experience. Nothing could feel more foreign than sitting on a chunk of rubber-tired metal trying to steer it, pedal it and stay on it all at once, while avoiding obstacles. In fact, on a bike, it's most likely that during the first few attempts at learning to ride, we see and then head straight for the very obstacle we need to avoid.
But we get better at it, some of us more slowly than others, until one day, suddenly we realize we're not struggling. We're not even thinking about where our hands and feet are. We're riding our bike!!
2. Start small and do a task you can accomplish easily. There's no faster way to build self-esteem than to add yet another accomplishment to your roster. And it always feels good to get something crossed off our to-do list.
3. Forgive yourself for the things you're not good at. Some of us are lousy cooks. Some of us are bad at relationships. We make mistakes, even when we're trying our best. Sometimes you just have to apologize, let it go and move on. Nobody says we all have to be experts at everything, thank goodness!
4. Praise yourself for the things you do well. Not everyone has your unique abilities and talents. Don't sell yourself short. It isn't wrong or egotistical to praise ourselves. In fact, it's a good re-parenting technique to learn how to pat yourself on the back a little when you accomplish something you do well, in record time or with excellent results. Learn how to enjoy a few minutes of self-congratulation s instead of jumping right into the next task as if nothing happened, or dismissing it as meaningless. It does mean something.
5. Ignore yourself. Sometimes the real problem isn't self-esteem at all but a tendency toward overthinking. Direct your focus to other things. Give it a rest already.
6. Consider your physical and mental states at these times of "low self-esteem. " Are you tired, hungry, overloaded? We tend to pile abuses on ourselves at such times. Let feelings of low self-esteem serve as signals that you need a break, a nap, an apple, a nice glass of water.
7. Talk to a friend who will contradict you. It's easier to see how we shape our own wrong view of ourselves when we get help from someone who knows us and can itemize what they think is great about us.
8. Examine the pattern of highs and lows. How long has it been since you felt good about yourself? Was it last week when you turned in a report at work that earned you a compliment from the boss? Was it a month ago? What happened after that? Perhaps you're just in a "praise starvation" mode-it's been too long since you got a compliment or got to do anything that someone noticed. Or perhaps you started the downward spiral when you said the wrong thing to someone. See No. 3.
9. Get some exercise, or, if you're already exercising and not getting any results or feeling like you've hit a plateau, stop for a day. Physical activity causes the body to release endorphins which make us feel better, more relaxed. If you've been focusing on one type of exercise, vary that routine and try a different type. If you don't exercise, go for a walk. Even the change of scenery will do you good. It also forces your perspective to change a little, and you may see yourself in a better light.
10. Examine your needs. Some people need more praise from others than other people do. Some people need to always be accomplishing something, or they feel let down. In other words, it could very well be that you're fine, but you're just in a slower activity period right now, so it feels like you feel bad, when you really don't. Or maybe whatever it is that you're feeling bad about (interviewing for a new job, for example) is scaring you, and your feelings of low self-esteem are just forcing you to work on being prepared.
It's always good to remember that self-esteem is a mental construct. Some professionals don't even believe it exists. Our sense of wellbeing is an illusory thing that can be manipulated by our own beliefs and attitudes, our moods, our physical health. It can also be affected, if we let it, by externals, such as other people, events, the weather, how much sleep we've had, even what we eat that day. So it isn't just "all in our heads."
Choosing to follow a practical approach for managing our self-esteem will prevent it from becoming a problem and keep us off that rollercoaster.
Thursday, 17 April 2008
The Greatest Power in life-LOVE
The Greatest Power in life-LOVE
L O V E
L ove is the greatest power in life
O cean of life is so scary.People need Love for encouragement
V arious ways can be used to show Love to others
E xpress your love to others not just by words, but also by action
L O V E
L ove is the greatest power in life
O cean of life is so scary.People need Love for encouragement
V arious ways can be used to show Love to others
E xpress your love to others not just by words, but also by action
Meditation for relaxation
In the current period of rapid and life stress, disease, we must find something to a balance between relaxing rhythms in our lives.
This can be achieved through meditation, exercises simple, practical, when, on regular basis, and perfection is in your life, clarity, understanding and a sense of calm.
Most people today, as a result, in the exercise of property and has secured a commitment, either in their work or the financial statement. In the western world, not to forget that the lives of more advantages as a secular, and while he was permanently on respect, alas, it is based on material success.
So even if we can achieve our goals and to obtain material things, we can find another, we have a feeling of emptiness in our lives. This is due to the fact that we have not increased our emotional and spiritual needs, we tend to be done to meet those needs in the context of the belief that we are some of the economic status.
And therein, emotional and mental stress and the disease manifests itself in our lives, families begin to fall, and next to the marriage apart.
Through meditation brings a sense of balance in her life, it can be used for greater clarity and understanding in practice, your internal needs, and
The responsibility of all sectors, the necessary care.
Meditation is to improve your intuitive ability, you can become aware of the needs of other people around you. His health improved, safer physically and mentally, you can treat your body and repair itself more efficiently.
This can be achieved through meditation, exercises simple, practical, when, on regular basis, and perfection is in your life, clarity, understanding and a sense of calm.
Most people today, as a result, in the exercise of property and has secured a commitment, either in their work or the financial statement. In the western world, not to forget that the lives of more advantages as a secular, and while he was permanently on respect, alas, it is based on material success.
So even if we can achieve our goals and to obtain material things, we can find another, we have a feeling of emptiness in our lives. This is due to the fact that we have not increased our emotional and spiritual needs, we tend to be done to meet those needs in the context of the belief that we are some of the economic status.
And therein, emotional and mental stress and the disease manifests itself in our lives, families begin to fall, and next to the marriage apart.
Through meditation brings a sense of balance in her life, it can be used for greater clarity and understanding in practice, your internal needs, and
The responsibility of all sectors, the necessary care.
Meditation is to improve your intuitive ability, you can become aware of the needs of other people around you. His health improved, safer physically and mentally, you can treat your body and repair itself more efficiently.
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
Some Rules Cannot be Followed
A lady manager of a big reputed office noticed a new man one day and told him to come into her office.
" What is your name?" was the first thing she asked the new guy.
"John ," the new guy replied.
She scowled, "Look... I don't know what kind of a namby-pamby place you worked before, but I don't call anyone by their first name. It breeds familiarity and that leads to a breakdown in authority.
I refer to my employees by their last name only ... Smith, Jones, Baker ...that's all.
I am to be referred to only as Mrs. Robertson. Now that we got that straight, what is your last name?"
The new guy sighed, "Darling.... . ....... My name is John Darling."
" Okay John, the next thing I want to tell you is . . . "
" What is your name?" was the first thing she asked the new guy.
"John ," the new guy replied.
She scowled, "Look... I don't know what kind of a namby-pamby place you worked before, but I don't call anyone by their first name. It breeds familiarity and that leads to a breakdown in authority.
I refer to my employees by their last name only ... Smith, Jones, Baker ...that's all.
I am to be referred to only as Mrs. Robertson. Now that we got that straight, what is your last name?"
The new guy sighed, "Darling.... . ....... My name is John Darling."
" Okay John, the next thing I want to tell you is . . . "
Hope, Trust and Confidence
CONFIDENCE:
1 Day all villagers decided to pray for rain.
On the day of prayer all people gathered & only one boy come with umbrella. THATS CONFIDENCE.
TRUST:
Trust should be like feeling of a 1 year old baby, when you throw him in the air, he laughs....
Because he know you will catch him...
HOPE:
Every night we go to bed, have no assurance to get up alive in the next morning
But still we have many plans for coming day...
KEEP CONFIDENCE, TRUST IN GOD AND NEVER LOSE HOPE...
1 Day all villagers decided to pray for rain.
On the day of prayer all people gathered & only one boy come with umbrella. THATS CONFIDENCE.
TRUST:
Trust should be like feeling of a 1 year old baby, when you throw him in the air, he laughs....
Because he know you will catch him...
HOPE:
Every night we go to bed, have no assurance to get up alive in the next morning
But still we have many plans for coming day...
KEEP CONFIDENCE, TRUST IN GOD AND NEVER LOSE HOPE...
Seven Secrets Of Success
Roof said : Aim high !
Fan said : Be cool !
Clock said : Every minute precious !
Mirror said : Reflect before you act !
Window said : See the world !
Calender said : Be upto date !
Door said : Push hard (the oportunity door) to achieve your goal !
All the best !!
Fan said : Be cool !
Clock said : Every minute precious !
Mirror said : Reflect before you act !
Window said : See the world !
Calender said : Be upto date !
Door said : Push hard (the oportunity door) to achieve your goal !
All the best !!
Communicate with Confidence
When you have an important event to attend there are 7 great ways to make sure you perform at your very best. These tips are relevant for social events and business meetings. Discover how to communicate with confidence while making great conversation.
1. Decide what you want to say before the event . Review it in your mind to make sure it sounds okay. Keep rehearsing it until you can say it with conviction and confidence.
2. Consider your potential listeners. Who will you be talking to and which topics of conversation will be welcome? You need to make sure your message matches your audience.
3. Be yourself. The worst mistake is to pretend you are something you are not. People will see through you and distrust everything you say. Even if you communicate clearly and with confidence.
4. Never expect things to work out perfectly. Be ready to deal with problems by deciding in advance what you will do. What will you do if people ignore your input? Now is the time to decide and not later on in the heat of the moment.
5. Be flexible in your approach. Different people need to be treated differently. Pay very close attention to how people respond to what you say and keep adjusting your approach until you have a good rapport with your listener.
6. Make the other person the focus of your attention and let him lead the conversation in the early stages. Let that person steer the conversation onto topics that are of interest to him.
7. Anticipate what could go wrong . Then do what you can to make sure those scenarios do not occur. Adequate planning is the key to performing at your best in the moment.
1. Decide what you want to say before the event . Review it in your mind to make sure it sounds okay. Keep rehearsing it until you can say it with conviction and confidence.
2. Consider your potential listeners. Who will you be talking to and which topics of conversation will be welcome? You need to make sure your message matches your audience.
3. Be yourself. The worst mistake is to pretend you are something you are not. People will see through you and distrust everything you say. Even if you communicate clearly and with confidence.
4. Never expect things to work out perfectly. Be ready to deal with problems by deciding in advance what you will do. What will you do if people ignore your input? Now is the time to decide and not later on in the heat of the moment.
5. Be flexible in your approach. Different people need to be treated differently. Pay very close attention to how people respond to what you say and keep adjusting your approach until you have a good rapport with your listener.
6. Make the other person the focus of your attention and let him lead the conversation in the early stages. Let that person steer the conversation onto topics that are of interest to him.
7. Anticipate what could go wrong . Then do what you can to make sure those scenarios do not occur. Adequate planning is the key to performing at your best in the moment.
The Fruit of Love ~ C A R E
The Fruit of Love ~ C A R E
C are is the fruit of Love
A magnificent character of a beautiful soul
R efresh everybody’s hunger by showing CARE
E njoy and build strong relationship with your neighbours
. by expressing CARE
By Daniel N Suhadi
mikeva@cbn.net. id
C are is the fruit of Love
A magnificent character of a beautiful soul
R efresh everybody’s hunger by showing CARE
E njoy and build strong relationship with your neighbours
. by expressing CARE
By Daniel N Suhadi
mikeva@cbn.net. id
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
The Book Of Confidence
"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy."
Norman Vincent Peale
"People who ask confidently get more than those who are hesitant and uncertain. When you've figured out what you want to ask for, do it with certainty, boldness and confidence."
Jack Canfield
"When you allow yourself to begin to dream big dreams, creatively abandon the activities that are taking up too much of your time, and focus your inward energies on alleviating your main constraints, you start to feel an incredible sense of power and confidence."
Brian Tracy
"Confidence can get you where you want to go, and getting there is a daily process. It's so much easier when you feel good about yourself, your abilities and talents."
Donald Trump
"Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act."
Jack Welch
"There was never any fear for me, no fear of failure. If I miss a shot, so what?"
Michael Jordan
"It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always."
Oprah Winfrey
"Anything's possible if you've got enough nerve."
J. K. Rowling
"Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person."
Albert Einstein
"You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety."
Abraham Maslow
"Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish."
Sam Walton
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."
Helen Keller
"Whatever you fear most has no power.. it is your fear that has the power."
Oprah Winfrey
"How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I'm committed to?"
Anthony Robbins
"We are not animals. We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice."
