MegaGame

11 Obsessions of Remarkable Entrepreneurs by Robin Sharma

2011-04-14T19:16:00.001+05:30

1. REs understand that quality of the practice determines the caliber of the performance.
+ Pro Athlete protocol : Mental / Physical / Emotional preparation.
+ 5 a.m: time for yourself.
+ Learning is the anti-dote to disruption and change.
+ To double your success , triple your learning and practice.

2. Bureaucrats talk about people and problems, REs talk about possibilities and solutions.
+ Focus on results and get things done.
+ use any situation for betterment.
+ No excuses.

3. REs understand they are paid not just to work but they are paid to be scared !
+ Paid to play on the edge; to challenge the convention; to disrupt what you did y'day.
+ Move out of comfort zone.
+ Nothing fails like success.
+ Take calculated risks and Intelligently frighten yourself. Do the things that you fear!
+ Persist during adversity. Adversity is the door to possibilities.

4. To have what only 1% of entrepreneurial population have; you must be willing to do what only 1% of what entrepreneurial population are willing to do.
+ Luck should be earned.
+ Be willing to do what is difficult/stretching/requires commitment.
+ Develop people and leaders around you.
+ Spend time in silence : best of your ideas pop.
+ Build relationship with your customers and people.
+ Building trust.

5. Bureaucrats are threatened by change; REs are inspired by change.
+ Growth is messiest in the middle.
+ Go through alternating cycles of confusion and clarity.

6. Bureaucrats have jobs; REs have crafts.
+ Work as an opportunity to develop your talents, so to stand in your full self-expression.
+ Not just money but for pride and world class product / genius level work.
+ Live life to the fullest : secret of happiness.

7. REs understand an addiction to distraction is the death of creative production.
+ Clean distractions from life.
+ The best entrepreneurs understand the key in business is to shift out of complexity + busy-ness to simplicity + focus.
+ Focus on things that add value.

8. Bureaucrats wait until they get the energy, REs understand that to get the energy you must first do the work.
+ Just do it.
+ 3 Entrepreneurial gifts will be given:
=> Release of more motivation.
=> Release of confidence.
=> Release of energy.

9. REs understand the bigger the dream more important the team.
+ Select "A" class team.
+ Leadership is about influence : moving people to action. Lead by example.
+ Leadership is about impact: Execution!
+ Leadership is about inspiration.

10. REs populate their lives with people whose lives they want to be living.
+ Watch people and environment you spend time with.

11. REs are obsessed fundamentally with giving.
+ Ask yourself not what can I get; Ask yourself who may I help.
+ Focus on giving.

60 TIPS FOR A STUNNINGLY GREAT LIFE by Robin Sharma

2010-12-15T13:39:00.002+05:30

I want to shift gears from leadership to a pure focus on crafting an exceptional life for this blog post. Ultimately, life goes by in a blink. And too many people live the same year 80 times. To avoid getting to the end and feeling flooded regret over a live half-lived, read (and then apply) these tips:

1. Exercise daily.

2. Get serious about gratitude.

3. See your work as a craft.

4. Expect the best and prepare for the worst.

5. Keep a journal.

6. Read “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”.

7. Plan a schedule for your week.

8. Know the 5 highest priorities of your life.

9. Say no to distractions.

10. Drink a lot of water.

11. Improve your work every single day.

12. Get a mentor.

13. Hire a coach.

14. Get up at 5 am each day.

15. Eat less food.

16. Find more heroes.

17. Be a hero to someone.

18. Smile at strangers.

19. Be the most ethical person you know.

20. Don’t settle for anything less than excellence.

21. Savor life’s simplest pleasures.

22. Save 10% of your income each month.

23. Spend time at art galleries.

24. Walk in the woods.

25. Write thank you letters to those who’ve helped you.

26. Forgive those who’ve wronged you.

27. Remember that leadership is about influence and impact, not title and accolades.

28. Create unforgettable moments with those you love.

29. Have 5 great friends.

30. Become stunningly polite.

31. Unplug your TV.

32. Sell your TV.

33. Read daily.

34. Avoid the news.

35. Be content with what you have.

36. Pursue your dreams.

37. Be authentic.

38. Be passionate.

39. Say sorry when you know you should.

40. Never miss a moment to celebrate another.

41. Have a vision for your life.

42. Know your strengths.

43. Focus your mind on the good versus the lack.

44. Be patient.

45. Don’t give up.

46. Clean up your messes.

47. Use impeccable words.

48. Travel more.

49. Read “As You Think”.

50. Honor your parents.

51. Tip taxi drivers well.

52. Be a great teammate.

53. Give no energy to critics.

54. Spent time in the mountains.

55. Know your top 5 values.

56. Shift from being busy to achieving results.

57. Innovate and iterate.

58. Speak less. Listen more.

59. Be the best person you know.

60. Make your life matter.

2010-11-14T18:04:00.002+05:30

Beautiful letter written by a father to his son and daughter. Use this in your teachings to your children.

Following is a letter to his son and daughter from a renowned Hong Kong TV broadcaster cum Child Psychologist. The words are actually applicable to all of us, young or old, children or parents!

I am writing this to you because of 3 reasons

1. Life, fortune and mishaps are unpredictable, nobody knows how long he lives. Some words are better said early.

2. I am your father, and if I don't tell you these, no one else will.

3. What is written is my own personal bitter experiences that perhaps could save you a lot of unnecessary heartaches.

Remember the following as you go through life

1. Do not bear grudge towards those who are not good to you. No one has the responsibility of treating you well, except your mother and I. To those who are good to you, you have to treasure it and be thankful, and ALSO you have to be cautious, because, everyone has a motive for every move. When a person is good to you, it does not mean he really likes you. You have to be careful, don't hastily regard him as a real friend.

2. No one is indispensable, nothing in the world that you must possess. Once you understand this idea, it would be easier for you to go through life when people around you don't want you anymore, or when you lose what/who you love most.

3. Life is short. When you waste your life today, tomorrow you would find that life is leaving you. The earlier you treasure your life, the better you enjoy life.

4. Love is but a transient feeling, and this feeling would fade with time and with one's mood. If your so called loved one leaves you, be patient, time will wash away your aches and sadness. Don't over exaggerate the beauty and sweetness of love, and don't over exaggerate the sadness of falling out of love.

5. A lot of successful people did not receive a good education, that does not mean that you can be successful by not studying hard! Whatever knowledge you gain is your weapon in life. One can go from rags to riches, but one has to start from some rags!

6. I do not expect you to financially support me when I am old, either would I financially support your whole life. My responsibility as a supporter ends when you are grown up. After that, you decide whether you want to travel in a public transport or in your limousine, whether rich or poor.

7. You honor your words, but don't expect others to be so. You can be good to people, but don't expect people to be good to you. If you don't understand this, you would end up with unnecessary troubles.

8. I have bought lotteries for umpteen years, but I never strike any prize. That shows if you want to be rich, you have to work hard! There is no free lunch!

9. No matter how much time I have with you, let's treasure the time we have together. We do not know if we would meet again in our next life.

Your Dad and Mum

Thank God For The TATA's - By L. N. Mittal

2010-08-11T18:23:00.000+05:30

Subject: Thank God For The TATA's - By L. N. Mittal ......
a wonderful article
________________________________
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2010 23:18:10 -0700
A TRIBUTE - Thank God For The TATA’s.

By Lakshmi Mittal

As Lakshmi Mittal says ......... we have more to be proud off than
what the Infosys and Wipro's of India provide ...........

I visited Jamshedpur over the weekend to see for myself an India that
is fast disappearing despite all the wolf-cries of people like
Narayanamurthy and his ilk.

It is one thing to talk and quite another to do and I am delighted to
tell you that Ratan Tata has kept alive the legacy of perhaps India's
finest industrialist J.N. Tata.

Something that some people doubted when Ratan took over the House of
the Tata's but in hindsight, the best thing to have happened to the
Tata's is unquestionably Ratan.

I was amazed to see the extent of corporate philanthropy and this is
no exaggeration.

For the breed that talks about corporate social responsibility and
talks about the role of corporate India, a visit to Jamshedpur is a
must.

Go there and see the amount of money they pump into keeping the town
going; see the smiling faces of workers in a region known for
industrial unrest; see the standard of living in a city that is almost
isolated from the mess in the rest of the country. This is not meant
to be a puff piece. I have nothing to do with Tata
Steel, but I strongly believe the message of hope and the message of
goodness that they are spreading is worth sharing. The fact that you
do have companies in India which look at workers as human beings and
who do not blow their software trumpet of having changed lives. In
fact, I asked Mr. Muthurman, the managing director, as to why he was
so quiet about all they had done and all he could offer in return was
a smile wrapped in humility, which said it all.

They have done so much more since I last visited Jamshedpur, which was
in 1992. The town has obviously got busier but the values thankfully
haven't changed. The food is still as amazing as it always was and I
gorged, as I would normally do. I visited the plant and the last time
I did that was with Russi Mody. But the plant this time was gleaming
and far from what it used to be. Greener and cleaner and a tribute to
environment management.

You could have been in the mountains. Such was the quality of air I
inhaled! There was no belching smoke, no tired faces and so many more
women
workers, even on the shop floor. This is true gender equality and not
the kind that is often espoused at seminars organised by angry
activists. I met so many old friends. Most of them have aged but not
grown old. There was a spring in the air which came from a certain
calmness which has always been the hallmark of Jamshedpur and
something I savoured for a full two days in between receiving messages
of how boring and decrepit the lack luster Fashion Week was.
Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata had created an edifice that is today a
robust company and it is not about profits and about valuation. It is
not about who becomes a millionaire and who doesn't'. It is about
getting the job done with dignity and respect keeping the age-old
values intact and this is what I learnt.

I jokingly asked someone as to whether they ever thought of joining an
Infosys or a Wipro and pat came the reply: "We are not interested in
becoming crorepatis but in making others crorepatis." Which is exactly
what the Tata's have done for years in and around Jamshedpur. Very few
people know that Jamshedpur has been selected as a UN Global Compact
City, edging out the other nominee from India, Bangalore. Selected
because of the quality of life, because of the conditions of
sanitation and roads and welfare. If this is not a tribute to
industrial India, then what is?

Today, Indian needs several Jamshedpur’s but it also needs this
Jamshedpur to be given its fair due, its recognition. I am tired of
campus visits being publicises to the Infosys and the Wipro's of the
world. Modern India is being built in Jamshedpur as we speak. An India
built on the strength of core convictions and nothing was more
apparent about that than the experiment with truth and reality that
Tata Steel is conducting at Pipla.

Forty-eight tribal girls (yes, tribal girls who these corrupt and evil
politicians only talk about but do nothing for) are being educated
through a residential program over nine months. I went to visit them
and I spoke to them in a language that they have just learnt :
Bengali. Eight weeks ago, they could only speak in Sainthali, their
local dialect. But today, they are brimming with a confidence that
will bring tears to your eyes. It did to mine. One of them has just
been selected to represent Jharkand in the state archery competition.
They have their own women's football team and what's more they are now
fond of education. It is a passion and not a burden.

This was possible because I guess people like Ratan Tata and Muthurman
haven't sold their souls to some business management drivel, which
tells us that we must only do business and nothing else. The fact that
not one Tata executive has been touched by the Naxalites in that area
talks about the social respect that the Tata's have earned.

The Tata's do not need this piece to be praised and lauded. My intent
is to share the larger picture that we so often miss in the haze of
the slime and sleaze that politics imparts. My submissions to those
who use phrases such as "feel-good" and "India Shining" must first
visit Jamshedpur to understand what it all means.
See Tata Steel in action to know what companies can do if they wish
to. And what corporate India needs to do. Murli Manohar Joshi would be
better off seeing what Tata Steel has done by creating the Xavier
Institute of Tribal Education rather than by proffering excuses for
the imbroglio in the IIMs.

This is where the Advani's and Vajpayee’s need to pay homage. Not to
all the Sai Babas and the Hugging saints that they are so busy with.
India is changing inspite of them and they need to realise that. I
couldn't have spent a more humane and wonderful weekend. Jamshedpur is
an eye-opener and a role model, which should be made mandatory for
replication. I saw corporate India actually participate in basic
nation-building, for when these tribal girls go back to their
villages, they will return with knowledge that will truly be
life-altering.

Corporate India can do it but most of the time is willing to shy away.
For those corporate leaders who are happier winning awards and being
interviewed on their choice of clothes, my advice is visit Tata Steel,
spend some days at Jamshedpur and see a nation's transformation. That
is true service.

Tata Steel celebrated 100 years of existence in 2007. It won't be just
a milestone in this company's history. It will be a milestone, to my
mind of corporate transparency and generosity in this country. It is
indeed fitting that Ratan Tata today heads a group that has people who
are committed to nation building than just building influence and
power.

JRD must be smiling wherever he is. And so must Jamshedji Nusserwanji.
These people today have literally climbed every last blue mountain.
And continue to do so with vigour and passion.

Thank God For The Tatas!

Robin's 73 Best Business and Success Lessons

2010-08-11T17:29:00.000+05:30

Robin Sharma is the bestselling author of "The Leader Who Had No Title:

# You can really Lead Without a Title.

# Knowing what to do and not doing it is the same as not knowing what to do.

# Give away what you most wish to receive.

# The antidote to stagnation is innovation.

# The conversations you are most resisting are the conversations you most need to be having.

# Leadership is no longer about position - but passion. It's no longer about image but impact. This is Leadership 2.0.

# The bigger the dream, the more important to the team.

# Visionaries see the "impossible" as the inevitable.

# All great thinkers are initially ridiculed - and eventually revered.

# The more you worry about being applauded by others and making money, the less you'll focus on doing the great work that will generate applause. And make you money.

# To double your net worth, double your self-worth. Because you will never exceed the height of your self-image.

# The more messes you allow into your life, the more messes will become a normal (and acceptable) part of your life.

# The secret to genius is not genetics but daily practice married with relentless perseverance.

# The best leaders lift people up versus tear people down.

# The most precious resource for businesspeople is not their time. It's their energy. Manage it well.

# The fears you run from run to you.

# The most dangerous place is in your safety zone.

# The more you go to your limits, the more your limits will expand.

# Every moment in front of a customer is a gorgeous opportunity to live your values.

# Be so good at what you do that no one else in the world can do what you do.

# You'll never go wrong in doing what is right.

# It generally takes about 10 years to become an overnight sensation.

# Never leave the site of a strong idea without doing something to execute around it.

# A strong foundation at home sets you up for a strong foundation at work.

# Never miss a moment to encourage someone you work with.

# Saying "I'll try" really means "I'm not really committed."

# The secret of passion is purpose.

# Do a few things at mastery versus many things at mediocrity.

# To have the rewards that very few have, do the things that very few people are willing to do.

# Go where no one's gone and leave a trail of excellence behind you.

# Who you are becoming is more important than what you are accumulating.

# Accept your teammates for what they are and inspire them to become all they can be.

# To triple the growth of your organization, triple the growth of your people.

# The best leaders are the most dedicated learners. Read great books daily. Investing in your self-development is the best investment you will ever make.

# Other people's opinions of you are none of your business.

# Change is hardest at the beginning, messiest in the middle and best at the end.

# Measure your success by your inner scorecard versus an outer one.

# Understand the acute difference between the cost of something and the value of something.

# Nothing fails like success. Because when you are at the top, it's so easy to stop doing the very things that brought you to the top.

# The best leaders blend courage with compassion.

# The less you are like others, the less others will like you.

# You'll never go wrong in doing what's right.

# Excellence in one area is the beginning of excellence in every area.

# The real reward for doing your best work is not the money you make but the leader you become.

# Passion + production = performance.

# The value of getting to your goals lives not in reaching the goal but what the talents/strengths/capabilities the journey reveals to you.

# Stand for something. Or else you'll fall for anything.

# Say "thank you" when you're grateful and "sorry" when you're wrong.

# Make the work you are doing today better than the work you did yesterday.

# Small daily - seemingly insignificant - improvements and innovations lead to staggering achievements over time.

# Peak performers replace depletion with inspiration on a daily basis.

# Take care of your relationships and the sales/money will take care of itself.

# You can't be great if you don't feel great. Make exceptional health your #1 priority.

# Doing the difficult things that you've never done awakens the talents you never knew you had.

# As we each express our natural genius, we all elevate our world.

# Your daily schedule reflects your deepest values.

# People do business with people who make them feel special.

# All things being equal, the primary competitive advantage of your business will be your ability to grow Leaders Without Titles faster than your industry peers.

# Treat people well on your way up and they'll treat you well on your way down.

# Success lies in a masterful consistency around a few fundamentals. It really is simple. Not easy. But simple.

# The business (and person) who tries to be everything to everyone ends up being nothing to anyone.

# One of the primary tactics for enduring winning is daily learning.

# To have everything you want, help as many people as you can possibly find get everything they want.

# Understand that a problem is only a problem if you choose to view it as a problem (vs. an opportunity).

# Clarity precedes mastery. Craft clear and precise plans/goals/deliverables. And then block out all else.

# The best in business spend far more time on learning than in leisure.

# Lucky is where skill meets persistence.

# The best Leaders Without a Title use their heads and listen to their hearts.

# The things that are hardest to do are often the things that are the best to do.

# Every single person in the world could be a genius at something, if they practiced it daily for at least ten years (as confirmed by the research of Anders Ericsson and others).

# Daily exercise is an insurance policy against future illness. The best Leaders Without Titles are the fittest.

# Education is the beginning of transformation. Dedicate yourself to daily learning via books/audios/seminars and coaching.

# The quickest way to grow the sales of your business is to grow your people.

Stop Living for the Approval of Women by Wayne M. Levine, M.A.

2010-07-19T17:27:00.000+05:30

No one wants to admit they’re not funny. Have you ever met a man who willingly confesses to it? Now, you know he’s not terribly funny, and everyone else can clearly see that he’s not funny. But he still cracks his bad jokes as you all groan. In the end, though, there’s usually little harm done as a result of his state of denial.

Now, how many men will admit to needing the approval of women? Have you met many? As men get older, and they’ve suffered long enough, they’ll start to admit it and work toward change. But what about your buddies? Have you seen them shackled by this need for approval? What about you? Have you had the courage to honestly take stock and see where your need for approval is preventing you from being the man you want to be? Ready to stop denying and start growing up?

First, let’s define approval as it relates to our relationships with women. Approval is her permission for you to take an action. Approval is her acknowledgment that she won’t take you to task for your choice…maybe. Approval is giving away your power to do as you see fit. In other words, needing the approval of women makes you a pleaser.

Stick around for a moment and you’ll learn how curing yourself of this tendency to please will actually allow you to be happier in your own skin, be more respectful, be more respected, be a better partner, more compassionate, more present, a better example to your kids, and be more of the man she actually wants you to be.

Where Did It Start?

Where does this need for the approval of women come from? As with most of our emotional, psychological, and relationship challenges, the seeds were planted a long time ago in a galaxy, seemingly far, far away…your childhood.

In your home, with your parent(s), you learned more than you might have realized. You learned what a man is and how one behaves. You learned what a woman is. You learned what a marriage or relationship between the two looks like. It looks just like mom and dad, or mom and boyfriend, or dad with girlfriends, or either…alone, unhappy.

You learned how to treat women. You learned how to get what you feel you needed. You learned how to cause chaos, how to avoid crisis, how to calm the waters, how to medicate your pain. In a nutshell, you learned how to be the man you are today primarily from what you saw in those early days.

What, precisely, did you see and you learn? How did your father, or lack of dad, mold you? What did you learn about how a man behaves with a woman? If you’re a man who currently seeks the approval of women, you probably learned it from dad. Either he demonstrated the same behaviors, or he was just the opposite (neglectful, abusive, etc.) In this case, perhaps you learned how to behave differently with your mom so that she wouldn’t take her anger and unhappiness out on the other man in the house, you. You learned how to survive, to avoid pain. It was a good thing. You coped. But now you’re stuck in that behavior while your circumstances have probably changed considerably.

Now you’re a man. You fear confrontation. It’s intolerable for her to be upset with you. You’ll go to almost any length—and you have—to please her, to make your discomfort disappear…for the moment. Sound familiar?

The ugly truth.

What exactly is it that you do to protect yourself from her displeasure? You send up trial balloons to see if you can get a tentative approval by tentatively suggesting a tentative idea you had. You edit yourself and avoid saying or doing what you know will provoke her. You spend an inordinate amount of time and energy concerned about how she feels and how she’ll react. You’ve been rationalizing, compromising, second-guessing, playing it safe, and avoiding confrontation. As a result, you’ve slowly forgotten what really matters to you, what you were once passionate about, how you truly feel about issues, yourself, and others. Meanwhile, if you’re a dad, you’re passing this all onto the next generation—your legacy.

Now, let’s take a step back in time. When you first met her, none of this was seemingly a problem. You were “in love.” It was easy to dismiss little issues. After all, you’re a master of denial. And, you were, hopefully getting laid all the time. Life was good.

But then things began to change, or was it her? You found yourself less happy, more irritable, frustrated. You agreed to see your buddies less often back in the day. Why? To please her. But now your buddies are calling you “whipped.” They’ve lost respect for you, while you’ve lost respect for yourself. In addition you’re probably a bit lonely, angry, and now blaming her.

What to do next.

Now what are you supposed to do? How do you change course after all these years? You’ve thought about these things many times. But you can’t, for the life of you, imagine how anything you do could lead to a better relationship with her. After all, you know her and you know how she is. Things won’t change. Not true. When YOU change, it all changes. Will she still want to be around when you’ve made the change? Too soon to tell. But really, if you want to be happy, confident, proud, successful, if you want to be a great man, father and husband, do you really have a choice but to change?

Let me suggest a few action items. There’s a level of awareness you need to achieve, while you take steps to change your behavior. Although the process can feel overwhelming, all I can tell you is that many men have succeeded in becoming better men starting at the same spot you find yourself in today.

Take risks.

Pleasers are not known for their risk-taking. For some, a risk might include jumping out of an airplane. Skydiving may seem like a cakewalk to a pleaser compared to, let’s say, letting your wife know exactly how you’d like to handle the discipline the next time your son is disrespectful. Or, making reservations for a restaurant you’d really like to go to and then taking care of your woman without worrying whether she’ll approve of your choice.

Create a new context.

Ever been in the presence of an extremely confident man? You know almost immediately when he’s entered the room. Everyone does. The energy he’s putting out is palpable, and it’s affecting those around him. People respond subconsciously to that energy.

As a pleaser, you emit your own kind energy. Again, those around you respond to it. That’s why you often don’t have a voice—you’re too busy accommodating those who have pegged you as someone who will satisfy their needs. That’s why it’s critical for you to begin to consciously choose a new path.

Your context is where you’re coming from as you enter the room, begin a discussion, plan an event, or go out on a date. Imagine yourself wearing a sandwich board with your context written on it for the world to see. Because that’s how obvious it is, already, to everyone who meets you. This is your mantra, this is your attitude, this is the man you want to be in that very moment.

Let’s say your woman asked you to pick up something from the store for dinner. Try as you might, you couldn’t find the exact item. So, you bought something close. Your current context as you arrive home might sound like this: I hope she doesn’t give me a hard time. A better context would be: Dinner is going to be great and I love you. Hear the difference? This attitude will change the way you walk into the house, the way you give her the alternative item, the way you’ll respond to her criticism, the way you’ll continue to be the man you want to be for the entire night. Rather than having your tail between your legs, you’ll have let it go. Instead of worrying about not pleasing her, you’re available to be the dad you want to be with the kids, or simply present with her in a more confident, attractive way.

Even if she’s unable to let go of her disappointment, it is vital for you to maintain your context. Ultimately, your new attitude has the potential to change how she responds to you. Depending on the state of your relationship, this could take some time. But for many, the change could take place quite quickly. There are a lot of women out there who are desperately waiting for their men to show up as men. You may be surprised to find that you’re with one of these wonderful, patient women right now.

Don’t do this alone.

To successfully make changes in your behavior, you’ll want the support of other men. Whether it’s a buddy, men’s group or counselor, support is essential. That support includes being held accountable to your commitments. You’ll want to have specific goals, and you’ll want to have your ass kicked when it’s difficult and you want to quit. And you’ll enjoy receiving a pat on the back when you’ve hit a homerun.

In becoming this new man, you’re asking a lot of yourself, and of those closest to you. It’s not an easy process. Prepare by having your support network in place. That’s how you’ll set yourself up for success, rather than failure.

The bigger picture.

We’ve been discussing your need for the approval of women. But this issue goes beyond women. You care too much about how everyone thinks about you, maybe even strangers. You’re a pleaser in all areas of your life. You may disagree. But take the time to examine how you really show up at work, with your extended family, or with your friends. Are you really making your own choices? Or have you adapted for so long, you’ve forgotten what being you would even look like?

Once you become more masculine in your relationship with women—and lose the need for their approval—you’ll begin to see how this new man has a place in all areas of your life. And it’s not about pissing off people. You don’t have to be inconsiderate to be the man you want to be, to stop being a pleaser, though some people around you may feel you’re being a jerk. That’s to be expected. You’re changing the game on them. No one likes that, especially insecure (and therefore controlling) people, like, perhaps, your wife. This is simply about finding your voice, telling the truth, considering other people’s needs and feelings, but not at the expense of honoring your own.

At the end of the day, remember this: You can’t ask for permission to be the man you want to be. Throughout this process with your woman, continue to honor and cherish her. Not being a pleaser doesn’t excuse you from your responsibilities. You still need to listen, not argue, and run the sex and romance departments. And believe me, when you stop being a pleaser in bed, she’ll REALLY be pleased.

____________________________________________________________________

Wayne M. Levine, M.A., mentors men to be better men, husbands and fathers. Check out Wayne’s book, Hold On to Your N.U.T.s—The Relationship Manual for Men and see how you can become a better man at http://www.bettermen.org/

The Way to Wealth by Benjamin Franklin

2009-07-27T16:03:00.002+05:30

1. God helps them that help themselves.
2. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright.
3. Dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.
4. The sleeping fox catches no poultry.
5. There will be sleeping enough in the grave.
6. Wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.
7. Lost time is never found again.
8. Time-enough, always proves little enough.
9. Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy.
10. He that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night.
11. Laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him.
12. Drive thy business, let not that drive thee.
13. Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
14. Industry need not wish.
15. He that lives upon hope will die fasting.
16. There are no gains, without pains.
17. He that hath a trade hath an estate.
18. He that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor.
19. At the working man’s house hunger looks in, but dares not enter.
20. For industry pays debts, while despair encreaseth them.
21. Diligence is the mother of good luck.
22. Plough deep, while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.
23. One today is worth two tomorrows.
24. Have you somewhat to do tomorrow, do it today.
25. Be ashamed to catch yourself idle.
26. Let not the sun look down and say, inglorious here he lies.
27. The cat in gloves catches no mice.
28. Constant dropping wears away stones.
29. Diligence and patience the mouse ate in two the cable.
30. Little strokes fell great oaks.
31. Employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure.
32. Since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.
33. A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things.
34. Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.
35. Many without labor would live by their wits only, but they break for want of stock.
36. Industry gives comfort, and plenty, and respect: fly pleasures, and they’ll follow you.
37. Keep the shop, and thy shop will keep thee.
38. If you would have your business done, go; if not, send.
39. The eye of a master will do more work than both his hands.
40. Want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge.
41. Not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open.
42. In the affairs of this world men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.
43. Learning is to the studious, and riches to the careful.
44. He that by the plough would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive.
45. If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.
46. A little neglect may breed great mischief.
47. For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost, and for want of a horse the rider was lost.
48. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets,keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a groat at last.
49. If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as of getting.
50. What maintains one vice, would bring up two children.
51. Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.
52. Who dainties love, shall beggars prove.
53. Fools make Feasts, and wise men eat them.
54. Buy what thou hast no need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.
55. At a great pennyworth pause a while: he means, that perhaps the cheapness is apparent only, and not real.
56. Many have been ruined by buying good pennyworths.
57. ‘Tis foolish to lay our money in a purchase of repentance.
58. Wise men learn by others’ harms, fools scarcely by their own.
59. Silks and satins, scarlet and velvets put out the kitchen fire.
60. A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees.
61. Always taking out of the meal-tub, and never putting in, soon comes to the bottom.
62. When the well’s dry, they know the worth of water.
63. If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.
64. He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.
65. Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy.
66. ‘Tis easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow.
67. Pride that dines on vanity sups on contempt.
68. Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy.
69. The second vice is lying, the first is running in debt.
70. But what madness must it be to run in debt for these superfluities!
71. When you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty.
72. Lying rides upon debt’s back.
73. ‘Tis hard for an empty bag to stand upright.
74. Creditors have better memories than debtors.
75. The borrower is a slave to the lender, and the debtor to the creditor.
76. Disdain the chain, preserve your freedom; and maintain your independency: be industrious and free; be frugal and free.
77. Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue: ’tis hard for an empty bag to stand upright.
78. Creditors are a superstitious sect, great observers of set days and times.
79. Those have a short Lent who owe money to be paid at Easter.
80. The borrower is a slave to the lender, and the debtor to the creditor.
81. For age and want, save while you may; No morning sun lasts a whole day.
82. Gain may be temporary and uncertain, but ever while you live, expense is constant and certain.
83. Tis easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel.
84. Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt.
85. Get what you can, and what you get hold; ’Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into go.

Does the World Owe Anyone a Living?

2009-03-22T09:48:00.000+05:30

The biggest problem with dentures (false teeth) is that they do not feel comfortable. Some people love their new dentures immediately while others are never happy with the fit and always seem to suffer.

Dissatisfied patients return to their dentists for frequent adjustments. They try different adhesives or simply start over. No matter what they do, their dentures never feel comfortable.

So a denture manufacturer conducted a study to find out why dentures easily fit the mouths of some patients, but were a constant problem with others.

As part of the study, they considered the types of material used in the dentures and the methods for shaping the dentures. They checked the dentists' training and techniques. Yet they could not find a common reason why certain patients hated their dentures.

But then they checked one other factor. Most of the patients who complained that their dentures did not fit had not paid for them!

If the patient or their insurance company had paid for the dentures, they seemed to fit better. If the dentures were not paid for, they did not fit as well.

Why would that matter?

Permitting Dishonesty

"When you let somebody be dishonest, you are setting him up to become physically ill and unhappy."

"When you let a person give nothing for something, you are factually encouraging crime." -- L. Ron Hubbard

Lottery winners often lose all their money within a few years. They buy expensive cars and wreck them. They buy big houses and let them go to ruin. One man used his winnings to drink himself to death.

These poor people didn't earn the money. They got something for nothing so it meant nothing to them.

Down deep, everyone wants to be honest. When they get something for nothing they tend to waste it because they did nothing to deserve it.

When you perform some valuable work for someone, you must let them give you something back in exchange. If you do not let them give you something in return, they become unhappy. They may even resent your help.

You see this with governments. Some people accept money from the government to help them get back on their feet. They go to school, work hard and return the money they received by paying taxes. These people are healthy and happy.

Other people accept money from the government, but never get back to work. They watch television all day and gain weight. They are unhealthy and unhappy.

Three Recommendations

1. When people complain about what you do for them, check if they have given you a proper exchange in return. If not, make it a requirement and they will stop complaining about you.

2. Ensure you give an honest exchange for all the goods and services you receive. Like people with dentures, you will be happier with what you receive if you give a fair exchange.

3. Whenever you are unhappy or unhealthy, check if you are failing to give an honest exchange for what you receive. Find ways to be as honest as possible and match the exchange. In fact, give the world a little more than you receive and watch what happens to your health and happiness!

-----------------------------------

A Tip for Success with Children

"A lot of this exchange imbalance comes from child psychology where the child is not contributing anything and is not permitted to contribute.

"It is this which first overwhelms him with feelings of obligation to his parents and then bursts out as total revolt in his teens.

"Children who are permitted to contribute (not as a cute thing to do but actually) make noncontributing children of the same age look like raving maniacs!" -- L. Ron Hubbard

When you make children give an exchange they become much happier! Children, as young as three, can contribute by picking up their toys, helping in the kitchen or singing a song for you.

If children are not allowed to work until they are adults, they depend too heavily on their parents or the government for their money. They do not know how to earn a living.

Children want to work. It makes them feel valuable. Work makes them happy.

Smart parents let their children have real jobs. They patiently show their children how to work. For example, how to wash the windows so they are really clean, or how to walk the family dog every day, even when it is boring.

The most successful people in this world worked at real jobs when they are young. For example, they took care of the neighbors' yards or pets when they were 8. Or they drove a tractor on their family farms when they are 12.

When they became 18, they already had years of work experience. They could work an eight-hour day and earn their pay. They were striding up the road to their ultimate success.

Recommendation

Teach children (and adults) that the world does not owe them a living. They must find ways to exchange something valuable for the things they want. Help them enjoy the pride, health and happiness they get from earning an honest living.

108 Names of Shiva

2009-02-20T09:20:00.003+05:30

The Lord has 108 names describing his attributes and achievements. Grace is guaranteed to those who chant these names. Names ending with -esh or eshwar, almost always refer to Shiva. Many of the names are shared by other gods, as they all manifestations of the same supreme divinity.