Stephen Covey
"Through persistence, self-knowledge, prayer, commitment, optimism, a resolute trust in God and the building of your own personal moral strength, you can enjoy the blessings of a deeper faith and face the difficulties of life with courage and confidence."
Norman Vincent Peale
"Even if you haven't encountered great success yet, there is no reason you can't bluff a little and act like you have. Confidence is a magnet in the best sense of the word. It will draw people to you and make your daily life.. and theirs.. a lot more pleasant."
Donald Trump
"I knew there was a way out. I knew there was another kind of life because I had read about it. I knew there were other places, and there was another way of being."
Oprah Winfrey
"If you wait until all the lights are 'green' before you leave home, you'll never get started on your trip to the top.
Zig Ziglar
"The starting point of great success and achievement has always been the same. It is for you to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that works faster than for you to cast off your own limitations than for you to begin dreaming and fantasizing about the wonderful things that you can become, have, and do."
Brian Tracy
"You are the only person on earth who can use your ability."
Zig Ziglar
"We create stress for ourselves because you feel like you have to do it. You have to. I don't feel that anymore."
Oprah Winfrey
"A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That's where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It's having backbone."
Robert Kiyosaki
"Here at work we're all just trying to get a job done. My people have the confidence of their convictions and they know their skills."
Bill Gates
"The old saying that 'success breeds success' has something to it. It's that feeling of confidence that can banish negativity and procrastination and get you going the right way."
Donald Trump
"Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all."
Norman Vincent Peale
"Remember, a real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided."
Anthony Robbins
"Competition is always a fantastic thing, and the computer industry is intensely competitive. Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes."
Bill Gates
"We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals."
Stephen Covey
"Every day, you'll have opportunities to take chances and to work outside your safety net. Sure, it's a lot easier to stay in your comfort zone.. in my case, business suits and real estate.. but sometimes you have to take risks. When the risks pay off, that's when you reap the biggest rewards."
Donald Trump
"Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constant."
Walt Disney
"Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently."
Henry Ford
"Confidence is the most important single factor in this game, and no matter how great your natural talent, there is only one way to obtain and sustain it: work."
Jack Nicklaus
"A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power."
Brian Tracy
"Some of the best business and nonprofit CEOs I've worked with over a sixty-five-year consulting career were not stereotypical leaders. They were all over the map in terms of their personalities, attitudes, values, strengths, and weaknesses."
Peter Drucker
"I am not looking like Armani today and somebody else tomorrow. I look like Ralph Lauren. And my goal is to constantly move in fashion and move in style without giving up what I am."
Ralph Lauren
"I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it."
Edgar Allan Poe
"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent."
Eleanor Roosevelt
"People ask how can a Jewish kid from the Bronx do preppy clothes? Does it have to do with class and money? It has to do with dreams."
Ralph Lauren
"Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right."
Henry Ford
"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I'm not old enough to play baseball or football. I'm not eight yet. My mom told me when you start baseball, you aren't going to be able to run that fast because you had an operation. I told Mom I wouldn't need to run that fast. When I play baseball, I'll just hit them out of the park. Then I'll be able to walk."
Edward J. McGrath, Jr.
"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
Sir Edmund Hillary
"Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway."
Mary Kay Ash
"What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates his fate."
Henry David Thoreau
"Even if you're extremely skilled and talented, a lack of self-confidence can prevent you from performing at your best in pressure situations."
Steve Pavlina
"The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership."
Colin Powell
"The history of the world is full of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity."
Mahatma Gandhi
"What is it that you like doing? If you don't like it, get out of it, because you'll be lousy at it. You don't have to stay with a job for the rest of your life, because if you don't like it you'll never be successful in it."
Lee Iacocca
"It makes no sense to worry about things you have no control over because there's nothing you can do about them, and why worry about things you do control? The activity of worrying keeps you immobilized."
Wayne Dyer
"If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability."
Henry Ford
"I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among men the greatest asset I possess. The way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement."
Charles Schwab
"High expectations are the key to everything."
Sam Walton
"I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success."
Jack Welch
"The older I get, the more centered I become and the more I think I really know about myself. What I know is that what other people do doesn't really have any effect on me."
Oprah Winfrey
"The worst things in history have happened when people stop thinking for themselves, especially when they allow themselves to be influenced by negative people. That's what gives rise to dictators. Avoid that at all costs. Stop it first on a personal level, and you will have contributed to world sanity as well as your own."
Donald Trump
"Ever notice how your senses are heightened when you are in challenging situations? You're experiencing an adrenaline rush that gives you extra energy. If you see every day as a challenge, you'd be surprised how efficient you can become, and how much can be accomplished."
Donald Trump
"A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done."
Ralph Lauren
"I mean, there's no arguing. There is no anything. There is no beating around the bush. 'You're fired' is a very strong term."
Donald Trump
"I have always loved the competitive forces in this business. You know I certainly have meetings where I spur people on by saying, 'Hey, we can do better than this. How come we are not out ahead on that?' Thats what keeps my job one of the most interesting in the world."
Bill Gates
"Only those who are asleep make no mistakes."
Ingvar Kamprad
"A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships."
Helen Keller
"If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation."
Helen Keller
"If you're a car salesman, and someone says 'This is a terrible car, I'm not buying it,' it doesn't mean they hate you. They just don't like your product. I think that's a mistake a lot of people in show business make.. they're so tied to their act they take everything personally."
Jay Leno
"We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible."
Vince Lombardi
"It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you've got to have is faith and discipline when you're not yet a winner."
Vince Lombardi
"It's easy to have principles when you're rich. The important thing is to have principles when you're poor."
Ray Kroc
"Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant."
Anthony Robbins
"You don't have to be the biggest to beat the biggest."
Ross Perot
"An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while the pessimist sees only the red stoplight. The truly wise person is colorblind."
Albert Schweitzer
"Each of us has much more hidden inside us than we have had a chance to explore. Unless we create an environment that enables us to discover the limits of our potential, we will never know what we have inside of us."
Muhammad Yunus
"We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!"
Winston Churchill
"If I set for myself a task, be it so trifling, I shall see it through. How else shall I have confidence in myself to do important things?"
George Clason
"Of all the things that can have an effect on your future, I believe personal growth is the greatest. We can talk about sales growth, profit growth, asset growth, but all of this probably will not happen without personal growth."
Jim Rohn
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained to liberation from the self."
Albert Einstein
"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
Nelson Mandela
"I made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And no hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me. And I have done that ever since, and I win by it. I know."
Colonel Sanders
"Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never peril."
Sun Tzu
"The most important thing is God's blessing and if you believe in God and you believe in yourself, you have nothing to worry about."
Mohamed Al-Fayed
"A big part of financial freedom is having your heart and mind free from worry about the what-ifs of life."
Suze Orman
"The turning point, I think, was when I really realized that you can do it yourself. That you have to believe in you because sometimes that's the only person that does believe in your success but you."
Tim Blixseth
"Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit."
Conrad Hilton
"One of the things that may get in the way of people being lifelong learners is that they're not in touch with their passion. If you're passionate about what it is you do, then you're going to be looking for everything you can to get better at it."
Jack Canfield
"I'm pretty passionate about things I do, and particularly at this age, because I don't have to do the things I don't want to, and I've got more things that I do want to do than I can do."
Dr Phil
"There is a certain degree of satisfaction in having the courage to admit one's errors. It not only clears up the air of guilt and defensiveness, but often helps solve the problem created by the error."
Dale Carnegie
"The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people's opinions.."
Paulo Coelho
"In life and business, there are two cardinal sins.. The first is to act precipitously without thought and the second is to not act at all."
Carl Icahn
"I have to say I've made many mistakes, and been humbled many, many times. But you know what? It's never too late to learn."
Kathy Ireland
"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes."
Oscar Wilde
"You have to pretend you're 100 percent sure. You have to take action; you can't hesitate or hedge your bets. Anything less will condemn your efforts to failure."
Andrew Grove
"Failure is a word I don't accept."
John H. Johnson
"I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot.. when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result."
Michael Jordan
"With engineering, I view this year's failure as next year's opportunity to try it again. Failures are not something to be avoided. You want to have them happen as quickly as you can so you can make progress rapidly."
Gordon Moore
"Success is not built on success. It's built on failure. It's built on frustration. Sometimes its built on catastrophe."
Sumner Redstone
"Don't let anyone say you can't do it."
John Ilhan
"If you don't have enemies, you don't have character."
Paul Newman
"My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment."
Oprah Winfrey
"Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve."
Mary Kay Ash
"If you want more, you have to require more from yourself."
Dr Phil
"One of the marks of excellent people is that they never compare themselves with others. They only compare themselves with themselves and with their past accomplishments and future potential."
Brian Tracy
Norman Vincent Peale
"People who ask confidently get more than those who are hesitant and uncertain. When you've figured out what you want to ask for, do it with certainty, boldness and confidence."
Jack Canfield
"When you allow yourself to begin to dream big dreams, creatively abandon the activities that are taking up too much of your time, and focus your inward energies on alleviating your main constraints, you start to feel an incredible sense of power and confidence."
Brian Tracy
"Confidence can get you where you want to go, and getting there is a daily process. It's so much easier when you feel good about yourself, your abilities and talents."
Donald Trump
"Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act."
Jack Welch
"There was never any fear for me, no fear of failure. If I miss a shot, so what?"
Michael Jordan
"It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always."
Oprah Winfrey
"Anything's possible if you've got enough nerve."
J. K. Rowling
"Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person."
Albert Einstein
"You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety."
Abraham Maslow
"Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish."
Sam Walton
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."
Helen Keller
"Whatever you fear most has no power.. it is your fear that has the power."
Oprah Winfrey
"How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I'm committed to?"
Anthony Robbins
"We are not animals. We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice."
Stephen Covey
"Through persistence, self-knowledge, prayer, commitment, optimism, a resolute trust in God and the building of your own personal moral strength, you can enjoy the blessings of a deeper faith and face the difficulties of life with courage and confidence."
Norman Vincent Peale
"Even if you haven't encountered great success yet, there is no reason you can't bluff a little and act like you have. Confidence is a magnet in the best sense of the word. It will draw people to you and make your daily life.. and theirs.. a lot more pleasant."
Donald Trump
"I knew there was a way out. I knew there was another kind of life because I had read about it. I knew there were other places, and there was another way of being."
Oprah Winfrey
"If you wait until all the lights are 'green' before you leave home, you'll never get started on your trip to the top.
Zig Ziglar
"The starting point of great success and achievement has always been the same. It is for you to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that works faster than for you to cast off your own limitations than for you to begin dreaming and fantasizing about the wonderful things that you can become, have, and do."
Brian Tracy
"You are the only person on earth who can use your ability."
Zig Ziglar
"We create stress for ourselves because you feel like you have to do it. You have to. I don't feel that anymore."
Oprah Winfrey
"A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That's where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It's having backbone."
Robert Kiyosaki
"Here at work we're all just trying to get a job done. My people have the confidence of their convictions and they know their skills."
Bill Gates
"The old saying that 'success breeds success' has something to it. It's that feeling of confidence that can banish negativity and procrastination and get you going the right way."
Donald Trump
"Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all."
Norman Vincent Peale
"Remember, a real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided."
Anthony Robbins
"Competition is always a fantastic thing, and the computer industry is intensely competitive. Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes."
Bill Gates
"We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals."
Stephen Covey
"Every day, you'll have opportunities to take chances and to work outside your safety net. Sure, it's a lot easier to stay in your comfort zone.. in my case, business suits and real estate.. but sometimes you have to take risks. When the risks pay off, that's when you reap the biggest rewards."
Donald Trump
"Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constant."
Walt Disney
"Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently."
Henry Ford
"Confidence is the most important single factor in this game, and no matter how great your natural talent, there is only one way to obtain and sustain it: work."
Jack Nicklaus
"A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power."
Brian Tracy
"Some of the best business and nonprofit CEOs I've worked with over a sixty-five-year consulting career were not stereotypical leaders. They were all over the map in terms of their personalities, attitudes, values, strengths, and weaknesses."
Peter Drucker
"I am not looking like Armani today and somebody else tomorrow. I look like Ralph Lauren. And my goal is to constantly move in fashion and move in style without giving up what I am."
Ralph Lauren
"I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it."
Edgar Allan Poe
"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent."
Eleanor Roosevelt
"People ask how can a Jewish kid from the Bronx do preppy clothes? Does it have to do with class and money? It has to do with dreams."