Name and Meaning

ACHALESHWAR
Immovable lord; the resolute one

ADINATH
Primeval master

AGHORA
Not terrifying; pleasing

AJA
Unmanifest

AJA EKAPADA
One-footed lord

AJAGANDHI
He who smells like a goat

AKURURA
Kind god

ANDHAKEHSWAR
Dispeller of darkness

APAMNIDHI
Lord of the waters

ARDHANARI
Half woman

ASHANI
Thunderbolt

ASUTOSH
Easily pleased

AVADHUT
Naked ascetic

BALESHWAR
Long haired

BASAVA
Bull

BHAIRAVA
Quick tempered god

BHASMESHWAR
Smeared with ash

BHAVA
Existence

BHIKSHATAN
Celestial beggar

BHIMA
Strong one

BHISMA
Terrible one

BHOLA
Simpleton; guileless god

BHOOTPATI
God of ghosts

BHUTESHWAR
Lord of elements

BHUVANESH
Lord of the world

BILVA DANDIN
Bearer of a staff of bilva

CHANDRACHUDA
Moon crested

DAKSHINESWAR
Teacher who faces the South

DAMARUDARIN
Bearer of the rattle drum

EKAVRATYA
Unorthodox sage

GAJANTAKA
Killer of the elephant demon

GAMBHIRESH
Austere ascetic

GANAPATI
Lord of ganas

GANGADHAR
Bearer of the Ganges

GHORA
Fearsome

GIRISHA
Lord of the hills

GRIHAPATI
Householder

GUHESHWAR
Lord of the caves;mysterious one

HARA
Router, seizer, ravisher

HIRANYARETAS
Lord of the golden seed

ISHAN
Lord

ISHWARA
Godhead

JAMBUKESHWAR
Lord of Jambudvipa i.e India

JATESHWAR
Lord with matted hair

JIMUTAVAHAN
He who rides the clouds

JVARESHVAR
Lord of fevers

KALESHVAR
Lord of time; lord of art

KAMANDALUDHARI
Bearer of the water pot

KAMANASHE
Destroyer of desire

KAPALIN
Bearer of skulls

KAPARDIN
Lord with a conch shaped top knot

KARPURA GAURANGA
White as camphor

KEDAR
Lord of the hills

KIRAATA
Tribal

KRITTIVASA
He who wears animal hide

LAKULISHA
Bearer of the staff

MAHABALESHWAR
Almighty one

MAHADEV
Great god

MAHARSHI
Great sage

MAHESH
Great lord

MAITHUNESHWAR
Lord of sexual union

MANISH
Conqueror of the mind

MARUTTA
Wind; storm

NAGESHWAR
Lord of serpents

NAGNAVRATADHARI
Naked sage

NATARAJA
Lord of dance and drama

NEELAKANTA
Blue necked one

OMKARNATH
Lord of the mystic syllable "Om"

PASHAYE
Lord of the noose

PASHUPATI
Lord of the beasts

PAVAKA
Fire; lava

PURUSHA
Cosmic spirit; primeval man

RUDRA
Wild god ;the howler

SADJYOTA
Eternally radiant

SAILESH
Lord of mountains

SAMHARI
Destroyer

SHANBU
Benign

SHANKAR
Benevolent

SHARABHA
Dragon

SHARVA
Archer

SHIKHANDIN
Lord with a peacock plume

SHIVA
Auspicious one

SIDDHARTH
One who is accomplished

SOMASUNDARA
Beautiful as the moon

SOMNATH
Lord of soma, the herb of vitality

STHANU
Still

SUNDARMURTI
Alluring body

SVASHVA
Master of dogs

TAMASOPATI
Lord of inertia, darkness, passivity

TEJOMAYA
Radiant being

TRILOCHAN
Three eyed

TRIPURANTAKA
Destroyer of demon cities

TRISHULDARI
Bearer of the trident

UGRA
Fierce

UMAPATI
Husband of uma-parvati

URDHVALINGA
Aroused yet restrained manhood

VAIDYANATH
Lord of physicians

VAMADEV
Lord of antinomian sects

VIBHUTI BHUSHAN
Bedecked with ash marks

VINAPANI
He who pays the lute

VIRABHADRA
The noble hero

VIRESHWAR
Lord of martial arts

VIRUPAKSHA
Lord with ill - formed malignant eyes

VISHWANATH
Lord of the universe

VRIKSHANATH
Lord of trees

VRISHABHANATH
Tamer of bulls

YAKSHANATH
Lord of yakshas, forest spirits

YOGESH
Lord of yoga

The 8-Step Process of Successful Change

2009-01-28T10:21:00.002+05:30

1. Create a Sense of Urgency.
Help others see the need for change and the importance of acting immediately.

2. Pull Together the Guiding Team.
Make sure there is a powerful group guiding the change—one with leadership skills, bias for action, credibility, communications ability, authority, analytical skills.

3. Develop the Change Vision and Strategy.
Clarify how the future will be different from the past, and how you can make that future a reality.

4. Communicate for Understanding and Buy-in.
Make sure as many others as possible understand and accept the vision and the strategy.

5. Empower Others to Act.
Remove as many barriers as possible so that those who want to make the vision a reality can do so.

6. Produce Short-Term Wins.
Create some visible, unambiguous successes as soon as possible.

7. Don’t Let Up.
Press harder and faster after the first successes. Be relentless with instituting change after change until the vision becomes a reality.

8. Create a New Culture.
Hold on to the new ways of behaving, and make sure they succeed, until they become a part of the very culture of the group.

The Six Greatest Gifts You Can Give Your Loved Ones

2008-12-30T22:17:00.003+05:30

Post written by Leo Babauta.
“So if we love someone, we should train in being able to listen. By listening with calm and understanding, we can ease the suffering of another person.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

What gifts do your loved ones really want, whether they’re your children, your significant other, your parents, your friends, or other family members? Is it an expensive electronic item, or some other material or tangible item? Perhaps.

But the gifts I list below are more important. Sure, they might not be as fun to open on Christmas morning (or whatever other holiday you might celebrate), but in the long run, they’ll value these gifts more.

1. Your Presence. This means making it a priority to spend time with them — if they are truly important, you can make the time. You might have to change things in your life to make the time, but it’s worth it.

Beyond just making the time, though, you have to actually be present when you spend time with loved ones. That means learning to stay in the moment, rather than having your mind on other things, checking your iPhone or Blackberry every two minutes, or trying to take care of other tasks and chores while spending time with them. Instead, drop everything else and focus on being there with your loved ones — really listen, really have fun, really be present.

2. Your Love. This is perhaps an obvious one on the list, but it’s too important to gloss over. It’s imperative that you tell your loved ones that … well, that you love them. Regularly. But just as important is that you actually show them you love them, in your actions every day, throughout the day. Hugs, intimacy, smiles, doing kind things for them, considering their needs and feelings … just little things that mean a lot.

3. Your Compassion. How is this different than giving the gift of your love? Well, it’s possible to love someone and not show compassion. For example, we parents often discipline our children and love them at the same time … but often compassion is even more important than discipline.

Compassion is finding empathy with your loved one … trying to see things from their eyes, trying to understand what they’re going through … and then doing your best to be kind and to end their suffering and to make them happier. Read more.

4. A Voice. We can give so much just by paying attention to a loved one, and really listening, and showing that we’re interested in what they have to say, and showing that what they say is important and respected. Too often our children or spouse might talk to us but are only met with a disinterested nod or other small acknowledgment, or we’ll make light or fun of what they say, as if it’s not important. But giving a person a voice, and showing that their words matter, will have a long-lasting difference in their lives.

5. A Healthy Lifestyle. When you spend time with your loved one, try to do so while enjoying a healthy and fun activity, such as going on a hike, playing a sport, tossing around a Frisbee, going for a walk or jog, doing some yardwork, and so on. When you get together to eat, try to eat healthy foods. Make the habits of good health a part of your lifestyle, and encourage your loved ones to do the same — it could save their lives.

6. Your Belief in Them. Simply believing in another person, and showing that in your words and in your deeds, can make a huge difference. Studies of people who grew up in dysfunctional homes but who grew up to be happy and successful show that the one thing they had in common was a significant adult who believed in them. Do this for your child, and for the adult loved ones in your life as well. Support their dreams and passions and hobbies. Participate with them. Be nothing but encouraging. Be their greatest cheerleader. Whether they actually accomplish these dreams or not, your belief is of unlimited importance to them.

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.” - the Dalai Lama

Five lessons from Ganesh

2008-09-03T11:46:00.002+05:30

Of all the multitudes of deities and gods that constitute the Hindu religion, Lord Ganesha is probably one of the most loved and revered of all, regardless of individual beliefs and customs. Considered the god of good beginnings and wisdom, it is in his name that new ventures are undertaken and important life decisions made.

While there are many spiritual lessons to be learned from the stories of Lord Ganesha, there are some lessons that find a place in our every-day professional and personal lives as well. We take a look at some of them:

Act in good faith

Whatever Lord Ganesha undertook, he undertook with conviction and self-belief. It was the belief that his actions were in his and his mother Parvati's best interests is what governed his thoughts and translated into challenging acts, feats that improved his abilities and honed his skills.

It is this that we need to inculcate in ourselves, in the way we work. Any job, if it is worth doing, is worth doing well. Whatever the task you are faced with, face it with courage and conviction and do it to the best of your ability. At the end of the day, even if your effort goes unrecognised, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you gave it your best shot.

Depend on yourself

One of the other names Ganesha is known as is Vinayak, meaning master of oneself. This signifies independence in thought and action. Whether in one's professional or personal life, one must act on one's beliefs after due consideration of relevant factors. Take ownership and responsibility for your actions and their outcome. Just knowing that you alone are responsible will make you take the decision that much more seriously.

Every obstacle can be overcome

Lord Ganesha is also known as Vigneshwara, one who removes obstacles. It is for this reason that he is invoked in times of crisis by believers and also why business ventures are started with a puja (prayer ceremony) in his name. Removing obstacles is his religion.

To take this a step further, one must believe that every obstacle can be overcome. One must also make removing obstacles a dharma in one's own life. Whether in your professional or personal life, with the right attitude -- a never-say-die attitude -- even what seems like the most insurmountable difficulty can be handled without your world falling to pieces. All you need is faith in yourself.

Modesty

Lord Ganesha is considered one of the most powerful gods in Hinduism, unlike the other gods who choose bejeweled chariots, his vehicle is the modest mouse. The mouse is seen to signify darkness and, as the Lord's vehicle, is believed to signify the journey from darkness (or ignorance) to light or enlightenment.

Another interpretation is that Ganesha wins hearts through simple methods, and this too holds a lesson. A shiny car or extravagant lifestyle might impress, but to win hearts, the simplest way is through one's actions -- through simple gestures of affection and respect.

Seek knowledge

While Lord Ganesha has been attributed with many of the qualities proverbially credited to elephants, the most well-known are the ears and trunk -- which suggest curiosity, the quest for wisdom and knowledge. His large head and ears are said to indicate an open-minded attitude that helps him accrue wisdom.

These are qualities that we could do well to adopt to improve and grow as a person. Read, explore, listen and learn -- nothing is irrelevant and nothing insignificant. Only when one educates oneself and listens to all sides of an argument can one judge what one truly believes in, what one wants and how it can be achieved. that every obstacle can be overcome. One must also make removing obstacles a dharma in one's own life. Whether in your professional or personal life, with the right attitude -- a never-say-die attitude -- even what seems like the most insurmountable difficulty can be handled without your world falling to pieces. All you need is faith in yourself.

Guide to Cultivating Fabulous Friendships!

2008-07-17T15:06:00.009+05:30

A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. - Lois Wys

Few people would dispute the benefits of friendship. Friendship cannot be created once. It must be created over and over again. People and priorities change. What worked yesterday may not work today. We must nurture our friendships so they may flourish with us through our changing lives, and that’s where this guide comes in. The problem seems to be how to fit our friends into an already overcrowded life.

Choose friends wisely. Focus your energy on people who make you feel good.

We all know the saying, “you can’t choose your family”. So, make sure you’re smart and choose friends who are worthy of your valuable time and attention. It sounds harsh, but you cannot keep every friend you have ever made. No one has the time and energy for that. If you don’t consciously choose which relationships to focus on, you’ll spread yourself too thin and you’ll have less to give to those who deserve it most.

Do not be fooled by glamour and street cred. A person’s behavior is much more important than their words or how they represent themselves. Surround yourself with people who reflect the person you want to be. Choose friends you are proud to know, people you admire, who love and respect you. People who make your day a little sunnier, simply by being in it.

Make time. Prioritize Relationships.

If you have to really think about the last time you were in contact with a friend, then it was too long ago. Life can run at a crazy pace. We may think of people, then something comes up and we never call them. The month ends, another comes along, and again that call is never made. This is how relationships peter out. It starts to feel easier to walk away than struggle back through the neglect.

Don’t fall into the habit of thinking I’ll “try and find the time”. It’s a cop-out. You cannot find time. You make time. Every day you decide where to put your attention, and those activities will in turn create your day, your week and eventually your life. Be mindful of where you focus your time and energy. Does this match your values and how you want your life to be? There’s no use saying “my family and friends are the most important thing” if you work 80 hours a week and never see them. Be conscious of how you spend your time and choose to prioritize the people in your life.

The easiest way to make time for friends is to organize future gatherings while you are all together. Make time for that first meeting, and then work out the timing of the next one. That way you’ll manage to regularly see each other and there is less stress all round. The reality is most of our relationships need work. Make the time to send an email or give a quick phone call to show your friends they matter. Otherwise how will they know?

Treat others how you want to be treated.

This is one of the first lessons my mother taught me, and it is probably the most important. You may have heard of the law of attraction, which states that what we project to the world will be sent right back to us. This means you must decide what qualities are important to you, because you cannot receive what you do not give.

Personally, I don’t think you can go past honesty, loyalty and integrity as a foundation for choosing friends. Be considerate. Don’t make plans you won’t keep. Be a safe haven for your friends, someone they can rely on. What qualities rank highly for you? Do you just want some laughs every now and then, or people who will be there for you when life throws you a curve ball?

Have fun. Share rituals. Laugh Often.

Any long term relationship, friendships included, can fall into a rut. Take the time to have fun, maybe do the activities you loved when you were young. If life isn’t fun, then what’s the point? Misery shared is still… well, misery. Focus on joy and laughter and your friendships will stay a positive presence in your life.

Hold onto rituals. They connect you with your friends and your youth. Shared memories help define our life and how we see ourselves. Don’t throw them away just because they’re getting harder to manage. The key is to negotiate. Maybe you used to have weekly poker games, but now you have three kids, so what do you do? Have the poker games once a month, and let your partner also have a night out to re-connect with their friends. You’ll both benefit.

Accept people the way they are. Suspend judgment.

Some people are good with phone calls, others are not. Some people always know the right thing to say, others seem to have a knack for getting it all wrong. The key with managing friendships and reducing conflict is to accept people the way they are. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. Fighting your friends’ natural personality is a losing battle. We cannot control other people, and frankly, we have no right to try. The sooner we accept this, the easier all our relationships become.

Respect boundaries.

Don’t criticize your friend’s partner, children, parenting style or family. This is always a no, no. We may all like to rant about our loved ones, but we do not want to hear anyone else do it. This is a golden rule. Stencil it on your forehead if you must.

There will be disagreements. Stay calm. Don’t make mountains out of molehills.

Drama is a part of life, but we don’t have to wallow in it. Things happen, ugly words can be exchanged. This is the nature of human relationships. Before you react to a hurtful situation with a friend, always stop and breathe. Try not to react in anger. Express your feelings honestly, but calmly. I’m not saying that it’s easy, but it is the best way to minimize conflict and angst in life. And bottling up feelings doesn’t help either. They just fester and we stay angry and are unable to move on.

Accept that friendships change and sometimes end.

Although I’ve had the majority of my friendships since I was a teenager, there are times in life when people change enough as to have nothing in common anymore. Sometimes this is temporary, other times it’s not. Either way, the best thing you can do when a relationship falters is to let it go. That doesn’t mean immediately deciding not to see each other anymore. Letting go means choosing to see the friendship as it is now, and releasing the need for it to be something else. Relationships have an energy of their own. They can ebb and flow. Sometimes you’re not quite clicking, other times you are. Petering out friendships can be very stressful, but change is a part of life and relationships which do end can still be treasured for what they brought before. They don’t have to be a mistake. And every time a gap appears, life will usually move in to fill it. Maybe this will be in the form of a new friend, or a even better relationship with yourself. Keep an open mind and an open heart, and wait and see

Treat yourself with kindness and respect, and others will do the same.

This is probably the most important point. You cannot be a friend to others, if you are not a friend to yourself. Have you ever noticed that some people are taken advantage of by everyone. They attract users and frauds like honey. This is not a coincidence. If you want other people to treat you with respect, then you need to be the first person in line to respect yourself. Being a good friend does not mean being a doormat. The kinder you are to yourself the happier you will be. The happier you are, the more you have to give to others. It is one big merry-go-round of happiness. Join the ride.

IF..

2008-05-24T07:44:00.001+05:30

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

1001 great world movies.

2008-05-15T10:14:00.002+05:30

A Trip to the Moon (1902)
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Les Vampires (1915)
Intolerance (1916)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)
Broken Blossoms (1919)
Way Down East (1920)
Within Our Gates (1920)
The Phantom Carriage (1921)
Orphans of the Storm (1921)
The Smiling Madame Beudet (1922)
Dr. Mabuse, Parts 1 and 2 (1922)
Nanook of the North (1922)
Nosferatu, A Symphony of Terror(1922)
Haxan (1923)
Foolish Wives (1922)
Our Hospitality (1923)
The Wheel (1923)
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Strike (1924)
Greed (1924)
Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
The Last Laugh (1924)
Seven Chances (1925)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
The Battleship Potemkin (1925)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Big Parade (1925)
Metropolis (1927)
Sunrise (1927)
The General (1927)
The Unknown (1927)
October (1927)
The Jazz Singer (1927)
Napoleon (1927)
The Kid Brother (1927)
The Crowd (1928)
The Docks of New York (1928)
An Andalusian Dog (1928)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Storm over Asia (1928)
Blackmail (1929)
The Man with the Movie Camera (1929)
Pandora's Box (1929)
The Blue Angel (1930)
The Age Of Gold (1930)
Earth (1930)
Little Caesar (1930)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Freedom For Us (1931)
The Million (1931)
Tabu (1931)
Dracula (1931)
Frankenstein (1931)
City Lights (1931)
The Public Enemy (1931)
M (1931)
The Bitch (1931)
The Vampire (1932)
Love Me Tonight (1932)
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Scarface: The Shame Of A Nation (1932)
Shanghai Express (1932)
Freaks (1932)
Me and My Gal (1932)
Zero for Conduct (1933)
42nd Street (1933)
Footlight Parade (1933)
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
She Done Him Wrong (1933)
Duck Soup (1933)
Queen Christina (1933)
Land Without Bread (1933)
King Kong (1933)
The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
It's a Gift (1934)
Triumph of the Will (1934)
L'Atalante (1934)
The Black Cat (1934)
Judge Priest (1934)
It Happened One Night (1934)
The Thin Man (1934)
Captain Blood (1935)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
The 39 Steps (1935)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Top Hat (1935)
A Day in the Country (1936)
Modern Times (1936)
Swing Time (1936)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Camille (1936)
Sabotage (1936)
Dodsworth (1936)
Things to Come (1936)
The Story of a Cheat (1936)
Captains Courageous (1937)
Midnight Song (1937)
Grand Illusion (1937)
Stella Dallas (1937)
The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
The Awful Truth (1937)
Pepe Le Moko (1937)
Jezebel (1938)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Olympia (1938)
The Baker's Wife (1938)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Stagecoach (1939)
The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (1939)
Babes in Arms (1939)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Destry Rides Again (1939)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Daybreak (1939)
Gunga Din (1939)
Ninotchka (1939)
The Rules of the Game (1939)
Wuthering Heights (1939)
His Girl Friday (1940)
Rebecca (1940)
Fantasia (1940)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
Pinocchio (1940)
The Mortal Storm (1940)
The Bank Dick (1940)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Lady Eve (1941)
The Wolf Man (1941)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Sergeant York (1941)
Dumbo (1941)
High Sierra (1941)
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Now, Voyager (1942)
Casablanca (1942)
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
Cat People (1942)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
Fires Were Started (1943)
The Man in Grey (1943)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
The Seventh Victim (1943)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Ossessione (1943)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
To Have and Have Not (1944)
Laura (1944)
Gaslight (1944)
Henry V (1944)
Ivan the Terrible, Parts One and Two (1944)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Murder, My Sweet (1944)
The Battle of San Pietro (1945)
Spellbound (1945)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
The Children of Paradise (1945)
Open City (1945)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
Detour (1945)
I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Brief Encounter (1946)
Paisan (1946)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
The Stranger (1946)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
The Big Sleep (1946)
The Killers (1946)
A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
Great Expectations (1946)
Notorious (1946)
Black Narcissus (1946)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Gilda (1946)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Out of the Past (1947)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
Odd Man Out (1947)
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
Secret Beyond the Door (1948)
Force of Evil (1948)
Spring in a Small Town (1948)
Red River (1948)
Rope (1948)
The Snake Pit (1948)
The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
The Paleface (1948)
The Red Shoes (1948)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Louisiana Story (1948)
The Heiress (1949)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Gun Crazy (1949)
Adam's Rib (1949)
Whiskey Galore! (1949)
White Heat (1949)
The Reckless Moment (1949)
The Third Man (1949)
On the Town (1949)
Orpheus (1949)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Rashomon (1950)
Winchester '73 (1950)
Rio Grande (1950)
All About Eve (1950)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Los Olvidados (1950)
In a Lonely Place (1950)
Ace in the Hole (1951)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)
The African Queen (1951)
Diary of a Country Priest (1951)
An American in Paris (1951)
A Place in the Sun (1951)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Quiet Man (1952)
Forbidden Games (1952)
Angel Face (1952)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
To Live (1952)
Europa '51 (1952)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
The Big Sky (1952)
High Noon (1952)
Umberto D (1952)
The Golden Coach (1952)
The Bigamist (1953)
The Band Wagon (1953)
Madame De… (1953)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Wages of Fear (1953)
The Naked Spur (1953)
Pickup on South Street (1953)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
The Big Heat (1953)
M. Hulot's Holiday (1953)
Voyage in Italy (1953)
Tales of Ugetsu (1953)
Shane (1953)
Beat the Devil (1953)
Johnny Guitar (1954)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
Les Diaboliques (1954)
Animal Farm (1954)
Rear Window (1954)
A Star Is Born (1954)
The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
La Strada (1954)
The Seven Samurai (1954)
The Wanton Countess (1954)
Silver Lode (1954)
Carmen Jones (1954)
Sansho the Baliff (1954)
Salt of the Earth (1954)
Artists and Models (1955)
Guys and Dolls (1955)
Pather Panchali (1955)
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
The Mad Masters (1955)
Hill 24 Doesn't Answer (1955)
The Ladykillers (1955)
Marty (1955)
Ordet (1955)
Bob the Gambler (1955)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
The Man from Laramie (1955)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
The Phenix City Story (1955)
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Night and Fog (1955)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
The Sins of Lola Montes (1955)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
The Burmese Harp (1956)
The Searchers (1956)
A Man Escaped (1956)
Written on the Wind (1956)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Giant (1956)
All That Heaven Allows (1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Wrong Man (1956)
Bigger Than Life (1956)
High Society (1956)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Seventh Seal (1957)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Wild Strawberries (1957)
The Nights of Cabiria (1957)
Throne of Blood (1957)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
The Unvanquished (1957)
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Mother India (1957)
The Cranes Are Flying (1957)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Man of the West (1958)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Cairo Station (1958)
Gigi (1958)
The Defiant Ones (1958)
Vertigo (1958)
Ashes and Diamonds (1958)
Horror of Dracula (1958)
My Uncle (1958)
The Music Room (1958)
The 400 Blows (1959)
North by Northwest (1959)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Eyes without a Face (1959)
Ride Lonesome (1959)
Black Orpheus (1959)
Shadows (1959)
The World of Apu (1959)
Breathless (1959)
Ben-Hur (1959)
Pickpocket (1959)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
Rio Bravo (1959)
The Hole (1959)
Floating Weeds (1959)
Rocco and His Brothers (1960)
La Dolce Vita (1960)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
Shoot the Piano Player (1960)
The Adventure (1960)
The Young One (1960)
The Cloud-Capped Star (1960)
The Housemaid (1960)
Psycho (1960)
Revenge of the Vampire / Black Sunday (1960)
Peeping Tom (1960)
The Apartment (1960)
Spartacus (1960)
Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
La Jetee (1961)
One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Lola (1961)
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
The Night (1961)
Jules and Jim (1961)
Viridiana (1961)
The Ladies Man (1961)
Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
Chronicle of a Summer (1961)
The Hustler (1961)
West Side Story (1961)
A Dog's Life (1962)
Cleo de 5 a 7 (1962)
Dog Star Man (1962)
An Autumn Afternoon (1962)
L'eclisse (1962)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Lolita (1962)
Keeper of Promises (1962)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
My Life to Live (1962)
Heaven and Earth Magic (1962)
The Birds (1963)
The Nutty Professor (1963)
Blonde Cobra (1963)
The Cool World (1963)
8 1/2 (1963)
Passenger (1963)
Contempt (1963)
Hud (1963)
Winter Light (1963)
Flaming Creatures (1963)
The Great Escape (1963)
Shock Corridor (1963)
The Leopard (1963)
Barren Lives (1963)
Mediteranee (1963)
The House is Black (1963)
The Haunting (1963)
An Actor's Revenge (1963)
The Servant (1963)
Goldfinger (1964)
Scorpio Rising (1964)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Marnie (1964)
My Fair Lady (1964)
Woman in the Dunes (1964)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
The Red Desert (1964)
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964)
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Before the Revolution (1964)
Gertrud (1964)
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)
Black God, White Devil (1964)
The Demon (1964)
Vinyl (1965)
The Shop on Main Street (1965)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
The War Game (1965)
Tokyo Olympiad (1965)
The Battle of Algiers (1965)
The Sound of Music (1965)
The Saragossa Manuscript (1965)
Alphaville (1965)
Chimes at Midnight (1965)
Repulsion (1965)
Juliet of the Spirits (1965)
Pierrot Goes Wild (1965)
Faster, Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
Golden River (1965)
The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (1965)
Hold Me While I'm Naked (1966)
Blowup (1966)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
Daisies (1966)
Come Drink with Me (1966)
Seconds (1966)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Persona (1966)
Masculine-Feminine (1966)
Balthazar (1966)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1967)
The Graduate (1967)
Playtime (1967)
Report (1967)
Hombre (1967)
Belle de Jour (1967)
The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)
Week End (1967)
The Godson (1967)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Point Blank (1967)
Wavelength (1967)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
The Red and the White (1967)
Marketta Lazarova (1967)
The Jungle Book (1967)
The Fireman's Ball (1967)
Earth Entranced (1967)
Closely Watched Trains (1967)
Vij (1967)
The Cow (1968)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Faces (1968)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
If… (1968)
Memories of Underdevelopment (1968)
The Producers (1968)
David Holzman's Diary (1968)
Shame (1968)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Targets (1968)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
My Night with Maud (1969)
Lucia (1969)
A Touch of Zen (1969)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Satyricon (1969)
Z (1969)
The Conformist (1969)
Easy Rider (1969)
High School (1969)
In the Year of the Pig (1969)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Andrei Rublev (1969)
The Butcher (1969)
The Color of Pomegranates (1969)
Kes (1969)
Tristana (1970)
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
El Topo (1970)
Woodstock (1970)
Deep End (1970)
The Spider's Stratagem (1970)
Little Big Man (1970)
The Ear (1970)
Patton (1970)
M*A*S*H (1970)
Performance (1970)
Gimme Shelter (1970)
Zabriskie Point (1970)
The Bird with The Crystal Plumage (1970)
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)
Wanda (1971)
W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (1971)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Sorrow and the Pity (1971)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
Walkabout (1971)
Klute (1971)
Harold and Maude (1971)
Red Psalm (1971)
Get Carter (1971)
The French Connection (1971)
Shaft (1971)
Dirty Harry (1971)
Murmur of the Heart (1971)
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Straw Dogs (1971)
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Cabaret (1972)
Last Tango in Paris (1972)
High Plains Drifter (1972)
Sleuth (1972)
Deliverance (1972)
Solaris (1972)
The Godfather (1972)
Cries and Whispers (1972)
Fat City (1972)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (1972)
Frenzy (1972)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Superfly (1972)
The Sting (1973)
The Mother and the Whore (1973)
Badlands (1973)
American Graffiti (1973)
Papillon (1973)
Enter the Dragon (1973)
Mean Streets (1973)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Day for Night (1973)
Don't Look Now (1973)
Sleeper (1973)
Serpico (1973)
The Exorcist (1973)
Turkish Delight (1973)
The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
Fantastic Planet (1973)
Amarcord (1973)
The Harder They Come (1973)
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
Dersu Uzala (1974)
The Conversation (1974)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
The Mirror (1974)
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Chinatown (1974)
Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Wall (1975)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Fox and His Friends (1975)
India Song (1975)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Manila in the Claws of Brightness (1975)
Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
Nashville (1975)
Cria! (1975)
The Travelling Players (1975)
Jaws (1975)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
Carrie (1976)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
All the President's Men (1976)
Rocky (1976)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Network (1976)
Ascent (1976)
In the Realm of the Senses (1976)
1900 (1976)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
Star Wars (1977)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The Last Wave (1977)
Annie Hall (1977)
Last Chants for a Slow Dance (1977)
Stroszek (1977)
Man of Marble (1977)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Killer of Sheep (1977)
Eraserhead (1977)
Ceddo (1977)
The American Friend (1977)
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Soldier of Orange (1977)
Suspiria (1977)
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978)
Five Deadly Venoms (1978)
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Grease (1978)
Days of Heaven (1978)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Shaolin Master Killer (1978)
Up in Smoke (1978)
Halloween (1978)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
Real Life (1979)
My Brilliant Career (1979)
Stalker (1979)
Alien (1979)
Breaking Away (1979)
The Tin Drum (1979)
All That Jazz (1979)
Being There (1979)
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Life of Brian (1979)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Jerk (1979)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
Manhattan (1979)
Mad Max (1979)
Nosferatu: Phantom Of The Night (1979)
Ordinary People (1980)
Atlantic City (1980)
The Last Metro (1980)
The Shining (1980)
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Elephant Man (1980)
The Big Red One (1980)
Loulou (1980)
Airplane! (1980)
Raging Bull (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
The Boat (1981)
Gallipoli (1981)
Chariots of Fire (1981)
Body Heat (1981)
Reds (1981)
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Three Brothers (1981)
Man of Iron (1981)
Too Early, Too Late (1981)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1981)
E.T.: The Extra-Terestrial (1982)
The Thing (1982)
Poltergeist (1982)
Blade Runner (1982)
The Evil Dead (1982)
Tootsie (1982)
Yol (1982)
Diner (1982)
Fitzcaraldo (1982)
Gandhi (1982)
The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982)
A Question of Silence (1982)
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
A Christmas Story (1983)
El Norte (1983)
Videodrome (1983)
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
The Big Chill (1983)
Sans Soleil (1983)
The Last Battle (1983)
Money (1983)
Utu (1983)
Terms of Endearment (1983)
The Fourth Man (1983)
The King of Comedy (1983)
The Right Stuff (1983)
Koyaanisqatsi (1983)
Once Upon a Time in America (1983)
Scarface (1983)
The Ballad of Narayama (1983)
Amadeus (1984)
The Terminator (1984)
Paris, Texas (1984)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Ghostbusters (1984)
A Passage to India (1984)
Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
The Killing Fields (1984)
The Natural (1984)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Ran (1985)
Come and See (1985)
The Official Story (1985)
Out of Africa (1985)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Back to the Future (1985)
The Time to Live and the Time to Die (1985)
Brazil (1985)
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
The Quiet Earth (1985)
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
Prizzi's Honor (1985)
Vagabond (1985)
Shoah (1985)
The Color Purple (1985)
Manhunter (1986)
Stand By Me (1986)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
She's Gotta Have It (1986)
The Decline of the American Empire (1986)
The Fly (1986)
Aliens (1986)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Down by Law (1986)
A Room with a View (1986)
Children of a Lesser God (1986)
Platoon (1986)
Caravaggio (1986)
Tampopo (1986)
Peking Opera Blues (1986)
Salvador (1986)
Top Gun (1986)
Sherman's March (1986)
The Horse Thief (1986)
Brightness (1987)
Wings of Desire (1987)
Project A, Part II (1987)
Babette's Feast (1987)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Withnail and I (1987)
Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
Goodbye Children (1987)
Broadcast News (1987)
Housekeeping (1987)
The Princess Bride (1987)
Moonstruck (1987)
The Untouchables (1987)
Red Sorghum (1987)
The Dead (1987)
Fatal Attraction (1987)
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
The Vanishing (1988)
Bull Durham (1988)
Ariel (1988)
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Akira (1988)
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (1988)
A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
The Naked Gun (1988)
Big (1988)
Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Landscape in the Mist (1988)
The Decalogue (1988)
Die Hard (1988)
A Tale of the Wind (1988)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Rain Man (1988)
The Story of Women (1988)
The Accidental Tourist (1988)
Alice (1988)
Batman (1989)
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989)
Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
My Left Foot (1989)
The Killer (1989)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Roger & Me (1989)
Glory (1989)
The Asthenic Syndrome (1989)
Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989)
Say Anything (1989)
The Unbelievable Truth (1989)
A City of Sadness (1989)
No Fear, No Die (1990)
Reversal of Fortune (1990)
Goodfellas (1990)
Jacob's Ladder (1990)
King of New York (1990)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Europa Europa (1990)
Pretty Woman (1990)
Archangel (1990)
Trust (1990)
Close-Up (1990)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990)
Total Recall (1990)
Once Upon a Time in China (1991)
Boyz 'n the Hood (1991)
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
Delicatessen (1991)
A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
Naked Lunch (1991)
The Beautiful Troublemaker (1991)
The Rapture (1991)
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
JFK (1991)
Slacker (1991)
Tongues Untied (1991)
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)
The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
Strictly Ballroom (1992)
The Player (1992)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Romper Stomper (1992)
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Unforgiven (1992)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Candy Man (1992)
A Tale of Winter (1992)
Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992)
The Crying Game (1992)
Man Bites Dog (1992)
The Actress (1992)
Farewell My Concubine (1993)
Thirty Two Films about Glenn Gould (1993)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Short Cuts (1993)
Philadelphia (1993)
Jurassic Park (1993)
The Age of Innocence (1993)
The Puppetmaster (1993)
Schindler's List (1993)
Three Colors: Blue (1993)
The Piano (1993)
The Blue Kite (1993)
The Wedding Banquet (1993)
Three Colors: Red (1994)
Hoop Dreams (1994)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Clerks (1994)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
The Lion King (1994)
Satantango (1994)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
The Last Seduction (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Wild Reeds (1994)
Chungking Express (1994)
Crumb (1994)
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Through the Olive Trees (1994)
Riget (1994)
Dear Diary (1994)
Casino (1995)
Deseret (1995)
Babe (1995)
Toy Story (1995)
Strange Days (1995)
Braveheart (1995)
Safe (1995)
Clueless (1995)
Heat (1995)
Zero Kelvin (1995)
Seven (1995)
Smoke (1995)
The White Balloon (1995)
Cyclo (1995)
Underground (1995)
The Brave Heart Will Take the Bride (1995)
Dead Man (1995)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
The Pillow Book (1996)
Three Lives and Only One Death (1996)
Fargo (1996)
Independence Day (1996)
Secrets and Lies (1996)
Breaking the Waves (1996)
The English Patient (1996)
Gabbeh (1996)
Lone Star (1996)
Trainspotting (1996)
Scream (1996)
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Happy Together (1997)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control (1997)
The Butcher Boy (1997)
The Ice Storm (1997)
Boogie Nights (1997)
Kundun (1997)
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Funny Games (1997)
Taste of Cherry (1997)
Open Your Eyes (1997)
Mother and Son (1997)
Titanic (1997)
Tetsuo (1998)
The Celebration (1998)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Buffalo 66 (1998)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Run Lola Run (1998)
Rushmore (1998)
Pi (1998)
Happiness (1998)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
The Idiots (1998)
Sombre (1998)
Ring (1998)
There's Something About Mary (1998)
Magnolia (1999)
Beau Travail (1999)
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Taboo (1999)
Rosetta (1999)
All About My Mother (1999)
Three Kings (1999)
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
Audition (1999)
Time Regained (1999)
Fight Club (1999)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
American Beauty (1999)
Attack the Gas Station! (1999)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Matrix (1999)
Nine Queens (2000)
The Captive (2000)
In the Mood for Love (2000)
Ali Zaoua, Prince of the Streets (2000)
Gladiator (2000)
Kippur (2000)
A One and a Two (2000)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Amores Perros (2000)
Meet the Parents (2000)
Signs & Wonders (2000)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Traffic (2000)
The Gleaners and I (2000)
Memento (2000)
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Amelie (2001)
What Time Is It There? (2001)
And Your Mother Too (2001)
Kandahar (2001)
Spirited Away (2001)
The Piano Teacher (2001)
The Son's Room (2001)
No Man's Land (2001)
Moulin Rouge (2001)
Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Fat Girl (2001)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Gangs of New York (2002)
The Pianist (2002)
Talk to Her (2002)
City of God (2002)
Russian Ark (2002)
Chicago (2002)
The Barbarian Invasions (2003)
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Note: Most of the movies can be download through emule or some other torrent sites or p2p softwares or rapid share etc..