Ralph Lauren
"Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right."
Henry Ford
"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I'm not old enough to play baseball or football. I'm not eight yet. My mom told me when you start baseball, you aren't going to be able to run that fast because you had an operation. I told Mom I wouldn't need to run that fast. When I play baseball, I'll just hit them out of the park. Then I'll be able to walk."
Edward J. McGrath, Jr.
"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
Sir Edmund Hillary
"Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway."
Mary Kay Ash
"What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates his fate."
Henry David Thoreau
"Even if you're extremely skilled and talented, a lack of self-confidence can prevent you from performing at your best in pressure situations."
Steve Pavlina
"The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership."
Colin Powell
"The history of the world is full of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity."
Mahatma Gandhi
"What is it that you like doing? If you don't like it, get out of it, because you'll be lousy at it. You don't have to stay with a job for the rest of your life, because if you don't like it you'll never be successful in it."
Lee Iacocca
"It makes no sense to worry about things you have no control over because there's nothing you can do about them, and why worry about things you do control? The activity of worrying keeps you immobilized."
Wayne Dyer
"If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability."
Henry Ford
"I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among men the greatest asset I possess. The way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement."
Charles Schwab
"High expectations are the key to everything."
Sam Walton
"I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success."
Jack Welch
"The older I get, the more centered I become and the more I think I really know about myself. What I know is that what other people do doesn't really have any effect on me."
Oprah Winfrey
"The worst things in history have happened when people stop thinking for themselves, especially when they allow themselves to be influenced by negative people. That's what gives rise to dictators. Avoid that at all costs. Stop it first on a personal level, and you will have contributed to world sanity as well as your own."
Donald Trump
"Ever notice how your senses are heightened when you are in challenging situations? You're experiencing an adrenaline rush that gives you extra energy. If you see every day as a challenge, you'd be surprised how efficient you can become, and how much can be accomplished."
Donald Trump
"A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done."
Ralph Lauren
"I mean, there's no arguing. There is no anything. There is no beating around the bush. 'You're fired' is a very strong term."
Donald Trump
"I have always loved the competitive forces in this business. You know I certainly have meetings where I spur people on by saying, 'Hey, we can do better than this. How come we are not out ahead on that?' Thats what keeps my job one of the most interesting in the world."
Bill Gates
"Only those who are asleep make no mistakes."
Ingvar Kamprad
"A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships."
Helen Keller
"If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation."
Helen Keller
"If you're a car salesman, and someone says 'This is a terrible car, I'm not buying it,' it doesn't mean they hate you. They just don't like your product. I think that's a mistake a lot of people in show business make.. they're so tied to their act they take everything personally."
Jay Leno
"We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible."
Vince Lombardi
"It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you've got to have is faith and discipline when you're not yet a winner."
Vince Lombardi
"It's easy to have principles when you're rich. The important thing is to have principles when you're poor."
Ray Kroc
"Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant."
Anthony Robbins
"You don't have to be the biggest to beat the biggest."
Ross Perot
"An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while the pessimist sees only the red stoplight. The truly wise person is colorblind."
Albert Schweitzer
"Each of us has much more hidden inside us than we have had a chance to explore. Unless we create an environment that enables us to discover the limits of our potential, we will never know what we have inside of us."
Muhammad Yunus
"We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!"
Winston Churchill
"If I set for myself a task, be it so trifling, I shall see it through. How else shall I have confidence in myself to do important things?"
George Clason
"Of all the things that can have an effect on your future, I believe personal growth is the greatest. We can talk about sales growth, profit growth, asset growth, but all of this probably will not happen without personal growth."
Jim Rohn
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained to liberation from the self."
Albert Einstein
"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
Nelson Mandela
"I made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And no hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me. And I have done that ever since, and I win by it. I know."
Colonel Sanders
"Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never peril."
Sun Tzu
"The most important thing is God's blessing and if you believe in God and you believe in yourself, you have nothing to worry about."
Mohamed Al-Fayed
"A big part of financial freedom is having your heart and mind free from worry about the what-ifs of life."
Suze Orman
"The turning point, I think, was when I really realized that you can do it yourself. That you have to believe in you because sometimes that's the only person that does believe in your success but you."
Tim Blixseth
"Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit."
Conrad Hilton
"One of the things that may get in the way of people being lifelong learners is that they're not in touch with their passion. If you're passionate about what it is you do, then you're going to be looking for everything you can to get better at it."
Jack Canfield
"I'm pretty passionate about things I do, and particularly at this age, because I don't have to do the things I don't want to, and I've got more things that I do want to do than I can do."
Dr Phil
"There is a certain degree of satisfaction in having the courage to admit one's errors. It not only clears up the air of guilt and defensiveness, but often helps solve the problem created by the error."
Dale Carnegie
"The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people's opinions.."
Paulo Coelho
"In life and business, there are two cardinal sins.. The first is to act precipitously without thought and the second is to not act at all."
Carl Icahn
"I have to say I've made many mistakes, and been humbled many, many times. But you know what? It's never too late to learn."
Kathy Ireland
"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes."
Oscar Wilde
"You have to pretend you're 100 percent sure. You have to take action; you can't hesitate or hedge your bets. Anything less will condemn your efforts to failure."
Andrew Grove
"Failure is a word I don't accept."
John H. Johnson
"I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot.. when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result."
Michael Jordan
"With engineering, I view this year's failure as next year's opportunity to try it again. Failures are not something to be avoided. You want to have them happen as quickly as you can so you can make progress rapidly."
Gordon Moore
"Success is not built on success. It's built on failure. It's built on frustration. Sometimes its built on catastrophe."
Sumner Redstone
"Don't let anyone say you can't do it."
John Ilhan
"If you don't have enemies, you don't have character."
Paul Newman
"My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment."
Oprah Winfrey
"Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve."
Mary Kay Ash
"If you want more, you have to require more from yourself."
Dr Phil
"One of the marks of excellent people is that they never compare themselves with others. They only compare themselves with themselves and with their past accomplishments and future potential."
Brian Tracy
Why did the chicken cross the road
* KINDERGARTEN TEACHER: To get to the other side.
* PLATO: For the greater good.
* THE POPE: God knows.
* POLICEMAN: Give me ten minutes with the chicken and I'll know why.
* ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross roads.
* SADDAM HUSSEIN: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.
* CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK: To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.
* MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives being called into question.
* MACHIAVELLI: The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why? The end of crossing the road justifies whatever motive there was.
* FREUD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.
* GEORGE W. BUSH (2): We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or it is against us. There is no middle ground here.
* DARWIN : Chickens, over great periods of time, have been naturally selected in such a way that they are now genetically disposed to cross roads.
* EINSTEIN: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road moved beneath the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.
* NELSON MANDELA: Never again, will the chicken be questioned for crossing the road. This is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
* THABO MBEKI: We need to establish if really there is a connection between the chicken and the road.
* MUGABE: For all of these years the road has been owned by the white farmers, the poor underprivileged chicken has waited too long for that road to be given to him and now he is crossing it in force with his fellow war veteran chickens. We intend taking over this road and giving it to the roadless chickens so that they can cross it without fear of retribution from Britain who promised money to institute road reform.
We will not stop until all roadless chickens have roads to cross and the freedom to cross them.
* ISAAC NEWTON: Any chicken in the universe shall always cross a road perpendicularly to the side of the road, and in an infinitely long straight line at uniform speed, unless the chicken stops due to an unbalanced reactive force in the opposite direction of the chicken's motion.
* ZANU (PF) Spokesman: The chicken did not cross the road. This is a complete fabrication. We don't even have a single chicken in our country as the whole world knows. All the chickens were bought and consumed by the long-suffering masses at give-away prices when we sent out our comrades to enforce what our enemies are now unpatriotically and maliciously referring to as the largest closing down sale in the world.
* JACOB ZUMA: I am gravely suspicious that this question is being asked with a malicious intention to trap me, send the Scorpions to raid my chicken run, haul me before the courts and charge me for sodomizing the chicken that walked across the road towards me as it was running away from an advancing light shower! Awuleth' umshini wam' ........!!!
* PLATO: For the greater good.
* THE POPE: God knows.
* POLICEMAN: Give me ten minutes with the chicken and I'll know why.
* ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross roads.
* SADDAM HUSSEIN: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.
* CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK: To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.
* MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives being called into question.
* MACHIAVELLI: The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why? The end of crossing the road justifies whatever motive there was.
* FREUD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.
* GEORGE W. BUSH (2): We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or it is against us. There is no middle ground here.
* DARWIN : Chickens, over great periods of time, have been naturally selected in such a way that they are now genetically disposed to cross roads.
* EINSTEIN: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road moved beneath the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.
* NELSON MANDELA: Never again, will the chicken be questioned for crossing the road. This is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
* THABO MBEKI: We need to establish if really there is a connection between the chicken and the road.
* MUGABE: For all of these years the road has been owned by the white farmers, the poor underprivileged chicken has waited too long for that road to be given to him and now he is crossing it in force with his fellow war veteran chickens. We intend taking over this road and giving it to the roadless chickens so that they can cross it without fear of retribution from Britain who promised money to institute road reform.
We will not stop until all roadless chickens have roads to cross and the freedom to cross them.
* ISAAC NEWTON: Any chicken in the universe shall always cross a road perpendicularly to the side of the road, and in an infinitely long straight line at uniform speed, unless the chicken stops due to an unbalanced reactive force in the opposite direction of the chicken's motion.
* ZANU (PF) Spokesman: The chicken did not cross the road. This is a complete fabrication. We don't even have a single chicken in our country as the whole world knows. All the chickens were bought and consumed by the long-suffering masses at give-away prices when we sent out our comrades to enforce what our enemies are now unpatriotically and maliciously referring to as the largest closing down sale in the world.
* JACOB ZUMA: I am gravely suspicious that this question is being asked with a malicious intention to trap me, send the Scorpions to raid my chicken run, haul me before the courts and charge me for sodomizing the chicken that walked across the road towards me as it was running away from an advancing light shower! Awuleth' umshini wam' ........!!!
Family - The most influencing place in life
F A M I L Y
F amily is the most influencing place in our life
A place where Character,Behaviour ,and Mindset are first shaped
M any are prepared to become winners but many unpurposedly fail and become loosers
I n a healthy family children are trainned to be the persons God wants them to be
L ove, Care,Understanding, and Affection are the most important tools in a family
Y our children will grow to be Winners of the century if you put God as the Director of your Family
F amily is the most influencing place in our life
A place where Character,Behaviour ,and Mindset are first shaped
M any are prepared to become winners but many unpurposedly fail and become loosers
I n a healthy family children are trainned to be the persons God wants them to be
L ove, Care,Understanding, and Affection are the most important tools in a family
Y our children will grow to be Winners of the century if you put God as the Director of your Family
Monday, 14 April 2008
Being A Mother
After 21 years of marriage, My wife wanted me to take another woman out to dinner and a movie. She said, "I love you, but I know this other woman loves you and would love to spend some time with you."
The other woman that my wife wanted me to visit was my MOTHER, who had been a widow for 19 years, but the demands of my work and my three children had made it impossible to visit her regularly, only occasionally.
That night I called to invite her to go out for dinner and a movie.
"What's wrong, are you well?," she asked?
My mother is the type of woman who suspects that a late night call or a surprise invitation is a sign of bad news.
"I thought that it would be pleasant to spend some time with you," I responded. "Just the two of us."
She thought about it for a moment, and then said, "I would like that very much."
That Friday after work, as I drove over to pick her up I was a bit nervous. When I arrived at her house, I noticed that she, too, seemed to be nervous about our date.
She waited in the door with her coat on. She had curled her hair and was wearing the dress that she had worn to celebrate her last wedding anniversary.
She smiled from a face that was as radiant as an angel's.
"I told my friends that I was going to go out with my son, and they were impressed," she said, as she got into the car.
"They can't wait to hear about our dinner."
We went to a restaurant that, although not elegant, was very nice and cozy. My mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady. After we sat down, I had to read the menu. Her eyes could only read large print. Half way through the entreis, I lifted my eyes and saw Mom sitting there staring at me. A nostalgic smile was on her lips.
"It was I who used to have to read the menu when you were small," she said.
"Then it's time that you relax and let me return the favor," I responded.