I Feared Until ……!!!

2008-04-22T13:16:00.005+05:30

I feared being alone
Until I learned to like Myself.
I feared failure
Until I realized that I only Fail when I don't try.
I feared success
Until I realized that I had to try in order to be happy with myself.
*********************************

I feared people's opinions
Until I learned that people would have opinions about me anyway.
I feared rejection
Until I learned to have faith in myself.
I feared pain
Until I learned that it's necessary for growth.
*********************************

I feared the truth
Until I saw the ugliness in lies.
I feared life
Until I experienced its beauty.
I feared death
Until I realized that it's not an end, but a beginning.

*********************************

I feared my destiny ,
Until I realized that I had the power to change my life.
I feared hate
Until I saw that it was nothing more than ignorance .
I feared love
Until it touched my heart, making the darkness fade into endless sunny days.
*********************************************

I feared ridicule
Until I learned how to laugh at myself.
I feared growing old
Until I realized that I gained wisdom every day.
I feared the future
Until I realized that Life just kept getting better.
I feared the past
Until I realized that It could no longer hurt me.
*********************************************

I feared the dark
Until I saw the beauty of the starlight.
I feared the light
Until I learned that the Truth would give me Strength.
I feared change,
Until I saw that even the most beautiful butterfly had to undergo a Metamorphosis before it could fly.
*********************************************

You and God!

2008-04-10T12:27:00.000+05:30

The fact that you were born,
Is proof, God has a plan for you.
The path may seem unclear right now,
But one day you will see,
That all that came before,
Was truly meant to be,
God wrote the book that is Life,
That’s all you need to know.
Each day that you are living,
Was written long ago.
God only writes best sellers,
So be proud of who you are,
Your character is important,
In this book, you are the ‘Star’!

History of Tension

2008-03-31T14:12:00.003+05:30

The moment you are in tension
You will loose your attention.
Then you are in total confusion.
And you will feel irritation.
Then you will spoil personal relation.
Ultimately you won't get co-operation.
Then you will make things complication.
Then your BP may also raise caution.
And you may have to take medication.
Instead understand the situation.
Many problems will be solved by discussion.
Which will work better in your profession?
Don't think it is my free suggestion.
It is only for your prevention.
If you understand my intension.
You'll never come again to Tension.

The Gifts Of Surrender!

2008-03-30T17:46:00.004+05:30

by M. Deskins ( published in Sunday Times of India - Mar 16, 2008 )

Sometimes, no matter how much we want something, we won't get it. It does not seem to matter that we spend time doing things we love in order to raise our vibrations, it sometimes does not matter that we believe with all of our hearts that everything will be ok. Sometimes they do not. Why, then? What more can we do? The answer, although I know it's easier said than done, is to just surrender. If you are at the point when you start to feel frustrated, then surrender. And by surrendering, I mean doing it truly. It's more than just to say, "It's in your hands now, God". No, it takes more than that.

By truly surrendering, you must not only surrender your desires, but your ego. It's ok to be a little vain sometimes, I have mentioned it before in my other articles, but sometimes our ego becomes so large and we do not even realize it. Our ego may be trapped inside of us subconsciously without our even knowing. So in order to truly manifest, sometimes we have to realize that our ego is too big and we must let it go.

If you have done everything possible to manifest something or someone, and have seen no evidence that it is working, then you can do nothing else but surrender. But like I said, it is easier said than done.

So how do you "let go" of your ego? How do you surrender it to Universe? First things first, I want you to think of the worse case scenario should you NOT get what you are trying to manifest. Think of the worse thing that would happen if you do not get your way. Does it fill you with dread and fear? Sadness? But guess what, that "worse case scenario" has not happened yet, has it? No matter what you are experiencing now, it could always be worse. Remember that. No matter how badly off you are right now, there is someone else out there experiencing an even worse scenario. So how can you avoid something even worse happening to you? If you have been fighting and fighting and still see no signs of winning, then what's stopping you from surrendering? Your ego won't let you? Well obviously you need another tactic since whatever you are doing is not winning you your prize. Are you going to keep on fighting a battle that you can't seem to win, or are you going to surrender and let the Higher Powers of the Universe take care of it?

One very important path to take in surrendering, is to offer your help to others in similar situations as you. You don't have to necessarily help them with money, but offer kind words, prayer, support, love, etc.. to them. Something that may seem simple and trivial to you may mean a lot to them. When you do this, you are letting your own ego go long enough to put others before yourself. Sometimes when I struggle, I write articles like this that may( or may not ) inspire people. I simple write and put my articles out there for free to share. I also visit online support groups and forums and offer advice and prayers to others in similar situations to me. I offer no personal opinions to anyone unless I am asked. Remember the "worst case scenario" I talked about? I have met people who are experiencing worse than I. I pray for them most of all. You can do it as well. Offer all the time and support you can to others. If their struggles start to remind you of your own, push it aside. Do not pass personal judgment on to them, or you will be letting your ego out.

After time, you will find yourself worried less about your own problems. By helping others, you will also be getting rid of any stored bad karma you may have. You will also start to feel more grateful the things you do have. Your wants wand desires will become less important to you, you will just be happy when those you have helped are learning how to heal. You yourself will find yourself healing as well. You may not even realize it at first. By helping others, you are helping yourself. It doesn't always have to be other people, you can help animals as well. If you find an insect in your house, don't kill it. Remember that all life is sacred and that this world belongs to all creatures, not just you. Once you start praying for others more than yourself, it is proof to the God and the Universe that you are letting go of your ego and that you are truly surrendering.

Connect With Your Source!

2008-03-30T17:01:00.005+05:30

..Excerpted from The Little Book of Becoming by Laurie J Brenner. ( published in Sunday Times Of India - Mar 16, 2008 - Mind Over Matter. )

The single most important thing you can do in your life is to connect with your source. Greater than anything you desire, connecting with source allows you to develop a relationship with the infinite wisdom of the universe. By staying connected you will be in the flow and everything comes easily and quickly to you. You have heard it said, go with the flow.

This does not mean follow the masses - it means to connect with your source and go with its flow - which is unique for each and every one of us.

Where do you think you really come from? Your parents? Yes, you share their DNA but where does the you that stares out from behind those eyes live? In your cells, in your DNA, your central nervous system? Do you live in your mind? Are you your mind?

Have you ever noticed that when you experience anything - a feeling, a moment, an event or circumstance - and that while you participate and enjoy or not these things that occur; a part of you sits back and watches everything?

Many call this the observer; the witness, your spirit, your soul, whatever name you choose - it is that part of you that is always connected to source - it stands back and witnesses everything. Your eternal being resides here and always stays in direct communication with source for without that connection you would die.

If we are always connected - why must we then connect? Does this seem confusing to you? Yes, you are always connected with source, period and nothing can sever that relationship. But the part of you that stays connected is not in your conscious mind. When I talk about connecting with source, I mean consciously. For too long we have made the part of our being that is connected with source sit in the back of the bus. However, a time comes when that part of you simply cannot take being ignored any more. What happens? Many things - your life falls apart, you get sick, things do not go your way - you lose your job, your lover, your house, whatever is consuming your life.

The father mother God of your being won't stay in the back of the bus for long - especially if something in you awakens - the sleeper must awaken. Yes, you can have all that you desire - but not at the cost of your soul.

The relationship with source is different for everyone. It does not take your believing in source for source to empower your being. Nor can you tell another person how their relationship with source is supposed to be. It is a very individual experience. It is the most intimate of relationships you will ever experience.

Source never leaves you, never lies to you, and never makes you feel guilty. Source loves you unconditionally and always says yes to you even if your belief is such that you feel the universe says no. The universe will support whatever you believe to be true.

An important fact to understand the universe always says yes even when you perceive it to be no. When you experience no, what you are experiencing is your belief in no so the universe says yes by supporting your no. You define your world. Source does not do that for you.

Source is not your ego, your personality or any trait or characteristic of your being. Source is not your belief structure or your religious undertakings. Source is Diving Infinite Wisdom. Some call it God, Energy, Allah, Yahweh - it is known by many names or none.

You can ask your source about anything and it will answer. It answers by giving you a feeling. If you feel calm and peaceful - that is your answer - which can be interpreted as yes. If you feel more confused and at unrest - this can be interpreted as no. As you develop your own relationship with your source you will find what form of communication works for you. There are no hard and set rules and this is a very personal relationship - one that no-one but you and source together share. The point I am making is this: more than a body, more than a personality, or an ego, you are a divine child of the universe with an eternal spirit.

You come from source, you exist because of source, and someday you return to source. Critical for your well-being as well as for your endeavors in this journey of creating your reality and learning to become the real you - the divine child of the universe - connecting with your source is a step you must take on your own.

This is a very personal journey, no man; woman or child can come between you and your Source. Death cannot separate you from your source. Source is the very source of your being. The part of you that does not reside in the physical realm - the part of you that constantly maintains twenty-four hour access to all things, known and unknown, seen and unseen stands a mere breath away.

I read somewhere once that of God - Spiritos - means to exhale - while man means inhale. How much closer to source can you get?

Consciously attach yourself to your source. Give thanks to your source for the ability to breathe in and out. Start your day by giving thanks for everything in your life, both the wanted and unwanted. Write a list of five things you are grateful for every day and watch your life change! Give thanks for everything you can see, taste, touch, smell, hear, or sense, for without your source you would not exist.

Step outside, right this minute, whether it is on your porch, your doorstep, your curb, your backyard, your front yard or in the street. Go outside and look up. Look at the sun or the clouds, the moon and stars and notice everything not made by man. This, in its simplest form, is the divine expression of source.

And then realize that the Creator of all this - propels you, powers you, gives you being on his planet. The same energy that made the stars made you. The same energy that powers the universe powers you. To quote Joni Mitchell, "you are stardust, you are golden." Are you any less than one of these? You are loved. And you are known. It is time for you to know yourself.

The Fountain Head by Ayn Rand..

2008-03-26T21:37:00.005+05:30

Gary Cooper as Howard Roark delivers the memorable courtroom speech in self-defense for dynamiting Courtlandt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc7oZ9yWqO4

Ayn Rand:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUwTHn-9hhU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJBBt0nfDN4&feature=related

I picked few lines that caught my attention in the book:

1. Whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and of life's potential.

2. Man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress.

3. I did not feel discouragement very often, and when I did, it did not last longer than overnight.

4. One cannot give up the world to those one despises.

5. Neither politics nor ethics nor philosophy is an end in itself, neither in life nor in literature. Only Man is an end in himself.

6. The noble soul has reverence for itself.

7. "..Who will let you?" .. "That's not the point. The point is, who will stop me?".

8. Every form has its own meaning. Every man creates his meaning and form and goal.

9. ".. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one."

10. "..I don't intend to build in order to serve or help anyone. I don't intend to build in order to have clients. I intend to have clients in order to build.."

11. ".. I don't propose to force or be forced. Those who want me will come to me."

12. Three eternal entities: Truth, Love, and Beauty!

13. "..Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?" .. "How can you let others decide for you?".

14. "..Take this up to the boss for the okay. Try to listen to what he will say and try to look intelligent. Neither of which matters anyway."

15. ..One must always be original...

16. ..the real work of an office is done beyond its walls..

17. ..It's not what you do that matters really. It's only you..

18. ..He did not know why her presence made him confess things unconfessed in his own mind..

19. ...I'm the kind that uses people...

20. ..Better now than later...

21...I can only teach you to do it better...

22. ..He did not care so long as his clients were impressed, the clients did not care so long as their guests were impressed, and the guests did not care anyway.

23. ..I'm not criticizing anything, I'm not passing judgment. There are some things that I can not do. Let it go at that..

24. ..the only way in which we can have any law at all is to have as little of it as possible...

25. ..Every piece of it is there because it needs it and for no other reason.. : Design!

26. ..Everything has strings leading to everything else.. We are all so tied together..

27. ..There is some good in the worst of us. There's always a redeeming feature..

28. .. I take the only desire one can really permit oneself. -- Freedom!..

29. .. One does not get to be first in anything without the strength to make some sacrifices..

30. ...It takes strength to deny yourself in order to win other people's respect...

31. ..No great man ever got there alone. Don't you shrug it off, how much the right woman's helped the best of them...

32. ..I do not like people who have to be handled...

33. ..for a business, let them giggle, but let them talk about it...

34. ..Young people think that you forget what happens on the way when you get there...But you do not..

35. ..the beauty of the human body is that it has not a single muscle which does not serve its purpose; that there's not a line wasted; that every detail of it fits one idea, the idea of a man and the life of a man..

36. .. It's the way most people feel.. They have to take chance, everything they do is taking a chance, but they feel so much safer when they take it on something they know to be ugly, vain and stupid...

37. ..You can not force it down their throats.. You do not have to. You must only be patient. Because on your side you have reason and against you, you have just a vague, fat, blind inertia...

38. ..I know a man who knows when I see him..

39. ..It was a war in which he was invited to fight nothing, yet he was pushed forward to fight, he had to fight, he had no choice - and no adversary.

40. ..People do not trust novelty..

41. ..the good, the high and the noble on earth was only that which kept its integrity..

42. ..We are the guardians of a great human function. Perhaps of the greatest function among the endeavors of man. We have achieved much and we have erred often. But we are willing in all humility to make way for our heirs. We are only men and we are only seekers. But we seek for truth with the best there is in our hearts. We seek with what there is of the sublime granted to the race of men. It is a great quest...

43. A continuous struggle against the compulsion of a single desire was compulsion also.

44. Pressure is a powerful factor. It leads to consequences which once started cannot be controlled.

45. Greatness is an exaggeration, and like all exaggerations of dimension it connotes at once the necessary corollary of emptiness.

46. Nothing of importance had ever happened on earth.

47. When one makes enemies one knows that one's dangerous where it's necessary to be dangerous. There are things that must be destroyed - or they will destroy us.

48. Nothing's really sacred but a sense of humor.

49. A thing is not high if one can reach it; it is not great if one can reason about it; it is not deep if one can see its bottom.

50. One did not stress total ignorance of a subject if one were in total ignorance of it.

51.One must never allow oneself to acquire an exaggerated sense of one's own importance. There's no necessity to burden oneself with absolutes.

52. Not by what we are shall we be judged, but by those we serve.

53. I'll never give you up.

54. ..Before each venture he studied the field for a long time, then proceed to act as if he had never heard of it, upsetting all precedent...

55. ..I go only by what I like. But I do know what I like...

56. .. I feel completely natural only when I'm working..

57. .. all useless things have charm...

58. .. Argument is one of the things that has neither use nor charm. Leave it to the men of brains. Brains, of course, are a dangerous confession of weakness. It has been said that men develop brains when they have failed in everything else...

59. ..to display one's brain is so vulgar. It's even more vulgar than to display one's wealth...

60. ..you will never be more than a dilettante of the intellect, unless you submerge yourself in some cause greater than yourself..

61. You can achieve success in one of two ways: by not looking at people at all or by looking at everything about them.

62. ..Always be what people want you to be. Then you have got them where you want them..

63. .. There's nothing as significant as a human face. Nor as eloquent. We can never really know another person, except by our first glance at him. Because, in that glance, we know everything. Even though we are not always wise enough to unravel the knowledge.