During the dinner, we had an agreeable conversation, nothing extraordinary but catching up on recent events of each other's life. We talked so much that we missed the movie.
As we arrived at her house later, she said, "I'll go out with you again, but only if you let me invite you." I agreed.
" How was your dinner date?" asked my wife when I got home.
"Very nice. Much more so than I could have imagined," I answered.
A few days later, my mother died of a massive heart attack. It happened so suddenly that I didn't have a chance to do anything for her.
Some time later, I received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant receipt from the same place mother and I had dined.
An attached note said: "I paid this bill in advance. I wasn't sure that I could be there; but nevertheless, I paid for two plates - one for you and the other for your wife. You will never know what that night meant for me. I love you, son."
At that moment, I understood the importance of saying in time: "I LOVE YOU" and to give our loved ones the time that they deserve. Nothing in life is more important than your family. Give them the time they deserve, because these things cannot be put off till "some other time".
Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you've had a baby ... somebody doesn't know that once you're a mother, "normal" is history.
Somebody said you learn how to be a mother by instinct, somebody never took a three-year-old shopping.
Somebody said being a mother is boring ... somebody never rode in a car driven by a teenager with a driver's permit.
Somebody said if you're a "good" mother, your child will "turn out good".
somebody thinks a child comes with directions and a guarantee.
Somebody said "good" mothers never raise their voices ...
somebody never came out the back door just in time to see her child hit a golf ball through the neighbor's kitchen window.
Somebody said you don't need an education to be a mother....
somebody never helped a fourth grader with his math.
Somebody said you can't love the second child as much as you love the first
somebody doesn't have two children.
Somebody said a mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in the books.
somebody never had a child stuff beans up his nose or in his ears.
Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother is labor and delivery.
somebody never watched her "baby" get on the bus for the first day of kindergarten or on a plane headed for military "boot camp."
Somebody said a mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back.
somebody never organized seven giggling Brownies to sell cookies.
Somebody said a mother can stop worrying after her child gets married.
somebody doesn't know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in- law to a mother's heartstrings.
Somebody said a mother's job is done when her last child leaves home.
somebody never had grandchildren.
Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so you don't need to tell her.
somebody isn't a mother.
Pass this along to all the "mothers" in your life, and to everyone who ever had a mother. This isn't just about being a mother, it's about appreciating the people in your life while you have them....no matter who that person is.
Without Mistakes there is no forgiving. Without forgiving there is no love
PS:
Thanks Mum, I love u so much...
The other woman that my wife wanted me to visit was my MOTHER, who had been a widow for 19 years, but the demands of my work and my three children had made it impossible to visit her regularly, only occasionally.
That night I called to invite her to go out for dinner and a movie.
"What's wrong, are you well?," she asked?
My mother is the type of woman who suspects that a late night call or a surprise invitation is a sign of bad news.
"I thought that it would be pleasant to spend some time with you," I responded. "Just the two of us."
She thought about it for a moment, and then said, "I would like that very much."
That Friday after work, as I drove over to pick her up I was a bit nervous. When I arrived at her house, I noticed that she, too, seemed to be nervous about our date.
She waited in the door with her coat on. She had curled her hair and was wearing the dress that she had worn to celebrate her last wedding anniversary.
She smiled from a face that was as radiant as an angel's.
"I told my friends that I was going to go out with my son, and they were impressed," she said, as she got into the car.
"They can't wait to hear about our dinner."
We went to a restaurant that, although not elegant, was very nice and cozy. My mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady. After we sat down, I had to read the menu. Her eyes could only read large print. Half way through the entreis, I lifted my eyes and saw Mom sitting there staring at me. A nostalgic smile was on her lips.
"It was I who used to have to read the menu when you were small," she said.
"Then it's time that you relax and let me return the favor," I responded.
During the dinner, we had an agreeable conversation, nothing extraordinary but catching up on recent events of each other's life. We talked so much that we missed the movie.
As we arrived at her house later, she said, "I'll go out with you again, but only if you let me invite you." I agreed.
" How was your dinner date?" asked my wife when I got home.
"Very nice. Much more so than I could have imagined," I answered.
A few days later, my mother died of a massive heart attack. It happened so suddenly that I didn't have a chance to do anything for her.
Some time later, I received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant receipt from the same place mother and I had dined.
An attached note said: "I paid this bill in advance. I wasn't sure that I could be there; but nevertheless, I paid for two plates - one for you and the other for your wife. You will never know what that night meant for me. I love you, son."
At that moment, I understood the importance of saying in time: "I LOVE YOU" and to give our loved ones the time that they deserve. Nothing in life is more important than your family. Give them the time they deserve, because these things cannot be put off till "some other time".
Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you've had a baby ... somebody doesn't know that once you're a mother, "normal" is history.
Somebody said you learn how to be a mother by instinct, somebody never took a three-year-old shopping.
Somebody said being a mother is boring ... somebody never rode in a car driven by a teenager with a driver's permit.
Somebody said if you're a "good" mother, your child will "turn out good".
somebody thinks a child comes with directions and a guarantee.
Somebody said "good" mothers never raise their voices ...
somebody never came out the back door just in time to see her child hit a golf ball through the neighbor's kitchen window.
Somebody said you don't need an education to be a mother....
somebody never helped a fourth grader with his math.
Somebody said you can't love the second child as much as you love the first
somebody doesn't have two children.
Somebody said a mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in the books.
somebody never had a child stuff beans up his nose or in his ears.
Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother is labor and delivery.
somebody never watched her "baby" get on the bus for the first day of kindergarten or on a plane headed for military "boot camp."
Somebody said a mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back.
somebody never organized seven giggling Brownies to sell cookies.
Somebody said a mother can stop worrying after her child gets married.
somebody doesn't know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in- law to a mother's heartstrings.
Somebody said a mother's job is done when her last child leaves home.
somebody never had grandchildren.
Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so you don't need to tell her.
somebody isn't a mother.
Pass this along to all the "mothers" in your life, and to everyone who ever had a mother. This isn't just about being a mother, it's about appreciating the people in your life while you have them....no matter who that person is.
Without Mistakes there is no forgiving. Without forgiving there is no love
PS:
Thanks Mum, I love u so much...
Friday, 11 April 2008
Will Power
An old man lived alone in Minnesota. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was very hard work.
His only son, who would have helped him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and mentioned his situation.
Dear Son, I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my potato garden this year.
I hate to miss doing the garden, because your mother always loved planting time. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot.If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me, if you weren't in prison.
Love, Dad
.........
Shortly, the old man received this telegram:
"For Heaven's sake, Dad,don't dig up the garden!! That's where I buried the GUNS!" At 4a.m.
the next morning,
A dozen FBI agents and local police officers showed up and dug up the entire garden without finding any guns.
Confused, the old man wrote another note to his son telling him what happened, and a sked him what to do next.
His son's reply was: "Go ahead and plant your potatoes, Dad. It's the best I could do for you from here."
Moral Of the Story : no matter where you are in the world, if you have decided to do something deep from your heart, you can do it. it is the thought that matters not where you are or where the person is
His only son, who would have helped him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and mentioned his situation.
Dear Son, I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my potato garden this year.
I hate to miss doing the garden, because your mother always loved planting time. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot.If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me, if you weren't in prison.
Love, Dad
.........
Shortly, the old man received this telegram:
"For Heaven's sake, Dad,don't dig up the garden!! That's where I buried the GUNS!" At 4a.m.
the next morning,
A dozen FBI agents and local police officers showed up and dug up the entire garden without finding any guns.
Confused, the old man wrote another note to his son telling him what happened, and a sked him what to do next.
His son's reply was: "Go ahead and plant your potatoes, Dad. It's the best I could do for you from here."
Moral Of the Story : no matter where you are in the world, if you have decided to do something deep from your heart, you can do it. it is the thought that matters not where you are or where the person is
Management Lesson
One fine day, a bus driver went to the bus garage, started his bus, and drove off along the route. No problems for the first few stops - a few people got on, a few got off, and things went generally well.
At the next stop, however, a big hulk of a guy got on. Six feet eight,built like a wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground. He glared at the driver and said, "Big John doesn't pay!" and sat down at the back.
Did I mention that the driver was five feet three, thin, and basically meek? Well, he was. Naturally, he didn't argue with Big John, but he wasn't happy about it. The next day the same thing happened - Big John got on again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down. And the next day, and the next.
This grated on the bus driver, who started losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him. Finally he could stand it no longer. He signed up for body building courses, karate, judo, and all that good stuff.
By the end of the summer, he had become quite strong; what's more, he felt really good about himself. So on the next Monday, when Big John once again got on the bus and said, "Big John doesn't pay!"
The driver stood up, glared back at the passenger, and screamed, "And why not?"
With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, "Big John has a bus pass."
Management Lesson: "Be sure there is a problem in the first place before working hard to solve one."
At the next stop, however, a big hulk of a guy got on. Six feet eight,built like a wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground. He glared at the driver and said, "Big John doesn't pay!" and sat down at the back.
Did I mention that the driver was five feet three, thin, and basically meek? Well, he was. Naturally, he didn't argue with Big John, but he wasn't happy about it. The next day the same thing happened - Big John got on again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down. And the next day, and the next.
This grated on the bus driver, who started losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him. Finally he could stand it no longer. He signed up for body building courses, karate, judo, and all that good stuff.
By the end of the summer, he had become quite strong; what's more, he felt really good about himself. So on the next Monday, when Big John once again got on the bus and said, "Big John doesn't pay!"
The driver stood up, glared back at the passenger, and screamed, "And why not?"
With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, "Big John has a bus pass."
Management Lesson: "Be sure there is a problem in the first place before working hard to solve one."
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
Buddhism fastest growing religion in West
By Janaka Perera, Asian Tribune, April 7, 2008
Colombo, Sri Lanka -- Buddhism is being recognized as the fastest growing religion in Western societies both in terms of new converts and more so in terms of friends of Buddhism, who seek to study and practice various aspects of Buddhism.
Dr. Ananda Guruge, leading Buddhist Scholar and former Sri Lankan Diplomat made this observation during a public lecture at the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress Hall Colombo on Friday, April 4. The lecture titled, "Role of the Sri Lankan Leadership in the Protection of Buddhism" was delivered under the auspices of the Buddhist and Pali University, All-Ceylon Buddhist Congress and the Buddhist Times Trust. The Chief Guest was Speaker of the House W.J.M. Lokubandara. Among the others present were Buddhist Congress President Jagath Sumathipala, Venerable Wegama Piyaratana, Venerable Professor Dhammavihari, Major-General (Rtd.) Jaliya Nammuni (Centre for
Buddhist Action) and former Archaeological Commissioner Dr. Roland Silva.
Dr. Hema Goonatilake of the Buddhist Times Trust was the Convener. Said Dr. Guruge:
"Both on account of a series of Diaspora from China, Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam, adherents to Northern Schools of Buddhism are numerically preponderant. Interestingly, the intellectual interactions between these ethnic Buddhists and
those devoted to Buddhism in the West have created a new demand for a deep understanding of early Buddhism as preserved in Pali sources in Southern
Buddhism.
A similar tendency is evident in the traditionally Northern Buddhist countries also. This demand has been further increased by the popularization of Vipassana Meditation by Mahopasaka S. N. Goenka. What the world needs today is not confined to what is in Pali. The Sinhala works on Buddhism have as much relevance and the translation of Sinhala classics into world languages is also a contribution to Buddhist Studies." Noting that both Myanmar and Thailand have begun to respond to this demand, he pointed out that opportunities exist for Sri Lankan scholars to initiate cooperative activities with the growing institutions in Southeast Asia such as the World Buddhist University, established by the World Fellowship of Buddhists, and International Association of Buddhist Universities, initiated by Venerable Thepsaphong (now known as Dhammkosajahn).