64. ..Every human soul has a style of its own. Its one basic theme. You will see it reflected in every thought, every act, every wish of that person. The one absolute, the one imperative in that living creature. Years of studying a man won't show it to you. His face will. You would have to write volumes to describe a person. Think of this face. You need nothing else..

65. ..There's nothing important on earth, except human beings. There's nothing as important about human beings as their relations to one another..

66. ... the noblest conception on earth is that of men's absolute equality..

67. ..And are those people worth annoying ?...

68. ..one can make one's point best by contrast, by comparison...

69. ..No man likes to be beaten...

70. ..I will hurt you through the only thing that can hurt you ..

71. ..since we both understand and there are not any questions to be asked between us..

72. ...Every loneliness is a pinnacle..

73. ...What is kinder - to believe the best of people and burden them with a nobility beyond their endurance - or to see them as they are, and accept it because it makes them comfortable? Kindness being more important than justice...

74... Never place your punch at the beginning of a column nor at the end. Sneak it in where it's least expected...

75. ..All things are simple when you reduce them to fundamentals. You would be surprised if you knew how few fundamentals there are. Only two, perhaps. To explain all of us. It's the untangling, the reducing that's difficult - that's why people don't like to bother. I don't think they would like results, either...

76. ...Allies never trust each other, but that does not spoil their effectiveness. Our motives might be quite opposite. In fact, they are. But it does not matter. The results will be the same. It is not necessary to have a noble aim in common. It is necessary only to have a common enemy..

77...The great things on earth are things of tension..

78. ..'nothing' is superior to 'something'...

79... We must be kind to everybody around us. We must accept and forgive - there is so much to be forgiven in each one of us. If you learn to love everything, the humblest, the least, the meanest, then the meanest in you will be loved. Then we will find the sense of universal equality, the great peace of brotherhood, a new world...

80. .. He was afraid of nothing ..

81. ..nature allows no vacuum..

82. ..What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? .. Then in order to be truly wealthy, a man should collect souls?... :)

83. .. no gift is worth a damn, unless it's the most precious thing you have got... Give your soul...

84. ..be empty in order to be filled. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal..

85. Two things we must get rid of early in life: a feeling of personal superiority and an exaggerated reverence for the sexual act.

86. A hysterical devotion to one's career does not make for happiness or success. It is wiser to select a profession about which you can be calm, sane and matter-of-fact..

87. ..it's not what you can get out of society, it's what you can give..

88. .. I play the stock market of the spirit. And I sell short..

89. ..everything that proceeds from the ego is evil; everything that proceeds from love for others is good..

90...It's so much easier to pass judgment on a man than on an idea..

91. The shortest distance between two points is not a straight line - it's a middleman..

92. ..Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea. That presupposes the ability to think...

93. ..You are good, but you are not good enough for that..

94. ..It is not the doer that counts but those for whom things are done..

95. I did not come for your sake. I came for mine.

96. I will never be afraid again..

97. Reason can be fought with reason. How are you going to fight the unreasonable? The trouble with most people is that you do not have sufficient respect for the senseless. The senseless is the major factor in our lives. You have no chance if it is your enemy. Make it become your ally!

98. A temple is a place where man is to experience exaltation. He thought that exaltation comes from the consciousness of being guiltless, of seeing the truth and achieving it, of living up to one's highest possibility, of knowing no shame and having no cause for shame, of being able to stand naked in full sunlight. He thought that exaltation means joy and that joy is man's birthright.

99. Ask anything of men. Ask them to achieve wealth, fame, love, brutality, murder, self-sacrifice. But do not ask them to achieve self-respect. They will hate your soul.

100. It's the masters who despise the slaves, and the slaves who hate the masters..

101.You must stop wanting anything. Men are important only in relation to other men, in their usefulness, in the service they render. Unless you understand that completely, you can expect nothing but one form of misery or another.

102. ..All growth demands destruction...

103. .. the most beautiful words were those which were not needed..

104. ..We never need to say anything to each other when we are together. I love you! As selfishly as the fact that I exist. As selfishly as my lungs breathe air. I breathe for my own necessity, for the fuel of my body, for my survival. I have given you, not my sacrifice or my pity, but my ego and my naked need. This is the only way you can wish to be loved. This is the only way I can want you to love me.

105. .. If a group of people felt that some person was acquiring power over them, that was the time to fight such a person..

106. ..I'm simply buying the most valuable thing that can be bought - your time...

107. ..Most people say they are concerned with the suffering of others. I'm not ...

108. ..There was no order in his reading; but there was order in what remained of it in his mind...

109. .. He had a way of getting admitted into places against all rules...

110. ..Men differ in their virtues, if any, but they are alike in their vices...

111. ..If you make people perform a noble duty, it bores them. If you make them indulge themselves, it shames them. But combine the two - and you have got them..

112. ..Honesty is the best policy, though not quite in the sense you were taught to believe...

113. ..When there's no news, make it..

114. ..He kept the details of his life secret by making it glaringly public as a whole..

115. ...Every man on earth has a soul of his own that nobody can stare at..

116. ..As long as he still feared something, he had a foothold on living; even if it meant only moving forward to an unknown disaster. The thought of death gave him nothing. The thought of living gave him a slender alms - the hint of fear..

117. ..you have to flatter people whom you despise in order to impress other people who despise you..

118. ..there are two things one can not give up: One's thoughts ad one's desires..

119...People want nothing but mirrors around them. To reflect them while they are reflecting too..

120. ..It's said that the worst thing one can do to a man is to kill his self-respect. But that's not true. Self-respect is something that can not be killed. The worst thing is to kill a man's pretense at it..

121. ..A quest for self-respect is proof of its lack..

122. ..the person who loves everybody and feels at home everywhere is the true hater of mankind. He expects nothing of men, so no form of depravity can outrage him..

123. .. One can not love man without hating most of the creatures who pretend to bear his name. It's one or the other. One does not love God and sacrilege impartially. Except when one does not know that sacrilege has been committed. Because one does not know God...

124. .. Once you have felt what it means to love as you and I know it - the total passion for the total height - you are incapable of anything less..

125. ..You will be free to leave me whenever you wish...

126. ..You know how people long to be eternal. But they die with every day that passes. When you meet them, they are not what you met last. In any given hour, they kill some part of themselves. They change, they deny, they contradict - and they call it growth. At the end there's nothing left, nothing unreserved or unbetrayed; as if there had never been an entity, only a succession of adjectives fading in and out of an unformed mass. How do they expect a permanence which they have never held for a single moment?...

127...Of course it's true. If you have the courage to accept it...

128. ..It does not matter. You are only human. That's all you want to be...

129. . Every building is like a person. Single and unrepeatable...

130...constant change is a necessity of life...

131. ..You would not have wanted to make me suffer if you were completely indifferent to me...

132. ..but only that man was the life force and woman could respond to nothing else; that this man had the will of life, the prime power, and this act was only its simplest statement, and she was responding not to the act nor to the man, but to that force within him..

133. .. Patience is always rewarded and romance is just around the corner...

134. ..It's no use asking for explanations, either you are fine enough to like it or you are not...

135. ..relaxation was attractive only in those for whom it was an unnatural state...

136...Integrity - the impossible, the clean, consistent, reasonable, self-faithful, the all-of-one-style, like a work of art...

137....man's work should be a higher step, an improvement on nature, not a degradation..

138.. ..he had given someone the courage to face a lifetime...

139. ..Would you have missed this, no matter what price they make you pay for it afterward? ...

140. ..It takes two to make a very great career: the man who is great, and the man - almost rarer - who is great enough to see greatness and say so..

141. ..Most people build as they live - as a matter of routine and senseless accident. But a few understand that building is a great symbol. We live in our minds, and existence is the attempt to bring that life into physical reality, to state it in gesture and form. For the man who understands this, a house he owns is a statement of life. If he does not build, when he has means, it's because his life has not been what he wanted..

142. ..I Do..

143. ..for the first time in his life he had spoken to a man without feeling the reluctance, the sense of pressure, the need of disguise he had always experienced when he spoke to people; there had been no strain and no need of strain; as if he had spoken to himself...

144. ..one does the best one can...

145. ..stop torturing yourself...

146.. I think it hurts you to know that you have made me suffer. You wish you had not. And yet there's something that frightens you more. The knowledge that I have not suffered at all..

147...I am through with it. You are not...

148...I hate incompetence. I think it's probably the only thing I do hate. But it did not make me want to rule people. Nor to teach them anything. It made me want to do my own work in my own way and let myself to torn to pieces if necessary...

149. ..the ability to say 'Yes' or 'No' is the essence of all ownership. It's your ownership of your own ego. Your soul, if you wish. Your soul has a single basic function - the act of valuing. 'Yes' or 'No'. 'I wish' or 'I do not wish'. You can not say 'Yes' without saying 'I'. There's no affirmation without the one who affirms. In this sense, everything to which you grant your love is yours..

150. ..I have always thought that a feeling which changes never existed in the first place ...

151. .. Do not look for the reason..

152....have you ever held power over a single human being? No. And I would not take it if it were offered to me...

153. ...I was the use and meaning, I, . That I lived and that I acted...

154. ..I was thinking of people who say that happiness is impossible on earth. Look how hard they all try to find some joy in life. Look how they struggle for it. Why should any living creature exist in pain? By what conceivable right can anyone demand that a human being exist for anything but his own joy? Every one of them wants it. Every part of him wants it. But they never find it. I wonder why. They whine and say they do not understand the meaning of life. There's a particular kind of people that I despise. Those who seek some sort of a higher purpose or 'universal goal', who do not know what to live for, who moan that they must 'find themselves'. You hear it all around us. That seems to be the official bromide of our century. Every book you open. Every drooling self-confession. It seems to be the noble thing to confess. I would think it would be the most shameful one...

155. Life: I can make what I want of it, and that's the meaning of life...

156. ..violence is not hard to bear, only patience is..

157. ..the glance said simply that nothing had changed and nothing was needed to state it...

158. ..To solve the gigantic problems crushing the world today, we must clarify our mental confusion. Freedom and compulsion are one. Whenever a new compulsion is imposed on us, we automatically gain a new freedom. The two are inseparable. Only by accepting total compulsion can we achieve total freedom...

159. ..what makes people unhappy is not too little choice, but too much..

160. ..I can get away with anything..

161. ..Have a little patience, there's a proper time for everything..

162. ..Nobody understands what a terrible handicap it is to be born rich. Because people just take for granted that because you were born that way you would be no good if you were not..

163.. ..We all take one too many once in a while..

164. ..It's easier to pull down but build up...

165. ..Change is the basic principle of the universe. Everything changes. Seasons, leaves, flowers, birds, morals, men and buildings...

166. ...we are all equal and interchangeable... ?

167. ..when you deal in principles, it saves you the trouble of individual encounters...

168. ..the inexplicable is always terrifying. One loses everything when one loses one's sense of humor...

169. ..He had understood what he could not do..

170. ..I do not think a man can hurt another, not in any important way. Neither hurt him nor help him...

171. ..People do not forgive a man who is slipping..

172. ..To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world...

173. ..before you can do things for people, you must be the kind of man who can get things done. But to get things done, you must love the doing, not the secondary consequences. The work, not the people. Your own action, not any possible object of your charity...

174...If it has to be built, it might as well be built right..

175. I love this work. I want to make it real, living, functioning, built. But every living thing is integrated. Do you know what that means? Whole, pure, complete, unbroken. Do you know what constitutes an integrating principle? A THOUGHT. The one thought, the single thought that created the thing and every part of it. The thought which no one can change or touch...

176. ..the only thing that matters, my goal, my reward, my beginning, my end is the work itself. My work done my way..That's the only way I function. That's all I am..

177. ..If your courage fails you at any point, remember that you will lose everything by giving in...

178. ..I'll take what nobody can give a man, except himself..

179. ..I do not make comparisons. I never think of myself in relation to anyone else. I just refuse to measure myself as part of anything. I am an utter egotist..

180. ..the confidence of surrender - he relaxes like a cat - and cats do not relax except with people they like..

181. ..If I do not want to understand what you are talking about, I won't understand it, no matter what you say..

182.. It's the hardest thing in the world - to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want...

183. ..it's agreeable to look back occasionally. But one's perspective widens. One grows richer spiritually with the years..

184. ..their serenity was their best means of communication...

185. ..I do not wish to be symbol of anything. I am only myself..

186. ..They have no self. They live within others. They live second-hand..

187. ..A truly selfish man cannot be affected by the approval of others. He does not need it...

188. ..It's simple to seek substitutes for competence - such easy substitutes: love, charm, kindness, charity. But there is no substitute for competence..

189. ..Every form of happiness is private. Our greatest moments are personal, self-motivated, not to be touched. The things which are sacred or precious to us are the things we withdraw from promiscuous sharing..

190. ..I think the only cardinal evil on earth is that of placing your prime concern within other men. I have always demanded a certain quality in the people I liked. I have always recognized it at once - and it's the only quality I respect in men. I chose my friends by that. Now I know what it is. A self sufficient ego. Nothing else matters..

191. ..If one does not respect oneself one can have neither love nor respect for others..

192. ..I would give my life to save you. Not because it's any kind of duty. Only because I like you, for reasons and standards of my own. I could die for you. But I could not and would not live for you...

193. ..the worst second-hander of all - the man who goes after power...

194. ..there are matters in which one must not ask for help not give it...

195. ..the most important never has to be said between us...

196. ..it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed. It is the unsacrificed self that we must respect in man above all..

197. ..resistance fed him and made him stronger...

198. ..Socrates, Galileo, the thinkers - each a man who stood alone, the man who defied men..

199. ..the right moment always comes..

200. ..If you learn how to rule one single man's soul, you can get the rest of mankind..

201. ..Happiness is self-contained and self-sufficient. Happy men are free men...

202. ..if ever you hear a man telling you that you must be happy, that it's your natural right, that your first duty is to yourself - that will be the man who is not after your soul. That will be the man who has nothing to gain from you..

203. .. the first fount of life, is that which happens when a thought takes shape in words...

204. ..sound never dies, but travels on in space...

205. ..a man totally innocent of fear...

206. ..Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision..

206. ..Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced...

207. ..His truth was his only motive. His own truth, and his own work to achieve it in his own way..

208. ..His vision, his strength, his courage came from his own spirit. A man's spirit, however, is his self. That entity which is his consciousness. To think, to feel, to judge, to act are the functions of the ego...

209...Man cannot survive except through his mind..

210. Nothing is given to man on earth. Everything he needs has to be produced. And here man faces his basic alternative: he can survive in only one of two ways - by the independent work of his own mind or as a parasite fed by the minds of others. The creator originates. The parasite borrows. The creator faces nature alone. The parasite faces nature through an intermediary. The creator's concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite's concern is the conquest of men.

211. ..The basic need of the creator is independence. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion..

212. ..All that which proceeds from man's independent ego is good. All that which proceeds from man's dependence upon men is evil..

213. .No work is ever done collectively, by a majority decision. Every creative job is achieved under the guidance of a single individual thought..

214. The first right on earth is the right of the ego. Man's first duty is to himself. His moral law is never to place his prime good within the persons of others. His moral obligation is to do what he wishes, provided his wish does not depend primarily upon other men.

215. ..I am a man who does not exist for others..

216. ..Mankind will never destroy itself, nor should it think of itself as destroyed..

..Best lines..

2008-03-03T22:26:00.003+05:30

Standing for what you believe in,
Regardless of the odds against you,
And the pressure that tears at your resistance,
.... means Courage.

Keeping a smile on your face,
When inside you feel like dying,
For the sake of supporting others,
.... means Strength.

Stopping at nothing,
And doing what's in your heart,
You know is right,
.... means Determination.

Doing more than is expected,
To make another's life a little more bearable,
Without uttering a single complaint,
.... means Compassion.

Helping a friend in need,
No matter the time or effort,
To the best of your ability,
.... means Loyalty.

Giving more than you have,
And expecting nothing
But nothing in return
.... means Selflessness.

Holding your head high,
And being the best you know you can be
What life seems to fall apart at your feet,
Facing each difficulty with the confidence
That time will bring you better tomorrow's
And never giving up,
.... means Confidence.

To the question of your life,
you are the only Answer.
To the problems of your life,
you are the only Solution.

Tips for a Better Life

2008-02-26T21:42:00.002+05:30

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you
walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy
a lock if you have to.

3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get
more sleep.

4. When you wake up in the morning complete the
following statement, 'My purpose is to __________
today.'

5. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and
Empathy.

6. Play more games and read more books than you did in
the last year.

7. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, tai chi, and
prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy
lives.

8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under
the age of 6.

9. Dream more while you are awake.

10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and
eat less food that is manufactured in plants.

11. Drink green tea and plenty of water.. Eat
blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds &
walnuts.

12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk
and let new and flowing energy into your life.

14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy
vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or
things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy
in the positive present moment.

15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to
learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that
appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons
you learn will last a lifetime.

16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and
dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.

17. Smile and laugh more.

18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to
disagree.

22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the
present.

23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no
idea what their journey is all about.

24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words:
'In five years, will this matter?'

26. Forgive everyone for everything.

27. What other people think of you is none of your
business.

28. GOD heals almost everything.

29. However good or bad a situation is, it will
change.

30. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick.
Your friends will. Stay in touch.

31. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or
joyful.

32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you
need.

33. The best is yet to come.

34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show
up.