"I am gratified to note that Dr. Sumanapala Galmangoda is scheduled to lead a team of scholars from Kelaniya University to conduct a panel discussion on Buddhist Ethics in a Conference organized by this Association to be held in Bangkok in September this year. Another opportunity - which is available for Sri Lankans to cooperate in a
significant international venture - is to participate in contributing to the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI) led by Professor Lewis R. Lancaster of University of California Berkeley. Such involvement will also enable our scholars to be trained in using high-tech tools of research, which are increasingly becoming
indispensable. "
Dr. Guruge recalled that Lanka has many firsts in the history of Buddhism -developing commentaries on the Buddha's teachings in the national language (3rd century BCE), reducing to writing the Buddhist canon and its commentaries (1st century BCE), sending bhikkhunis to China to establish the bhikkhunisasana (5th century), enabling the dissemination of the commentaries to a wider readership through translations into Pali (5th century), unification of Southern and Northern traditions of Buddhism and
evolving a form of ecumenical Buddhism (12th century), spreading that form of Buddhism to Southeast Asia along with Pali literature and traditions of Buddhist architecture and art (12th-15th century), being the foremost centre of Buddhist scholarship from the nineteenth century, taking Buddhism back to India, its land of origin (19th-20th century), serving as the focal point from which Buddhist missionaries took Buddhism to all continents in modern times, and restoring the
bhikkhunisasana in Southern Buddhism (20th century).
He stressed the need for maintaining this record said that and no efforts should be spared. "May the Sangha of Sri Lanka rise up to the challenges of the time and may the powers that be, namely and most importantly the educators and scholars take upon themselves the task of maintaining Sri Lanka's leadership in Buddhist Studies. This can easily be a major objective of the preparations for the next major event in the history of Buddhism – the 2600th anniversary of the attainment of Buddhahood in 2011-2012."
He emphasized that any strategy Sri Lanka develops to maintain her leadership in Buddhist activities has to be based on these advantages that the current internationally recognized scholars enjoy. He recommended the following are the actions for the immediate consideration of all concerned:
1. It is my conviction that the atmosphere required for the promotion of Buddhist studies has to be developed by a resurgence of dedication to scholarship in the Sangha. The higher education of the Sangha with due emphasis on original scriptural
sources in Pali, Sanskrit and other Canonical languages is indispensable. One is no doubt appalled by the falling standard of Pali learning in the country. It is hardly taught in schools and one cannot be altogether satisfied with the standard of Pali teaching in the Pirivenas. Sanskrit has gone down even further. Without a very
high level of proficiency in these languages, few monastics are in a position to produce the kind of scholarly work that those of a previous generation could. It is the Sangha that had preserved the study of Pali and Sanskrit not only through the Pirivenas but also through schools. Serious attention has to be given to the promotion of these languages if Sri Lanka has to retain its leadership in Buddhist Studies.
2. A critical mass of research scholars should acquire an excellent command of the spoken and written English because the fruits of their labors would never be known outside the Island unless they are presented in impeccable standard of English. At
the same time, our scholars should be able to access the research that is being done in the world. Without such access at least through the medium of English, the greatest danger in our institutions of higher education is that students are not introduced to new knowledge.
3. Some at least among them should proceed to gain some degree of proficiency in research languages useful for Buddhist Studies such as Chinese, Tibetan, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese as well as French, German and Italian.
4. Scholars with ability to speak and write in foreign languages should be given every opportunity (with financial provisions for membership fees, travel and subsidies for publications) to -
Colombo, Sri Lanka -- Buddhism is being recognized as the fastest growing religion in Western societies both in terms of new converts and more so in terms of friends of Buddhism, who seek to study and practice various aspects of Buddhism.
Dr. Ananda Guruge, leading Buddhist Scholar and former Sri Lankan Diplomat made this observation during a public lecture at the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress Hall Colombo on Friday, April 4. The lecture titled, "Role of the Sri Lankan Leadership in the Protection of Buddhism" was delivered under the auspices of the Buddhist and Pali University, All-Ceylon Buddhist Congress and the Buddhist Times Trust. The Chief Guest was Speaker of the House W.J.M. Lokubandara. Among the others present were Buddhist Congress President Jagath Sumathipala, Venerable Wegama Piyaratana, Venerable Professor Dhammavihari, Major-General (Rtd.) Jaliya Nammuni (Centre for
Buddhist Action) and former Archaeological Commissioner Dr. Roland Silva.
Dr. Hema Goonatilake of the Buddhist Times Trust was the Convener. Said Dr. Guruge:
"Both on account of a series of Diaspora from China, Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam, adherents to Northern Schools of Buddhism are numerically preponderant. Interestingly, the intellectual interactions between these ethnic Buddhists and
those devoted to Buddhism in the West have created a new demand for a deep understanding of early Buddhism as preserved in Pali sources in Southern
Buddhism.
A similar tendency is evident in the traditionally Northern Buddhist countries also. This demand has been further increased by the popularization of Vipassana Meditation by Mahopasaka S. N. Goenka. What the world needs today is not confined to what is in Pali. The Sinhala works on Buddhism have as much relevance and the translation of Sinhala classics into world languages is also a contribution to Buddhist Studies." Noting that both Myanmar and Thailand have begun to respond to this demand, he pointed out that opportunities exist for Sri Lankan scholars to initiate cooperative activities with the growing institutions in Southeast Asia such as the World Buddhist University, established by the World Fellowship of Buddhists, and International Association of Buddhist Universities, initiated by Venerable Thepsaphong (now known as Dhammkosajahn).
"I am gratified to note that Dr. Sumanapala Galmangoda is scheduled to lead a team of scholars from Kelaniya University to conduct a panel discussion on Buddhist Ethics in a Conference organized by this Association to be held in Bangkok in September this year. Another opportunity - which is available for Sri Lankans to cooperate in a
significant international venture - is to participate in contributing to the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI) led by Professor Lewis R. Lancaster of University of California Berkeley. Such involvement will also enable our scholars to be trained in using high-tech tools of research, which are increasingly becoming
indispensable. "
Dr. Guruge recalled that Lanka has many firsts in the history of Buddhism -developing commentaries on the Buddha's teachings in the national language (3rd century BCE), reducing to writing the Buddhist canon and its commentaries (1st century BCE), sending bhikkhunis to China to establish the bhikkhunisasana (5th century), enabling the dissemination of the commentaries to a wider readership through translations into Pali (5th century), unification of Southern and Northern traditions of Buddhism and
evolving a form of ecumenical Buddhism (12th century), spreading that form of Buddhism to Southeast Asia along with Pali literature and traditions of Buddhist architecture and art (12th-15th century), being the foremost centre of Buddhist scholarship from the nineteenth century, taking Buddhism back to India, its land of origin (19th-20th century), serving as the focal point from which Buddhist missionaries took Buddhism to all continents in modern times, and restoring the
bhikkhunisasana in Southern Buddhism (20th century).
He stressed the need for maintaining this record said that and no efforts should be spared. "May the Sangha of Sri Lanka rise up to the challenges of the time and may the powers that be, namely and most importantly the educators and scholars take upon themselves the task of maintaining Sri Lanka's leadership in Buddhist Studies. This can easily be a major objective of the preparations for the next major event in the history of Buddhism – the 2600th anniversary of the attainment of Buddhahood in 2011-2012."
He emphasized that any strategy Sri Lanka develops to maintain her leadership in Buddhist activities has to be based on these advantages that the current internationally recognized scholars enjoy. He recommended the following are the actions for the immediate consideration of all concerned:
1. It is my conviction that the atmosphere required for the promotion of Buddhist studies has to be developed by a resurgence of dedication to scholarship in the Sangha. The higher education of the Sangha with due emphasis on original scriptural
sources in Pali, Sanskrit and other Canonical languages is indispensable. One is no doubt appalled by the falling standard of Pali learning in the country. It is hardly taught in schools and one cannot be altogether satisfied with the standard of Pali teaching in the Pirivenas. Sanskrit has gone down even further. Without a very
high level of proficiency in these languages, few monastics are in a position to produce the kind of scholarly work that those of a previous generation could. It is the Sangha that had preserved the study of Pali and Sanskrit not only through the Pirivenas but also through schools. Serious attention has to be given to the promotion of these languages if Sri Lanka has to retain its leadership in Buddhist Studies.
2. A critical mass of research scholars should acquire an excellent command of the spoken and written English because the fruits of their labors would never be known outside the Island unless they are presented in impeccable standard of English. At
the same time, our scholars should be able to access the research that is being done in the world. Without such access at least through the medium of English, the greatest danger in our institutions of higher education is that students are not introduced to new knowledge.
3. Some at least among them should proceed to gain some degree of proficiency in research languages useful for Buddhist Studies such as Chinese, Tibetan, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese as well as French, German and Italian.
4. Scholars with ability to speak and write in foreign languages should be given every opportunity (with financial provisions for membership fees, travel and subsidies for publications) to -
- Become members of international professional associations and organizations such as the Royal Asiatic Societies, International Association of Buddhist Studies, Indian Association of Buddhist Studies, International Association of Sanskrit Studies, etc.;
- Contribute well-researched learned articles to recognized peer-reviewed foreign journals and also to have their books published abroad. (Equally important is to get articles and books of high quality in national languages translated into foreign languages. It must be stated here that Sri Lankan scholars do publish annually a substantial number of learned articles in English in Felicitation and Commemorative Volumes, the Sri Lankan Journal of Buddhist Studies and University Journals but their outreach to the world is very limited.. The efforts of Professors Y. Karunadasa, Asanga Tilakaratna and Venerable Kuala Lumpur Dhammajoti in this regard are very creditable. The speedy completion of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism has also to receive the highest priority.)
- Review in national journals important works by foreign scholars both for the purpose of apprising local scholars and students of the availability of new research findings and also to let the international scholars know that their work is under scrutiny by our scholars;
- Participate in international seminars and conferences, presenting papers and interacting with worldwide scholars to have an international peer review of research done by them in Sri Lanka;
- Organize periodically international conferences inviting recognized scholars of the world and conducting them with the highest level of efficiency and effectiveness.
Joke of Day : Chinese + English = Chinglish
You might like it. This is hilarious... ..even an Englishman could not construct sentences using numeric, which is exclusive only to Malaysians and Singaporeans. Ah Lek was asked to make a sentence using 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Not only did he do it 1 to 10, he did it again from 10 back to 1. This is what he came up with..... 1 day I go 2 climb a 3 outside a house to peep. But the couple saw me, so I panic and 4 down. The man rushed out and wanted to 5 with me. I ran until I fell 6 and threw up. So I go into 7-eleven and grabbed some 8 to throw at him. Then I took a 9 and try to stab at him. 10 God he run away.
10 I put the 9 back and pay for the 8 and left 7-eleven. Next day I called my boss and told him I was 6. He said 5 , tomorrow also no need to come back 4 work. He also asked me to go climb a 3 and jump! down. I don't understand. I am so nice 2 him but I don't know what he 1.
Not only did he do it 1 to 10, he did it again from 10 back to 1. This is what he came up with..... 1 day I go 2 climb a 3 outside a house to peep. But the couple saw me, so I panic and 4 down. The man rushed out and wanted to 5 with me. I ran until I fell 6 and threw up. So I go into 7-eleven and grabbed some 8 to throw at him. Then I took a 9 and try to stab at him. 10 God he run away.
10 I put the 9 back and pay for the 8 and left 7-eleven. Next day I called my boss and told him I was 6. He said 5 , tomorrow also no need to come back 4 work. He also asked me to go climb a 3 and jump! down. I don't understand. I am so nice 2 him but I don't know what he 1.
Arkansas Scholars
Questions and answers selected from tests in Springdale , Arkansas in 2000 to 16 year old students! (Don't laugh too hard - one of these may be the President of the US someday.)
Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.
Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.
Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?
A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.
Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?
A: Keep it in the cow.
Q: What is the Fibula?
A: A small lie
Q: What is a terminal illness?
A: When you are sick at the airport
Q: Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature?
A: Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas.
Q: What does the word "benign" mean?
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.
Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.
Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.
Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?
A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.
Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?
A: Keep it in the cow.
Q: What is the Fibula?
A: A small lie
Q: What is a terminal illness?
A: When you are sick at the airport
Q: Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature?
A: Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas.
Q: What does the word "benign" mean?
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.
the America`s cleverest president
An airplane was about to crash; there were 5 passengers on board but only 4 parachutes.
The first passenger said, " I'm Kobe Bryant, the best NBA basketball player, the Lakers need me, I can't afford to die....So he took the first pack and left the plane.
The second passenger, Hillary Clinton, said, "I am the wife of the former president of the United States , I am also the most ambitious woman in the world and I am a New York Senator and a potential future president." She just took the second parachute and jumped out of the plane.
The third passenger, George W. Bush, said: "I'm President of the United States of America, I have a great responsibility being the leader of a superpower nation. And above all I'm the cleverest President in American history, so America 's people won't let me die."
So he put on the pack next to him and jumped out of the plane.
The fourth passenger says to the fifth passenger namely Pope (a 10 year-old school boy), "I am old and frail and I don't have many years left, I will sacrifice my life and let you have the last parachute.