35. Do the right thing!

36. Call your family often. (Or email them to death!!!)
Hey I'm thinking of ya!

37. Each night before you go to bed complete the
following statements: I am thankful for __________.
Today I accomplished _________.

38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

39. Enjoy the ride. Remember this is not Disney World
and you certainly don't want a fast pass. You only have
one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy
the ride.

40. Please Forward this to everyone you care about.

I Am Part of All That's Good

2008-02-13T07:03:00.000+05:30

by Anna L. Derschell

In moments rare there comes to me
A vision unexpected;
I clearly see within my soul
The Universe reflected.
I am a part of all that's good
I feel, I know no limit;
The God in all stands forth so clear,
No fancied ills can dim it.

No matter what life future hours
May hold of earthborn sadness,
I know there comes to me the Truth
A heritage of gladness
That far transcends all grosser things--
I've caught the vision glorious:
We are a part of all that's good,
And good shall be victorious.

Notes to Me, Myself and Mega: My Way to Become a Child of the Universe!

2008-01-03T15:58:00.001+05:30

[ Not inspired by Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person by Hugh Prather! ]

******************************************

Me - What I know/see as "I am".
Myself - What I am "I am". What I know and do not know about "I am".
Mega - What others know/see as "I am".

******************************************

I love traffic!
I love not being able to predict traffic!
If I hate traffic then I am trying to control something that is impossible for me.
In auto taxi now, so I love the traffic that I have been through for the last ninety minutes in the bus.

******************************************

I like India and I expect something from India.
I love India and I do not expect anything from India.

I like and I take.
I love and I give.

I love Mountains,
I love Economy,
I love Geography,
I love Atmosphere,
I love Nature,
I love Abundance,
I love Theology,
I love History,
I love All,
I love Nations,
I love Philosophy,
I love Society,
I love Being,
I love Love..

What am I going to give!

******************************************

Life wants to be;
Life does not always want to be much;
Life from time to time goes extinct;
Life goes on.
And often, it goes on in ways that are decidedly amazing.

******************************************

This too will pass;
This moment will pass;
'Now' will keep changing;
This too will pass.

******************************************

New Thoughts and
New Babies are
Born Together!

Scientific thoughts are realized faster;
Social thoughts grow with the new born babies then.

******************************************

I speak to you;
You are important to me;
It does not matter whether I speak important things or not to you;
I speak to you.

******************************************

I get angry;
Not at you;
But at me, for getting angry.

******************************************

There is nothing right or wrong;
Everything is relative and context/time sensitive;
Do not pass judgment on anything or anyone.

******************************************

SILENCE

2007-12-31T23:30:00.000+05:30

Strong things are quiet.
Waves may leap,
But the heart of the ocean
Is calm and deep.

Though change of seasons
Bring change of scene,
The hills and the mountains
Stand serene.

The heart that trusts
In the power of prayer
Is the heart that finds
God everywhere.

Though the waters rise
And the winds increase,
The heart that trusts
Is a heart at ease.

There is power in Silence and yes "SILENCE" is the perfect gift you can give to yourself and to all those whom you care.

Silence is beautiful, but we never recognized it.

It is gorgeous but we never really paid any attention to it.

It is serene but we never got hooked on to it.

There is something special about silence.

We can never figure out why silence is so powerful.

In the short journey of life, understand that silence stood for Truth. It does not reveal the truth. It does not force you to do anything. It simply enters into You if you give it space. It is not too much bothered about position, it goes and settles down in one corner within you and begins its work. It asks you questions and helps you answer those questions. You do not have to do anything, literally nothing.

by Vish Writer <vish@vish-writer.com >
http://www.spiritual-simplicity.com

21 Rules of Life

2007-12-31T23:19:00.000+05:30

1. Marry the right person . This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.

2. Work at something you enjoy and that's worthy of your time and talent.

3. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

4. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.

5. Be forgiving of yourself and others.

6. Be generous.

7. Have a grateful heart.

8. Persistence, persistence, persistence.

9. Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary.

10. Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.

11. Commit yourself to constant improvement.

12. Commit yourself to quality.

13. Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationship with people you love and respect.

14. Be loyal.

15. Be honest.

16. Be a self-starter.

17. Be decisive even if it means you'll sometimes be wrong.

18. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.

19. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did.

20. Take good care of those you love.

21. Don't do anything that wouldn't make your Mom proud.

100 Ways to Make (You) SMILE

2007-12-11T10:14:00.000+05:30

01. Call an old friend, just to say hi.
02. Hold a door open for a stranger.
03. Invite someone to lunch.
04. Compliment someone on his or her appearance.
05. Ask a coworker for their opinion on a project.
06. Bring cookies to work.
07. Let someone cut in during rush hour traffic.
08. Leave a waitress or waiter a big tip.
09. Tell a cashier to have a nice day.
10. Call your parents.

11. Let someone know you miss them.
12. Treat someone to a movie..
13. Let a person know you really appreciate them.
14. Visit a retirement center.
15. Take a child to the zoo.
16. Fill up your spouse's car with gas.
17. Surprise someone with a small gift.
18. Leave a thank-you note for the cleaning staff at work.
19. Write a letter to a distant relative.
20. Tell someone you thought about them the other day.

21. Put a dime in a stranger's parking meter before the time expires.
22. Bake a cake for a neighbor.
23. Send someone flowers to where they work.
24. Invite a friend to tea.
25. Recommend a good book to someone.
26. Donate clothing to a charity.
27. Offer an elderly person a ride to where they need to go.
28. Bag your own groceries at the checkout counter.
29. Give blood.
30. Offer free baby-sitting to a friend who's really busy or just needs a break.

31. Help your neighbor rake leaves or shovel snow.
32.. Offer your seat to someone when there aren't any left.
33. Help someone with a heavy load.
34. Ask to see a store's manager and comment on the great service.
35. Give your place in line at the grocery store to someone who has only a few items.
36. Hug someone in your family for no reason.
37. Wave to a child in the car next to you.
38. Send a thank-you note to your doctor.
39. Repeat something nice you heard about someone else.
40. Leave a joke on someone's answering machine.

41. Be a mentor or coach to someone.
42. Forgive a loan.
43. Fill up the copier machine with paper after you're done using it..
44. Tell someone you believe in them.
45. Share your umbrella on a rainy day.
46. Welcome new neighbors with flowers or a plant.
47. Offer to watch a friend's home while they're away.
48. Ask someone if they need you to pick up anything while you're out shopping.
49. Ask a child to play a board game, and let them win.
50. Ask an elderly person to tell you about the good old days.

51. During bad weather, plan an indoor picnic with the family.
52. Buy someone a goldfish and bowl.
53. Compliment someone on their cooking and politely ask for a second helping.
54. Dance with someone who hasn't been asked.
55. Tell someone you mentioned them in your prayers.
56. Give children's clothes to another family when your kids outgrow them.
57. Deliver extra vegetables from your garden to the whole neighborhood.
58. Call your spouse just to say, I love you.
59. Call someone's attention to a rainbow or beautiful sunset.
60. Invite someone to go bowling..

61. Figure out someone's half-birthday by adding 182 days, and surprise them with a cake.
62. Ask someone about their children.
63. Tell someone which quality you like most about them.
64. Brush the snow off of the car next to yours.
65. Return your shopping cart to the front of the store.
66. Encourage someone's dream, no matter how big or small it is.
67. Pay for a stranger's cup of coffee without them knowing it.
68. Leave a love letter where your partner will find it.
69. Ask an older person for their advice.
70. Offer to take care of someone's pet while they're away.

71. Tell a child you're proud of them.
72. Visit a sick person, or send them a care package.
73. Join a Big Brother or Sister program.
74. Leave a piece of candy on a coworker's desk.
75. Bring your child to work with you for the afternoon.
76. Give someone a recording of their favorite music.
77. Email a friend some information about a topic they are especially interested in.
78. Give someone a homemade gift.
79. Write a poem for someone.
80. Bake some cookies for your local fire or police department.

81. Organize a neighborhood cleanup and have a barbecue afterwards.
82. Help a child build a birdhouse or similar project.
83. Check in on an old person, just to see if they're okay.
84. Ask for the recipe after you eat over at someone's house.
85. Personally welcome a new employee at work and offer to take them out for lunch.
86. While in a car, ask everyone to buckle up because they are important to you.
87. Let someone else eat the last slice of cake or pizza.
88. Stop and buy a drink from a kid's lemonade stand.
89. Forgive someone when they apologize.

90. Wave to someone looking for a parking space when you're about to leave a shopping center

91. Send a copy of an old photograph to a childhood friend.
92. Leave a pint of your spouse's favorite flavor of ice cream in the freezer with a bow on it.
93. Do a household chore that is usually done by someone else in the family.
94. Be especially happy for someone when they tell you their good news.
95. Compliment a coworker on their role in a successful project.
96. Give your spouse a spontaneous back rub at the end of the day.
97. Serve someone in your family breakfast in bed.
98. Ask someone if they've lost weight.
99. Make a donation to a charity in someone's honor.
100. Take a child to a ballgame.

The Present by Spencer Johnson

2007-11-13T20:55:00.000+05:30

.. Some lines picked from the book ..

You Already Know
What The Present Is.

You Already Know
Where To Find It.

And You Already Know
How It Can Make You
Happy And Successful.

You Knew It Best When
You Were Younger.

You Have Simply Forgotten.

Note: When you are fully engaged in what you are doing your mind doesn't wander and you are happy. You are intent only on what is happening at that moment.

The Present
Is Not The Past And
It Is Not The Future.

The Present Is
The Present Moment!

The Present Is
Now!

Note: Being in the Present means focusing on what is happening right now! It means appreciating the gifts you are offered every day.

Even In The Most
Difficult Situations,

When You Focus On
What Is Right
In The Present Moment,
It Makes You Happier,

And Gives You The Needed
Energy And Confidence
To Deal With
What Is Wrong.

Note: Pain is the difference between what is, and what you want it to be.

Being In The Present Means
Tuning Out Distractions

And Paying Attention To
What Is Important Now.

You create Your Own Present
By What You Give
Your Attention To.

Note: To fully embrace The Present you must do more than just live in the present moment.

It Is Hard To
Let Go Of The Past
If You Have Not Learned
From The Past.

As Soon As You
Learn And Let Go
You Improve The Present.

Note: Only two things can rob you of the joy of The Present: your negative thoughts about The Past, or your negative thoughts about The Future.

Anytime You Are
Unhappy In The Present
Or Feeling Unsuccessful,

It Is Time To
Learn From The Past
Or Plan For The Future.

Look At What Happened
In The Past.

Learn Something
Valuable From It.

Use What You Learn
To Improve The Present.

You Cannot Change The Past,
But You Can Learn From It.

When The Same Situation Arises,
You Can Do Things Differently
And Enjoy
A More Successful Present.

Note: The only way to make The Future better than The Present, other than to get lucky, is to plan for it. Planning for The Future reduces fear and uncertainty, because you are actively taking steps toward future success. You know what you are doing and why you are doing it.

No One Can Predict
Or Control The Future.

However, The More You Plan
For What You Want To See Happen,

The Less Anxious You Are
In The Present,

And The More The Future
Is Known To You.

Note: Think of the three parts of The Present as a tripod supporting a camera: Living In The Present; Learning from The Past; and Planning for The Future.

Picture What A Wonderful Future
Would Be Like.

Create A Realistic Plan
To Help It Happen.

Put Your Plan Into Action
In The Present.

Note: Living in The Present, learning from The Past, and planning for The Future is not all there is. It is only when you Live with Purpose and respond to what's important about The Present, Past and Future, that it all has meaning. Living with purpose means not just knowing what to do, but why.

How You Respond
Depends Upon Your Purpose.

When You Want To Be Happy
And More Successful
It Is Time To Be
In The Present Moment.

When You Want The Present
To Be Better Than The Past
It Is Time To Learn From The Past.

When You Want The Future
To Be Better Than The Present
It Is Time To Plan For The Future.

When You Live And
Work With Purpose,

And Respond To
What Is Important Now,

You Are More Able To
Lead, Manage, Support,
Befriend, And Love.

Success Is Becoming Who You
Are Capable Of Being.

And Progressing Toward
Worthwhile Goals.

Each Of Us Defines For Ourselves
What It Means
To Be Successful.

Three Ways To Use Your Present Moments

Be In The Present
When You Want To Be Happy And Successful
Focus On What Is Right Now.
Use Your Purpose To Respond
To What Is Important Now.

Learn From The Past
When You Want To Make The Present Better Than The Past
Look At What Happened In The Past.
Learn Something Valuable From It.
Do Things Differently In The Present.

Plan For The Future
When You Want To Make The Future Better Than The Present
See What A Wonderful Future Would Look Like.
Make Plans To Help It Happen.
Put Your Plan Into Action In The Present.

10 Effective Ways To Stay Motivated

2007-11-02T11:57:00.000+05:30

There are times when you feel like you are on a roll, and nothing can get you down. And then there are times when it seems that the road to success is filled with nothing but boulders and gaping potholes. It is on this rutted road that you need motivation the most.

Motivation comes from within. You might be inspired by achievements of others, but, to go far in life, you need to feel charged and determined to achieve your goals.

Try these tips on how to be self-motivated to get your work life back on track or to keep going top speed on your career path!

1. Be confident. If you don't believe in yourself, why would anyone else? We all have something we are good at. Have faith in yourself and try to work on your niche skills. Drive the fear of failure far away from you. Remember, what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger!

2. Be clear. Fuzzy, undefined goals are difficult to focus on. How will you proceed when the path seems all foggy? Request your manager for defined, measurable objectives and tasks.

If your manager is not very forthcoming, take some initiative and work with him until you have clarity about your role and what you will be appraised on, at the end of the year. Self-motivated people work best with clearly defined objectives in life. Even if the targets seem a little hazy, house-bred motivation can come in real handy!

3. Work on yourself. Nothing works better as a power shot of motivation than the knowledge that you are good at what you do! Be on top of things at work. Identify your weak areas and get them out of the way. Enroll in courses that will raise your market value and also your motivation levels. Getting a few certifications and qualifications in your functional skills will definitely instill a great deal of confidence.

4. Take criticism positively. Even though the other person has no such intentions, turn all negative criticism into a positive driving force. Failure is a state a mind. If you think you can succeed, you will. Always think positive. That way, instead of brooding over past disappointments, you will route your frustration into positive energy required for working harder. It works like magic.

5. Look out for challenges. If the current job demotivates you, not to worry. Be open to try out new things if your present role has become too boring to continue even a day more. Talk to your seniors to redefine your role to optimise your capabilities. Establish your reputation as somebody who is not scared to take on new challenges in life.

6. Be persistent. Most things may not work out right the first time. This just means that you need to try harder. However, ensure that you set your heart on goals that are really important to you and will help you progress in life. Save your efforts for things that matter. Do not waste your energies on peripheral things.

7. Keep the company of successful people. Try to surround yourself with confident people who are driven and high on life. Read books that fill you with optimism. Put up motivating posters and quotes on your workstation that will spread positive energy and drive away any depressing thoughts. Look around for successful people and try to emulate them. Find out what makes them tick and include that in your working style.

8. Celebrate life. If something doesn't shape up like you thought it would, it does not mean everything else is doomed as well. Do not feel stressed; high stress leads to low motivation. Take active interest in things happening around you. Live your life well. Continue to have faith in yourself and get involved in things that give you happiness. That itself will generate enough motivation for you to glide over waves of setbacks.

9. Start today. List all that is important for you to achieve your goals. Divide long-term goals into smaller milestones and celebrate each accomplished goal. Procrastination is a killer so keep it at bay.

10. Keep dreaming. Lastly, do not forget to keep dreaming. Dream big! Let your dreams fuel your desire to get closer to your goals. Write your dreams for yourself in a diary or a journal and constantly refer to them so that you do not forget or lose sight of the objective.

Remember, "Motivation is all about how high you can bounce when you hit absolute rock bottom."

How to be an intelligent investor

2007-10-31T09:26:00.000+05:30

When do we like to purchase any goods or services - when their prices are high or when they are low? Are discounts good for us or are they bad? While all of us run when we hear word discount and sale, our actions are exactly opposite when it comes to equity investing.

Legendary investor Benjamin Graham in his book "The Intelligent Investor" has stated that stocks become more risky when prices are high and less risky when prices are low. This we know is also true for all our purchases. Goods and services are less attractive when prices are high and more attractive when prices are low. However while investing in equity markets we sell our stocks when prices are falling (low) and when they are rising we feel safe to invest.

Investing is a strange business. It's the only one we know of where the more expensive the products get, the more customers want to buy them - Anthony M Gallea

In year 2002 when equity markets were at its bottom after technology bubble had busted, one of my new client was shocked when I recommend 25% of his allocation into equity. According to him equity market was speculation den. Same client about six months ago called me up to check if it was alright to park his entire PPF maturity proceeds into equity.

Another interesting observation made by Benjamin Graham is that an individual considers someone a speculator if that person was to invest in equity markets after they have fallen massively – say may be after a bubble burst. Same individual will treat someone as an investor when that person invests into equity markets after they have risen sharply. What is more speculative in nature - to invest at low levels or high levels?

Since it is difficult to see future, we take shelter in past to predict future. It is like driving the car by only looking into rear view mirror. Rear view mirror only reflects the road, which has already been traveled. The reason we consider an investor speculator when he invest after markets have fallen is because we are referring our judgment on past events. The same is true when we refer to someone as an investor after markets have risen. However we all know that “past performance may or may not be repeated” – To drive ahead we need to look in front and not in rear view mirror.