The boy said, "It's OK, there's a parachute left for you. America 's cleverest President has taken my schoolbag."
The first passenger said, " I'm Kobe Bryant, the best NBA basketball player, the Lakers need me, I can't afford to die....So he took the first pack and left the plane.
The second passenger, Hillary Clinton, said, "I am the wife of the former president of the United States , I am also the most ambitious woman in the world and I am a New York Senator and a potential future president." She just took the second parachute and jumped out of the plane.
The third passenger, George W. Bush, said: "I'm President of the United States of America, I have a great responsibility being the leader of a superpower nation. And above all I'm the cleverest President in American history, so America 's people won't let me die."
So he put on the pack next to him and jumped out of the plane.
The fourth passenger says to the fifth passenger namely Pope (a 10 year-old school boy), "I am old and frail and I don't have many years left, I will sacrifice my life and let you have the last parachute.
The boy said, "It's OK, there's a parachute left for you. America 's cleverest President has taken my schoolbag."
The Mistery of Life -D E S T I N Y
D estiny is the mistery of life
E ngraves this life with kinds of events and moments
S hadows to prove there's sun light, Joy to relieve the sorrows
T ears to make us to appreciate laughters, Love to heal the broken heart
I n this world filled with uncertainties, we may loose faith and hope, so
N avigate your boat of life, compassed by God's Word
Y ield to His Plan, for He will enable you to fulfill your destiny to be His Ambassador to the whole universe
April 9th 2008
By Daniel N Suhadi
E ngraves this life with kinds of events and moments
S hadows to prove there's sun light, Joy to relieve the sorrows
T ears to make us to appreciate laughters, Love to heal the broken heart
I n this world filled with uncertainties, we may loose faith and hope, so
N avigate your boat of life, compassed by God's Word
Y ield to His Plan, for He will enable you to fulfill your destiny to be His Ambassador to the whole universe
April 9th 2008
By Daniel N Suhadi
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
The Result of Intiative
Some years ago, three brothers left the farm to work in the city. They were all hired by the same company at the same pay. Three years later, Jim was being paid $500 a month, Frank was receiving $1,000, but George was now making $1,500.
Their father decided to visit the employer. He listened to the confused father and said, "I will let the boys explain for themselves."
Jim was summoned to the supervisor's office and was told, "Jim, I understand the Far East Importers has just brought in a large transport plane loaded with Japanese import goods. Will you please go over to the airport and get a cargo inventory?"
Three minutes later, Jim returned to the office. "The cargo was one thousand bolts of Japanese silk," Jim reported. "I got the information over the telephone from a member of the crew."
When Jim left, Frank, the $1,000 a month brother, was called. "Frank," said the supervisor, "I wish you'd go out to the airport and get an inventory of the cargo plane which was just brought in by Far East Importers."
An hour later, Frank was back in the office with a list showing that the plane carried 1,000 bolts of Japanese silk, 500 transistor radios, and 1,000 hand painted bamboo trays. George, the $1,500 a month brother, was given identical instructions. Working hours were over when he finally returned.
"The transport plane carried one thousand bolts of Japanese silk," he began. "It was on sale at sixty dollars a bolt, so I took a two-day option on the whole lot.
I have wired a designer in New York offering the silk at seventy-five dollars a bolt. I expect to have the order tomorrow. I also found five hundred transistor radios, which I sold over the telephone at a profit of $2.30 each.
There were a thousand bamboo trays, but they were of poor quality, so I didn't try to do anything with them."
When George left the office, the employer smiled. "You probably noticed," he said, "that Jim doesn't do what he's told, Frank does only what he'd told, but George does without being told."
*********
The future is full of promise for one who shows initiative.
*********
Their father decided to visit the employer. He listened to the confused father and said, "I will let the boys explain for themselves."
Jim was summoned to the supervisor's office and was told, "Jim, I understand the Far East Importers has just brought in a large transport plane loaded with Japanese import goods. Will you please go over to the airport and get a cargo inventory?"
Three minutes later, Jim returned to the office. "The cargo was one thousand bolts of Japanese silk," Jim reported. "I got the information over the telephone from a member of the crew."
When Jim left, Frank, the $1,000 a month brother, was called. "Frank," said the supervisor, "I wish you'd go out to the airport and get an inventory of the cargo plane which was just brought in by Far East Importers."
An hour later, Frank was back in the office with a list showing that the plane carried 1,000 bolts of Japanese silk, 500 transistor radios, and 1,000 hand painted bamboo trays. George, the $1,500 a month brother, was given identical instructions. Working hours were over when he finally returned.
"The transport plane carried one thousand bolts of Japanese silk," he began. "It was on sale at sixty dollars a bolt, so I took a two-day option on the whole lot.
I have wired a designer in New York offering the silk at seventy-five dollars a bolt. I expect to have the order tomorrow. I also found five hundred transistor radios, which I sold over the telephone at a profit of $2.30 each.
There were a thousand bamboo trays, but they were of poor quality, so I didn't try to do anything with them."
When George left the office, the employer smiled. "You probably noticed," he said, "that Jim doesn't do what he's told, Frank does only what he'd told, but George does without being told."
*********
The future is full of promise for one who shows initiative.
*********
Hope shines brightest when the hour is darkest.
Hope motivates when discouragement comes.
Hope energizes when the body is tired.
Hope sweetens while bitterness bites.
Hope sings when all melodies are gone.
Hope believes when evidence is eliminated.
Hope listens for answers when no one is talking.
Hope climbs over obstacles when no one is helping.
Hope endures hardship when no one is caring.
Hope smiles confidently when no one is laughing.
Hope reaches for answers when no one is asking.
Hope presses toward victory when no one is encouraging.
Hope dares to give when no one is sharing.
Hope brings the victory when no one is winning.
By John Maxwell from "Think on These Things"
Hope motivates when discouragement comes.
Hope energizes when the body is tired.
Hope sweetens while bitterness bites.
Hope sings when all melodies are gone.
Hope believes when evidence is eliminated.
Hope listens for answers when no one is talking.
Hope climbs over obstacles when no one is helping.
Hope endures hardship when no one is caring.
Hope smiles confidently when no one is laughing.
Hope reaches for answers when no one is asking.
Hope presses toward victory when no one is encouraging.
Hope dares to give when no one is sharing.
Hope brings the victory when no one is winning.
By John Maxwell from "Think on These Things"
Monday, 7 April 2008
What Power Looks Like
A fascinating glimpse into the world of global money.
David Rothkopf
NEWSWEEK
They ride on Gulfstreams, set the global agenda, and manage the credit crunch in their spare time. They have more in common with each other than their countrymen. Meet the Superclass.
To get a sense of how the world's elite acts in a moment of global crisis, a moment like the one we are in now, it's instructive to watch a player like Timothy Geithner at work. The New York Federal Reserve Bank president has been at the center of frantic behind-the-scenes efforts to stem the spread of the U.S. credit collapse, to manage the bank run that brought down Bear Stearns, and many crises before it.
Slim and youthful Geithner can seem out of place working the phones within the monumental offices of the Fed, done in a style that might be characterized as late-middle mausoleum. Yet it is his very will-o'-the- wisp quality, his deftness, that makes him suited to the modern job of one of the most powerful men in the financial world. Because interest-rate changes and cash infusions have less lasting impact on markets than in the past, the power of central banks is effectively more limited. In today's world, no one institution, not even the U.S. Fed, has the power to contain a crisis. Being a successful central banker now depends on what Geithner calls "a convening power … that is separate from the formal authority of our institution and which can be a very powerful tool."
Speaking to Geithner while I was doing the research for my recently published book "Superclass, " he sketched in fascinating detail how the world's power elite rallies when the markets quake. Recalling an earlier crisis in global securities markets that he helped to manage, Geithner said the Fed brought together the leaders of the world's 14 major financial firms, from five countries, representing 95 percent of all the activity in global markets.
The Swiss were there, the Germans were there, the British were there. Interestingly, no Asians were there, not even the Japanese. Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein "jokingly called them 'the 14 families,' like in 'The Godfather'," says Geithner. "And we said to them, "You guys have got to fix this problem. Tell us how you are going to fix it and we will work out some basic regime to make sure there are no free riders to give you comfort; you know that if you move individually everybody else will move with you."
There was nothing in writing, no rules, no formal process, and while no one asked the Fed to act, the Fed let everyone in the markets know it was acting. The beauty of the process was its absolute efficiency, seeing what a tight circle of large firms with "some global reach" could get done, fast—with an executive committee of only four running the weekly conference call until the crisis was past.
"There is no formal mechanism we could have used to force this on anybody, so we had to invent it. I think the premise going forward is that you have to have a borderless, collaborative process. It does not mean it has to be universal, every jurisdiction or every institution, " said Geithner. "You just need a critical mass of the right players. It is a much more concentrated world."
Geithner's description of the financial elite in crisis mode came many months before the recent meltdown of Bear Stearns, yet foreshadowed in an uncanny way how Treasury boss Henry Paulson, Fed boss Ben Bernanke, JPMorgan boss James Dimon and other bank heads powwowed over the course of a weekend to make a deal Bear Stearns could not refuse and to shore up markets. By necessity, the conversations were limited to the central players, the big decision makers whose clout would make the most difference on Wall Street and worldwide. Fast action was needed, and it was taken.
The Fed's evolving crisis-management playbook underscores not only the move toward more public-private collaboration on big global issues, but also the concentration of power among a very select and insular group of players—in this case, the heads of the world's biggest financial institutions, as well as gatekeepers like Bernanke and Paulsen.
The people on the recent calls like those described by Geithner, plus a few thousand more like them, not only in business and finance, but also politics, the arts, the nonprofit world and other realms, are part of a new global elite that has emerged over the past several decades. I call it the "superclass. "
They have vastly more power than any other group on the planet. Each of the members is set apart by his ability to regularly influence the lives of millions of people in multiple countries worldwide. Each actively exercises this power, and often amplifies it through the development of relationships with other superclass members. This new class of elites is both more permeable, and more transient, than elites of the past. The age of inherent lifelong power is largely behind us—to be a member of this superclass one has to hold on to power just long enough to make an impact, be it by leading a revolution or launching a revolutionary Web site.
So how does one become a member? As ever, being rich certainly helps. Many superclass members are wealthy, wealthier in relative terms than any elite ever has been. The top 10 percent of all people, for example, now control 85 percent of all wealth on the planet. But wealth is only part of the equation. Power is the other currency of any true elite, and if we want to understand the superclass, we need to look at those who have influence that crosses borders—one of the factors that differentiates them from most of the elites of history, whose influence was predominantly national or even more local in nature.
ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson runs operations in 180 countries worldwide, a far cry from the Pennsylvania oil field and U.S. kerosene market roots of the man who founded his company—and set the ball rolling toward the modern multinational—John D. Rockefeller.
That such a group exists is indisputable. It includes the heads of the biggest financial institutions, the 14 families Blankfein joked about, and then some; the top 50 control almost $50 trillion in assets. The heads of the world's biggest corporations are also members; the top 2,000 support perhaps 500 million people, generate almost $30 trillion in sales and have well over $100 trillion in assets.
The list also includes top government officials with real cross-border influence: heads of state, of course, leading diplomats and military chiefs, but also central bankers like Geithner and Bernanke, and their counterparts like Chinese Central Bank Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan, reappointed this week, and the other top economic officials responsible for the world's fastest-growing economy and its nearly $1.5 trillion in reserves.
They are joined by media barons like Rupert Murdoch, whose global network of newspapers, Web products, movie studios and TV stations reach hundreds of millions of people every day, or tech entrepreneurs like Facebook wunderkind, 23-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, whose company is redefining what global community means. Alongside them you'll also find those who have different forms of power: religious leaders from the pope to Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei, perhaps the most powerful man in the Middle East today; clerics who have taken to a media pulpit and reach millions around the world daily like Latin America's Luis Palau or the Egyptian "tele-Muslim, " former accountant turned religious TV star Amr Khaled. Cultural icons who use their celebrity platforms for activism like Bono and Angelina Jolie would certainly make the list, as would terrorist leaders and others who form a kind of shadow elite, like Osama bin Laden or the recently arrested arms dealer, Russia 's Viktor Bout. A growing number of tycoons from emerging markets make the cut: Indian industrialist Ratan Tata, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, Saudi oil investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, and Chinese real-estate billionaire Yang Huiyan, among others.
One can debate who is in and who is out endlessly. Indeed, given that so much power today is institutional or job related (and thus fleeting), any ranked list is out of date almost as soon as it's finished. Those who would have dropped off the list so far this year include the former heads of big banks who lost their jobs as a result of betting too heavily on subprime loans, including the ex-leaders of Citibank, Merrill Lynch and, as of last week, UBS. This is a very fluid ranking. But for the purposes of trying to understand the nature of today's topmost global elite, working with the above criteria, I have ended up with a core group of somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 people—meaning that each one is "one in a million."
A glance at this high-powered class illuminates several key trends. Political elites may be the primary powers where national governments remain dominant—in places like China , Russia and much of the Middle East —yet overall, the list reveals a marked shift from public to private power. Globalization and, to a large extent, privatization, has fueled the superclass (and vice versa). In the 1960s, the average international company had 100 subsidiaries; today many number their subsidiaries in the 10,000s. In the 1950s, the big postwar U.S. defense establishment had a budget that was larger than the revenues of all major U.S. companies put together; today, even though the defense budget is larger in real dollar terms, the sales of two major U.S.-based global corporations—Exxon and Wal-Mart—outstrip it by more than 50 percent.
This concentration of wealth and economic influence has translated into a concentration of power, a trend helped by the fact that the power of national governments is on the wane in many parts of the world. The rise of transnational activities (both public and private), a broad move away from state intervention in national markets and the effective reduction in the state's ability to use force due to the awesomely high price of modern warfare, have all contributed to the declining power of the individual nation-state. In turn, those whose organizations are built for global activity, like multinational companies or financial institutions (or terrorist networks or NGOs), have gained a relative advantage over individual governments and governmental organizations. Consider that the Gates Foundation gives about $1.5 billion annually to support global health initiatives—roughly the entire annual budget of the World Health Organization.
It is hard to exaggerate how small the world can look from the top. If the revolution in transportation and communications technology has shrunk the world for everyone, no group has come closer together than those who can afford the cutting edge. The iconic symbol of superclass unity is the Gulfstream private jet. In fact, one way to measure the clout of an event is to count the private jets at the nearest airport. According to Gulfstream, Davos traditionally attracts more of its planes than any other gathering, drawing up to 10 percent of the 1,500 planes in service to Zurich airport. But this year's Olympics in Beijing will give it a run for its money, as typically do events as diverse as the Monaco Grand Prix, China's Boao Forum, the Geneva Auto Show or Allen & Co.'s annual getaway for media magnates in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Globalization looks different when you can tell the pilot when to leave and where to go, and when there are no security lines to wait in when you are heading off for distant destinations. Those who are free to move about the planet this way come to have more in common with themselves than with their own countrymen. "What happened to us, that we walk through the Davos party and know more people than when we were walking across the village green in the town we live in?" wonders Mark Malloch-Brown, former Deputy Secretary General at the United Nations and now a senior official in the British Foreign Ministry. In fact, Davos is a village green for the superclass. It's at such a gathering that leaders get to know one another, hatch deals and exercise perhaps the greatest power the superclass has collectively: to shape conventional wisdom.
In these conclaves, priorities are not only for their own constituencies, but for entire regions and the world at large. Possibly the premier gathering in Latin America is the "Fathers and Sons" event held annually by the world's richest man, Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim, who presides over groups of Latin American corporate giants and their scions. The telecom billionaire pays for the entire event himself and orchestrates the schedule, which according to recent participants is "quite work intensive" but includes some time for tennis, golf, even, on one occasion and despite the absence of women, dancing among the fathers and sons when the music went on at the end of the day. The Slim event illustrates the importance to the heirs of Latin America 's traditional elite culture of connecting across borders, of forging international alliances within the subset of the global superclass with whom they have the most in common.
Thanks to this kind of social interaction, large portions of the global superclass are well acquainted with each other. Says Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Wall Street's Blackstone Group, "The world is pretty small. In almost every one of the areas in which I am dealing or in which we at Blackstone are looking at deals, you find it is just 20, 30 or 50 people worldwide who drive the industry or the sector." Numbers tell the same tale. If you take just the people who serve in top management positions or on the boards of the five biggest companies in the world, you'll find they also serve on the boards of an additional 140 other major companies and 22 universities. To Schwarzman, being a member of the superclass means being able to "get to anybody in the world with one phone call."
These kinds of connections can work to stabilize the world in a crisis. But not necessarily. I once overheard a dinner conversation among the CEO of a leading aircraft manufacturer and a senior member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee. "Here's the deal," said the CEO. "I want to sell a plane to Muammar Kaddafi and he wants to buy one. But we have sanctions in place that won't let me sell to him. The U.S. wants this guy dead. So, what I'm thinking is, if you help me get the OK to sell him the plane, I'll build with explosive bolts connecting the wings to the fuselage. Then, one day he's up flying over the Med and we push a button. He's gone. I make my sale. Everyone's happy." Fortunately, the conversation took place in the 1990s, a time before U.S. foreign-policy makers began bending international laws to achieve national security goals. The congressperson declined the offer.
In general, the power players on the other side of the dinner table will still be white, male and from either the United States or Europe (graphic).
But even as the group is narrow, it is still more permeable and global than the elites of preceding centuries. As noted earlier, many fewer members have inherited wealth or power. Talk to the superclass and they themselves will discuss how important luck has been in determining their membership in the group.
As their power grows, so does the possibility of a backlash for the superclass; 2008 has been a year of challenges for the ideas and institutions they represent—markets are melting down, energy reserves are being renationalized, protectionism is growing. On the stump, U.S. presidential candidates like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Mike Huckabee and John Edwards have all assailed growing inequality in the United States . But the statistics in other superclass hot spots like China are far worse. With the salaries of major multinational CEOs now averaging more than 350 times that of the average employee— a tenfold increase over the disparities of the 1970s—there is a growing anger that those with the power are using it to unfairly feather their own nests.
The current financial crisis is another such example, producing serious questions about the influence of the superclass. Of the world's elites, none has strutted the world stage for the past decade like global investment bankers. Masters of money, they created something new: global markets and a constantly evolving array of securities that were both beyond the reach and the comprehension of regulators. Now, the value of some of the complex investment vehicles they created is proving to be illusory.
As a consequence, the world economy was set for the crisis that is currently unfolding. There was no effective global regulator to keep the system in check, and there was no real voice for the average Joe. The Federal Reserve stepped in to stabilize the burnout of one of these major market makers—even though they have no jurisdiction over investment banks, even though many of those supporting the bailout/buyout were the same who have long clamored for "self-regulation, " even though many were the ones who had cited the moral hazard of helping to bail out homeowners and encouraging their bad borrowing behavior. And so you have a financial leadership structure that bails out investment bankers worldwide, but not homeowners.
Some in that leadership are embracing new regulatory proposals mainly because they believe it is the price they must pay to maintain the safety net that was quickly woven together by chairman Bernanke and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson (the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, the investment bank that has produced in recent years what is perhaps the most extraordinary list of superclass members).
Many critics assert that this financial crisis is a classic example of elite overreach. Historically, elites from the tyrants of ancient Greece to those of post Civil War America have always been undone by their own greed and ambition. Many today wonder if this might be the beginning of the end for the current superclass, as it was in those instances when the rise of political reformers like Solon and Cleisthenes or trustbusters like Teddy Roosevelt led to major changes in efforts to rein in elite power.
At first glance, anger and frustration aside, it seems unlikely, because national institutions are ineffective beyond their borders and international institutions have not evolved as quickly as global markets, many retaining ownership and management structures dating to the late 1940s with resources inadequate to many global challenges (though recent proposals from Paulson and the U.K. government aim to change that). In fact, the explosion of private money in international markets is marginalizing these institutions, while it makes the global elite more powerful. Thus it is becoming increasingly less likely that any international mechanism can rein in the global elite.
In the short term, the only real change we may see is the spread of the superclass—and the tension around it—to new enclaves. Indians like steel titan Lakshmi Mittal, dueling billionaire brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, and global auto magnate Ratan Tata are joining the hundreds of the superrich in Russia (the leading creator of new billionaires on the recent Forbes list) and China (where half of the 25 richest people in the country are under 40). At the same time, the relative importance of Asian governments and militaries is also growing, with China the No. 2 defense spender in the world and India upping its defense expenditures more than 40 percent in the past five years, making it the No. 3 spender in purchasing power-adjusted terms. So it is more likely that the superclass itself will change than that it will be contained.
In the future, this may mean the decline of the old transatlantic venues for convening the elite and the rise of new ones in Asia . With members of the changing superclass defining global conventional wisdom, we are likely to see a shift in the very values that shape world affairs. Leaders from Asian nations may, for example, have different ideas about the role of the state and of the individual; they may also seek to define them in terms of narrower self-interests than imperial or proselytizing Westerners often did. The rise of petrol statesmen could undercut the gathering support for the fight against fossil-fueled global warming. The new clout of emerging-market CEOs may slow the movement to make corporations more socially and environmentally responsible "citizens," a campaign many in the developing world see as a rich-company, rich-country luxury.
And the more members of the superclass adopt a business-as- usual attitude toward countries that ignore political or social conditions, the less likely the superclass will be to reform itself. In short, while we may have a somewhat different superclass in the future, until the people of the world are more comfortable with creating the kind of strong global governance mechanisms that can contain and regulate many of their activities, the 6,000 will continue to play the greatest role of any group on the planet in defining our times.
David Rothkopf
NEWSWEEK
They ride on Gulfstreams, set the global agenda, and manage the credit crunch in their spare time. They have more in common with each other than their countrymen. Meet the Superclass.
To get a sense of how the world's elite acts in a moment of global crisis, a moment like the one we are in now, it's instructive to watch a player like Timothy Geithner at work. The New York Federal Reserve Bank president has been at the center of frantic behind-the-scenes efforts to stem the spread of the U.S. credit collapse, to manage the bank run that brought down Bear Stearns, and many crises before it.
Slim and youthful Geithner can seem out of place working the phones within the monumental offices of the Fed, done in a style that might be characterized as late-middle mausoleum. Yet it is his very will-o'-the- wisp quality, his deftness, that makes him suited to the modern job of one of the most powerful men in the financial world. Because interest-rate changes and cash infusions have less lasting impact on markets than in the past, the power of central banks is effectively more limited. In today's world, no one institution, not even the U.S. Fed, has the power to contain a crisis. Being a successful central banker now depends on what Geithner calls "a convening power … that is separate from the formal authority of our institution and which can be a very powerful tool."
Speaking to Geithner while I was doing the research for my recently published book "Superclass, " he sketched in fascinating detail how the world's power elite rallies when the markets quake. Recalling an earlier crisis in global securities markets that he helped to manage, Geithner said the Fed brought together the leaders of the world's 14 major financial firms, from five countries, representing 95 percent of all the activity in global markets.
The Swiss were there, the Germans were there, the British were there. Interestingly, no Asians were there, not even the Japanese. Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein "jokingly called them 'the 14 families,' like in 'The Godfather'," says Geithner. "And we said to them, "You guys have got to fix this problem. Tell us how you are going to fix it and we will work out some basic regime to make sure there are no free riders to give you comfort; you know that if you move individually everybody else will move with you."
There was nothing in writing, no rules, no formal process, and while no one asked the Fed to act, the Fed let everyone in the markets know it was acting. The beauty of the process was its absolute efficiency, seeing what a tight circle of large firms with "some global reach" could get done, fast—with an executive committee of only four running the weekly conference call until the crisis was past.
"There is no formal mechanism we could have used to force this on anybody, so we had to invent it. I think the premise going forward is that you have to have a borderless, collaborative process. It does not mean it has to be universal, every jurisdiction or every institution, " said Geithner. "You just need a critical mass of the right players. It is a much more concentrated world."
Geithner's description of the financial elite in crisis mode came many months before the recent meltdown of Bear Stearns, yet foreshadowed in an uncanny way how Treasury boss Henry Paulson, Fed boss Ben Bernanke, JPMorgan boss James Dimon and other bank heads powwowed over the course of a weekend to make a deal Bear Stearns could not refuse and to shore up markets. By necessity, the conversations were limited to the central players, the big decision makers whose clout would make the most difference on Wall Street and worldwide. Fast action was needed, and it was taken.
The Fed's evolving crisis-management playbook underscores not only the move toward more public-private collaboration on big global issues, but also the concentration of power among a very select and insular group of players—in this case, the heads of the world's biggest financial institutions, as well as gatekeepers like Bernanke and Paulsen.
The people on the recent calls like those described by Geithner, plus a few thousand more like them, not only in business and finance, but also politics, the arts, the nonprofit world and other realms, are part of a new global elite that has emerged over the past several decades. I call it the "superclass. "
They have vastly more power than any other group on the planet. Each of the members is set apart by his ability to regularly influence the lives of millions of people in multiple countries worldwide. Each actively exercises this power, and often amplifies it through the development of relationships with other superclass members. This new class of elites is both more permeable, and more transient, than elites of the past. The age of inherent lifelong power is largely behind us—to be a member of this superclass one has to hold on to power just long enough to make an impact, be it by leading a revolution or launching a revolutionary Web site.
So how does one become a member? As ever, being rich certainly helps. Many superclass members are wealthy, wealthier in relative terms than any elite ever has been. The top 10 percent of all people, for example, now control 85 percent of all wealth on the planet. But wealth is only part of the equation. Power is the other currency of any true elite, and if we want to understand the superclass, we need to look at those who have influence that crosses borders—one of the factors that differentiates them from most of the elites of history, whose influence was predominantly national or even more local in nature.
ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson runs operations in 180 countries worldwide, a far cry from the Pennsylvania oil field and U.S. kerosene market roots of the man who founded his company—and set the ball rolling toward the modern multinational—John D. Rockefeller.
That such a group exists is indisputable. It includes the heads of the biggest financial institutions, the 14 families Blankfein joked about, and then some; the top 50 control almost $50 trillion in assets. The heads of the world's biggest corporations are also members; the top 2,000 support perhaps 500 million people, generate almost $30 trillion in sales and have well over $100 trillion in assets.
The list also includes top government officials with real cross-border influence: heads of state, of course, leading diplomats and military chiefs, but also central bankers like Geithner and Bernanke, and their counterparts like Chinese Central Bank Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan, reappointed this week, and the other top economic officials responsible for the world's fastest-growing economy and its nearly $1.5 trillion in reserves.
They are joined by media barons like Rupert Murdoch, whose global network of newspapers, Web products, movie studios and TV stations reach hundreds of millions of people every day, or tech entrepreneurs like Facebook wunderkind, 23-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, whose company is redefining what global community means. Alongside them you'll also find those who have different forms of power: religious leaders from the pope to Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei, perhaps the most powerful man in the Middle East today; clerics who have taken to a media pulpit and reach millions around the world daily like Latin America's Luis Palau or the Egyptian "tele-Muslim, " former accountant turned religious TV star Amr Khaled. Cultural icons who use their celebrity platforms for activism like Bono and Angelina Jolie would certainly make the list, as would terrorist leaders and others who form a kind of shadow elite, like Osama bin Laden or the recently arrested arms dealer, Russia 's Viktor Bout. A growing number of tycoons from emerging markets make the cut: Indian industrialist Ratan Tata, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, Saudi oil investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, and Chinese real-estate billionaire Yang Huiyan, among others.
One can debate who is in and who is out endlessly. Indeed, given that so much power today is institutional or job related (and thus fleeting), any ranked list is out of date almost as soon as it's finished. Those who would have dropped off the list so far this year include the former heads of big banks who lost their jobs as a result of betting too heavily on subprime loans, including the ex-leaders of Citibank, Merrill Lynch and, as of last week, UBS. This is a very fluid ranking. But for the purposes of trying to understand the nature of today's topmost global elite, working with the above criteria, I have ended up with a core group of somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 people—meaning that each one is "one in a million."
A glance at this high-powered class illuminates several key trends. Political elites may be the primary powers where national governments remain dominant—in places like China , Russia and much of the Middle East —yet overall, the list reveals a marked shift from public to private power. Globalization and, to a large extent, privatization, has fueled the superclass (and vice versa). In the 1960s, the average international company had 100 subsidiaries; today many number their subsidiaries in the 10,000s. In the 1950s, the big postwar U.S. defense establishment had a budget that was larger than the revenues of all major U.S. companies put together; today, even though the defense budget is larger in real dollar terms, the sales of two major U.S.-based global corporations—Exxon and Wal-Mart—outstrip it by more than 50 percent.
This concentration of wealth and economic influence has translated into a concentration of power, a trend helped by the fact that the power of national governments is on the wane in many parts of the world. The rise of transnational activities (both public and private), a broad move away from state intervention in national markets and the effective reduction in the state's ability to use force due to the awesomely high price of modern warfare, have all contributed to the declining power of the individual nation-state. In turn, those whose organizations are built for global activity, like multinational companies or financial institutions (or terrorist networks or NGOs), have gained a relative advantage over individual governments and governmental organizations. Consider that the Gates Foundation gives about $1.5 billion annually to support global health initiatives—roughly the entire annual budget of the World Health Organization.
It is hard to exaggerate how small the world can look from the top. If the revolution in transportation and communications technology has shrunk the world for everyone, no group has come closer together than those who can afford the cutting edge. The iconic symbol of superclass unity is the Gulfstream private jet. In fact, one way to measure the clout of an event is to count the private jets at the nearest airport. According to Gulfstream, Davos traditionally attracts more of its planes than any other gathering, drawing up to 10 percent of the 1,500 planes in service to Zurich airport. But this year's Olympics in Beijing will give it a run for its money, as typically do events as diverse as the Monaco Grand Prix, China's Boao Forum, the Geneva Auto Show or Allen & Co.'s annual getaway for media magnates in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Globalization looks different when you can tell the pilot when to leave and where to go, and when there are no security lines to wait in when you are heading off for distant destinations. Those who are free to move about the planet this way come to have more in common with themselves than with their own countrymen. "What happened to us, that we walk through the Davos party and know more people than when we were walking across the village green in the town we live in?" wonders Mark Malloch-Brown, former Deputy Secretary General at the United Nations and now a senior official in the British Foreign Ministry. In fact, Davos is a village green for the superclass. It's at such a gathering that leaders get to know one another, hatch deals and exercise perhaps the greatest power the superclass has collectively: to shape conventional wisdom.
In these conclaves, priorities are not only for their own constituencies, but for entire regions and the world at large. Possibly the premier gathering in Latin America is the "Fathers and Sons" event held annually by the world's richest man, Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim, who presides over groups of Latin American corporate giants and their scions. The telecom billionaire pays for the entire event himself and orchestrates the schedule, which according to recent participants is "quite work intensive" but includes some time for tennis, golf, even, on one occasion and despite the absence of women, dancing among the fathers and sons when the music went on at the end of the day. The Slim event illustrates the importance to the heirs of Latin America 's traditional elite culture of connecting across borders, of forging international alliances within the subset of the global superclass with whom they have the most in common.
Thanks to this kind of social interaction, large portions of the global superclass are well acquainted with each other. Says Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Wall Street's Blackstone Group, "The world is pretty small. In almost every one of the areas in which I am dealing or in which we at Blackstone are looking at deals, you find it is just 20, 30 or 50 people worldwide who drive the industry or the sector." Numbers tell the same tale. If you take just the people who serve in top management positions or on the boards of the five biggest companies in the world, you'll find they also serve on the boards of an additional 140 other major companies and 22 universities. To Schwarzman, being a member of the superclass means being able to "get to anybody in the world with one phone call."
These kinds of connections can work to stabilize the world in a crisis. But not necessarily. I once overheard a dinner conversation among the CEO of a leading aircraft manufacturer and a senior member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee. "Here's the deal," said the CEO. "I want to sell a plane to Muammar Kaddafi and he wants to buy one. But we have sanctions in place that won't let me sell to him. The U.S. wants this guy dead. So, what I'm thinking is, if you help me get the OK to sell him the plane, I'll build with explosive bolts connecting the wings to the fuselage. Then, one day he's up flying over the Med and we push a button. He's gone. I make my sale. Everyone's happy." Fortunately, the conversation took place in the 1990s, a time before U.S. foreign-policy makers began bending international laws to achieve national security goals. The congressperson declined the offer.
In general, the power players on the other side of the dinner table will still be white, male and from either the United States or Europe (graphic).
But even as the group is narrow, it is still more permeable and global than the elites of preceding centuries. As noted earlier, many fewer members have inherited wealth or power. Talk to the superclass and they themselves will discuss how important luck has been in determining their membership in the group.
As their power grows, so does the possibility of a backlash for the superclass; 2008 has been a year of challenges for the ideas and institutions they represent—markets are melting down, energy reserves are being renationalized, protectionism is growing. On the stump, U.S. presidential candidates like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Mike Huckabee and John Edwards have all assailed growing inequality in the United States . But the statistics in other superclass hot spots like China are far worse. With the salaries of major multinational CEOs now averaging more than 350 times that of the average employee— a tenfold increase over the disparities of the 1970s—there is a growing anger that those with the power are using it to unfairly feather their own nests.
The current financial crisis is another such example, producing serious questions about the influence of the superclass. Of the world's elites, none has strutted the world stage for the past decade like global investment bankers. Masters of money, they created something new: global markets and a constantly evolving array of securities that were both beyond the reach and the comprehension of regulators. Now, the value of some of the complex investment vehicles they created is proving to be illusory.
As a consequence, the world economy was set for the crisis that is currently unfolding. There was no effective global regulator to keep the system in check, and there was no real voice for the average Joe. The Federal Reserve stepped in to stabilize the burnout of one of these major market makers—even though they have no jurisdiction over investment banks, even though many of those supporting the bailout/buyout were the same who have long clamored for "self-regulation, " even though many were the ones who had cited the moral hazard of helping to bail out homeowners and encouraging their bad borrowing behavior. And so you have a financial leadership structure that bails out investment bankers worldwide, but not homeowners.
Some in that leadership are embracing new regulatory proposals mainly because they believe it is the price they must pay to maintain the safety net that was quickly woven together by chairman Bernanke and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson (the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, the investment bank that has produced in recent years what is perhaps the most extraordinary list of superclass members).
Many critics assert that this financial crisis is a classic example of elite overreach. Historically, elites from the tyrants of ancient Greece to those of post Civil War America have always been undone by their own greed and ambition. Many today wonder if this might be the beginning of the end for the current superclass, as it was in those instances when the rise of political reformers like Solon and Cleisthenes or trustbusters like Teddy Roosevelt led to major changes in efforts to rein in elite power.
At first glance, anger and frustration aside, it seems unlikely, because national institutions are ineffective beyond their borders and international institutions have not evolved as quickly as global markets, many retaining ownership and management structures dating to the late 1940s with resources inadequate to many global challenges (though recent proposals from Paulson and the U.K. government aim to change that). In fact, the explosion of private money in international markets is marginalizing these institutions, while it makes the global elite more powerful. Thus it is becoming increasingly less likely that any international mechanism can rein in the global elite.
In the short term, the only real change we may see is the spread of the superclass—and the tension around it—to new enclaves. Indians like steel titan Lakshmi Mittal, dueling billionaire brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, and global auto magnate Ratan Tata are joining the hundreds of the superrich in Russia (the leading creator of new billionaires on the recent Forbes list) and China (where half of the 25 richest people in the country are under 40). At the same time, the relative importance of Asian governments and militaries is also growing, with China the No. 2 defense spender in the world and India upping its defense expenditures more than 40 percent in the past five years, making it the No. 3 spender in purchasing power-adjusted terms. So it is more likely that the superclass itself will change than that it will be contained.
In the future, this may mean the decline of the old transatlantic venues for convening the elite and the rise of new ones in Asia . With members of the changing superclass defining global conventional wisdom, we are likely to see a shift in the very values that shape world affairs. Leaders from Asian nations may, for example, have different ideas about the role of the state and of the individual; they may also seek to define them in terms of narrower self-interests than imperial or proselytizing Westerners often did. The rise of petrol statesmen could undercut the gathering support for the fight against fossil-fueled global warming. The new clout of emerging-market CEOs may slow the movement to make corporations more socially and environmentally responsible "citizens," a campaign many in the developing world see as a rich-company, rich-country luxury.
And the more members of the superclass adopt a business-as- usual attitude toward countries that ignore political or social conditions, the less likely the superclass will be to reform itself. In short, while we may have a somewhat different superclass in the future, until the people of the world are more comfortable with creating the kind of strong global governance mechanisms that can contain and regulate many of their activities, the 6,000 will continue to play the greatest role of any group on the planet in defining our times.
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