It is common sense that to earn good returns we need to buy low and sell high. This also means sailing against the tide. Buy when everyone is selling and sell when everyone is buying. This strategy is called contrarian strategy.

It takes patience, discipline and courage to follow the contrarian route to investment success: to buy when others are despondently selling, to sell when others are avidly buying - Sir John Templeton

The reason Sir John Templeton says it requires courage to be contrarian is because as human beings we prefer being with the crowd. We are not comfortable being seen opposite the crowd. When we are on opposite side of the crowd whole world can see us. We feel that if we make mistake then crowd will laugh at us. On the other hand if we are with the crowd and even if our strategy goes wrong nobody will laugh as everybody would have gone wrong.

Finally ending with one more quote from Benjamin Graham “Individuals who cannot master their emotions are ill-suited to profit from the investment process”.

-Gaurav Mashruwala
The author is a Certified Financial Planner. He may be reached at gmashruwala@gmail.com

Open message to Indian PIGS!

2007-10-08T05:20:00.000+05:30

I am an Indian. We, Indians are PIGS. We are happy dwelling in drainage. Like PIGS, we are happy with drainage outside and in minds. We do not want to come out of drainage. Like PIGS, we just grow in number.

We do not think better than PIGS. We are just as mad as PIGS.

Let's change being like PIGS.

Let's give new meaning to PIGS : Persist in Going Strong; Promote India (to) Global Standard; Power Inside is Great Strength;

I am a PIG; (PIG: Power in GOD*! ) I think, if I can change the meaning of PIGS, so can every other PIG.

- Meganathan, an Indian PIG!
*GOD - Generate - Order - Develop*

Five Tips to Increase Your Likeability In the office and the world

2007-10-04T23:05:00.000+05:30

By Justin Hartfield

Being likeable isn’t required in order to achieve the position or job of your dreams, but it helps. When other people are on your side providing you with encouragement, helpful tips, and even free resources, it can greatly increase the chances of success in your chosen field and in life. Many times, it is not what you know but who you know.

While the listing below may seem to be cursory and easy to implement, they are not. It is difficult to make real and permanent changes in your personality. The process of becoming an exceptionally likeable individual takes years. Do not let that intimidate you, however. Remember: the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Likeability, like drawing, writing or golf, is something which must be practiced.

1. Be positive.

The single most common problem facing individuals who want to become more popular/successful/likeable is their own attitude. Attitude is everything. Attitude is the reason why you aren’t as popular now as you want to be. More specifically, it is a negative attitude which can poison your relationships with your coworkers, and indeed the world. Developing a more positive attitude does not mean ignoring hardships or failures. It is simply reframing those difficulties and negative emotions to healthier positive ones. The old cliche, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade," has been around for a while because it is exactly the winning attitude which people are attracted to, and it is exactly the attitude which brings rewards.

Why do you complain? Why do you have pet-peeves? What is the point of harboring all of these negative emotions? Be big enough to let them go. Use your rational mind and refuse to be overcome by these negative emotions. My pet peeve used to be people who had poor pronunciation. Like 'nuclular' instead of 'nuclear' or 'basttitized' instead of 'bastardized'. However, I realized that it really didn't matter how the person pronounces the word as long as I can understand the point they are making. I can fix their errors mentally. I know now that even I, yes even the great I, is prone to mispronounce a word once in a while as well. Instead of highlighting failures and differences try to build commonalities and connect with your peers.

"Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid." - John Keats

2. Control your insecurities.

Insecurities oftentimes come leaping out of a person's brain and mouth so quickly that the speaker has no idea what words he just blurted out. People that always have to be correct are insecure. People that constantly saying "just kidding!" after every single joke are insecure. People that respond to a joke at their expense with anger or insult are insecure. Insecurity beguiles confidence and weakens your Self. Becoming a better individual means accepting your Self, and not hiding it under the veil of insults, "just kiddings", or factoids.

Either you accept mediocrity about your personality completely and without shame, or you change it. Period. If you're fat, either go on a strict diet and exercise regime or accept it and even be willing to poke fun at yourself. If you have a high voice, buy some tapes to help you improve your tone or be willing to not only accept but love your squeaky vocals. Display your faults for all the world to see - mistakes are unifying characteristics which all humans can empathize with. Not only is perfection limiting, it's boring as well. The mark of a mistake-free life is one which has not been fulfilled.

"The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything." - Theodore Roosevelt

3. Provide value.

The only thing worse than an insecure person is one who is so completely and utterly shutdown from the world that they refuse to display any personality at all. If you work in an IT company like I do, you know exactly what I mean. There are developers there who display exceptional intellect and foresight on their projects but when it comes to simple human interaction they lack the social graces (or *gasp*, bravery) to wish you a good morning. In order to be around people with value you must be able to convey value. There is no alternative. If you are humorless, read books on comedy writing; if you are boring, go out and do something adventurous. Experience life and share your findings with your coworkers.

Have you ever noticed that successful people often flock together? I have heard countless stories of brilliant scientists or businessmen who were close friends with other successful individuals before they gained their notoriety. In parallel, have you noticed that drug addicts and criminals often associate with each other? This isn't coincidence. You are the sum of all of your friends and close associates. Choose your friends with care, just because you grew up with someone does not mean you are forced to be their friend for the rest of your life. Start surrounding yourself with people of value and it will become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

"The art of being yourself at your best is the art of unfolding your personality into the person you want to be... Be gentle with yourself, learn to love yourself, to forgive yourself, for only as we have the right attitude toward ourselves can we have the right attitude toward others." - Wilfred Peterson

4. Eliminate all judgments.

Judgmental people are usually easy to spot because they are the ones eating alone in the lunch room. They think of themselves as 'too [flattering adjective]' to have lunch with those guys in shipping and 'too [unflattering adjective]' to eat with the guys in IT. No one is above you and no one is below you. We are all mammals - humans, more distinctly - just trying to get by the best way we know how. Do not believe for a second that there are unwritten 'leagues' or 'classes' which people must adhere to. All of these boundaries are artificial, put in place by people who are in desperate need for justifications of their own failures. No judgments means treating everyone with the respect you would give to a 120-year-old man and the understanding you would give toward your seven-year-old cousin.

"Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster. Your life will never be the same again." - Og Mandino

5. Become a person of conviction.

In order to gain respect you must start respecting yourself first. You must set boundaries on behavior and let people know that you are not a pushover. Make no mistake, people will test you in order to find out exactly where your boundaries are. This means saying 'no' to disrespect and letting the offending party know that he or she crossed the line with their comment and you did not appreciate it. People will respect you more when they realize that you are not someone who is malleable or valueless.

Set your own personal unbreakable code of ethics. Make it as rigid as your morals will allow. When you are faced with an ethical dilemma, reference this code. If no precedent exists, create one. Let it be your ever-expanded guide which will provide you stability in an otherwise chaotic world. If your boss requests you to do something that is in incongruence with your core values, simply refuse and explain your reasoning. You may be surprised how understanding they might be.

"One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds." - Mahatma Gandhi

Billion dollar investing tips from Warren Buffett by N J Yasaswy

2007-10-01T06:56:00.000+05:30

Excerpted from Intelligent Stock Market Investing by N J Yasaswy.

Widely considered the most successful investor of all time, Warren Buffett is a luminous example of the school of value investing. Starting with an initial fund of $105,000 in 1956, Buffet grew it to $45 billion over the next 50 years, making him the second richest man in the world. Though he is widely recognized as being an investor, the bulk of Buffet's wealth was built through intelligent use of leverage offered by his insurance companies. Since most individual investors do not have access to the type of capital that Buffet does, it is not easy to replicate his astounding wealth-building feat. However, by understanding and applying the basic guidelines of Buffett's investment approach to their own investing decisions, most long term investors can comfortably beat the returns of all but the best mutual fund managers.

So, how did Buffet accumulate the huge fortune that he eventually gave away to the charitable foundation run by his best friend, Bill Gates? One of the greatest attractions of Buffett for investors is that his investment methodology is easy to understand. However, it is far more difficult to apply because it calls for large amounts of patience and calm when your stocks move against you. It is also difficult to apply because it requires an orientation towards research and the ability to understand the complexities of accounting and finance. But for those willing to invest time and effort into mastering this approach, superlative investment performance over the long term is guaranteed.

Invest in Businesses, Not in Stocks

"Whenever we buy common stocks for Berkshire's insurance companies (leaving aside arbitrage purchases), we approach the transaction as if we were buying into a private business. We look at the economic prospects of the business, the people in charge of running it, and the price we must pay." -- Warren Buffett

This is the cornerstone of Buffett's investment style. Whenever he evaluates an investment opportunity he analyses it as a business and not as a stock. This makes him look closely at the company's fundamentals, earnings prospects, financial health and management. Conversely, this style of evaluating a business prevents him from buying a stock just because it is going up even though it has dubious prospects. A lot of investors tend to buy stocks based on tips from friends, acquaintances or brokers. By adopting Buffett's approach, you can save yourself a lot of grief later on.

Only Buy Businesses that You Understand

"Did we foresee thirty years ago what would transpire in the television manufacturing or computer industries? Of course not. Why, then, should Charlie and I now think we can predict the future of other rapidly evolving business? We'll stick instead with the easy cases. Why search for a needle buried in a haystack when one is sitting in plain sight?" -- Warren Buffett

Buffett has a track record of generating 21 per cent annually compounded returns over a 50-year time frame, a feat matched by very few investment managers. Though technology companies delivered some of the best returns during this period, Buffet has never owned one for the simple reason that he could not understand the long term prospects of these companies and evaluate them thoroughly. So the next time you get a tip to buy a "hot" company that you do not understand, you should ask yourself: "If the greatest investor in the world will not invest in something he doesn't understand, should I?"

Buy Companies with Defensible 'Franchise'

"As Peter Lynch says, stocks of companies selling commodity-like products should come with a warning label: 'Competition may prove hazardous to human wealth'." -- Warren Buffett

Most of Buffett's portfolio companies, such as Coca Cola, Gillette (now Procter and Gamble), American Express and Washington Post, are businesses which have a significant hold over their market. This is because they have inherent competitive advantages, whether it be a highly recognizable brand, or near-monopoly status in a geographic area. Such companies can typically raise their prices without fear that customers will walk away. This in turn produces fantastic earnings growth and, consequently, great investment performance. So, before you make an investment in future, try to understand whether the company you are investing in has a strong and defensible market position and whether it can raise prices if it needs to.

Hold for the Long Term

"We are willing to hold a stock indefinitely so long as we expect the business to increase in intrinsic value at a satisfactory rate . . . we do not sell our holdings just because they have appreciated or because we have held them for a long time." � Warren Buffett

Buffett's companies have generated enormous returns for him. For example, his investment of $10 million in 1973 in the Washington Post Company had grown to more than $1 billion by 2003. While a lot of us may be able to do this occasionally, Buffett has generated such returns with startling regularity. One of the reasons he is able to do so is because he holds for the long term and is not quick to enter or exit businesses. In fact, he stuck with WPC for two years even though its price fell below his purchase price because he understood the fundamentals of the business and believed that it was undervalued. Even once it became profitable, he was not quick to exit because he believed that it had greater potential. He held it through several bull and bear markets and no greater proof is needed than the return he achieved to show that he was right in holding it for so long.

Ignore Short-Term Fluctuations in Price

"Charlie and I let our marketable equities tell us by their operating results�not by their daily, or even yearly, price quotations�whether our investments are successful. The market may ignore business success for a while, but eventually will confirm it." � Warren Buffett

The stock market has a tendency to overreact on both the upside and downside. Often the market ignores the fundamentals of a business and reacts sharply to news flow. Sometimes entire sectors become either unduly depressed or overpriced. One of the key pillars of Buffett's approach is to ignore short-term fluctuations in price. He does not sell a stock because the market suddenly decides to drop. Neither does he buy one because it is going up. Once Buffett has calmly evaluated the fundamentals, he will buy the stock if its price is right. If the stock dips after he has purchased it, he does not worry so long as its fundamentals are good. Had he gotten jittery due to short-term price fluctuations, he would have been a lot less richer than he his currently.

Buy Good Businesses When Prices are Down

"If you expect to be a net saver during the next five years, should you hope for a higher or lower stock market during that period? Many investors get this one wrong. Even though they are going to be net buyers of stocks for many years to come, they feel elated when stock prices rise and depressed when they fall. Only those who will be sellers of equities in the near future should be happy at seeing stocks rise. Prospective purchasers should much prefer sinking prices." � Warren Buffett

On 19 October 1987, all global stock markets crashed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average actually suffered a decline of 22 per cent, the greatest single-day drop in its history. Every stock on the market fell. Most people sold their holdings in panic that day. Buffett, however, was buying! He made the single largest stock purchase of his life that day. While all others around him hit the panic button, Buffet bought 10 per cent of Coca Cola for $1 billion. Not only was it his largest single stock purchase, he also became the single largest shareholder in the company. In his analysis, Coca Cola had a great business, great long-term prospects and the ability to expand because of globalisation. If the market was willing to sell it at an unreasonably cheap price, he wanted to scoop it up with both hands. And scoop it up he did! Coca Cola became one of the most successful investments in Berkshire's portfolio. By 2006, Buffett had made over $11 billion on Coke since he bought it.

Don't Be an Active Trader

"Indeed, we believe that according the name 'investors' to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a romantic." � Warren Buffett

Buffett is an atypical investor not only because he is highly successful, but also because he does not even look at stock tickers. He believes that trading too much is a tax-inefficient and costly approach to investing. Consequently, he has a very low turnover portfolio, very low brokerage charges and has not paid very much in the nature of capital gains taxes.

Do Not Over-Diversify

"If you are a know-something investor, able to understand business economics and to find five to ten sensibly priced companies that possess important long-term competitive advantage, conventional diversification makes no sense for you." -- Warren Buffett

A striking aspect of Buffett's portfolio at Berkshire is the small number of stocks in it. This number has rarely exceeded 10 stocks. Buffett believes that there are very few outstanding investment opportunities at any given point of time and that one should invest enough in each of those to make a substantial difference. In contrast, most people fill up their portfolios with more than fifty stocks. As a result, even if a stock appreciates 100 per cent, the impact on their net worth will only be 2 per cent. Investors who want to generate truly outstanding returns should identify a small number of great businesses at the right prices and invest a significant amount of their money in each of them.

Invest Only When There is a Margin of Safety

"Margin of safety" is a slightly difficult concept to understand. It can be loosely defined as the difference between value and price. If the value of what you buy is higher than the price you pay for it, you have a high margin of safety. If the price you pay is greater than value, you have a low margin of safety. When the margin of safety is high, the investor need not worry about short-term fluctuations in price and can buy more if he or she has the resources to do so. Also, if you are investing in a situation with a significant margin of safety, you are likely to make a higher return because you are buying at a relatively low price.

However, how does one quantify this margin of safety? It is admittedly a grey area. There are seemingly scientific approaches, such as the discounted cash flow, which are taught in most corporate finance textbooks. In practice, though, it is both very subjective and very difficult for an individual investor to apply. However, there are other short cuts which are more approachable. Since the discounted cash flow ultimately crystallizes into the price / earnings (P/E) ratio, one way of estimating the margin of safety is to look at the P/E ratio. A low P/E means there is a margin of safety. But even this approach has its pitfalls. Slow growing, lousy companies often tend to have low P/E ratios. And, sometimes, very promising companies have high P/E multiples.

One way around this problem is to divide the P/E ratio by the growth rate of the company's profits to arrive at its price-earnings to growth ratio. Thus, if a company's P/E is 20 and the growth rate of its profits is 20 per cent, its PEG is 1. Oftentimes, a PEG of less than 1 implies that there is a significant margin of safety. A PEG of greater than one means that the margin of safety is not very high.

That said, PEG is not the holy grail of valuation and there are several ways to value a company -- and all these approaches have their flaws. You can consider your time well invested if you spend some time researching valuation by reading a corporate finance textbook.

Thus, Warren Buffet's investment approach is easy to understand, but calls for significant effort on your part to understand businesses, evaluate them and invest successfully but then, nobody said that becoming a billionaire was easy!

Health and Happiness

2007-09-14T22:01:00.001+05:30

20 Ways to Get and Stay Happy

As experts gather to explore the techniques for achieving peace and happiness at the 2nd International Conference on Happiness & Its Causes, TIME looks at proven ways to find more joy in life

Benjamin Franklin's list of 13 Virtues

2007-09-03T21:33:00.000+05:30

.. extracted from "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin".

1. Temperance
Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

2. Silence
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

3. Order
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

4. Resolution
Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

5. Frugality
Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e, waste nothing.

6. Industry
Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. Sincerity
Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. Justice
Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. Moderation
Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. Cleanliness
Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.

11. Tranquility
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

12. Chastity
Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.

13. Humility
Imitate *Jesus* and Socrates.
* I[Mega] do not follow Jesus. So, I will read it as *Lord Krishna*.

Few Notes:
* Franklin suggested to fix one virtue at a time; and when you should master of that, then proceed to another.

* Forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of your own. Forbid yourself the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fixed opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc. Instead use "I conceive", "I apprehend", "I imagine a thing to be so;" or "it so appears to me at present".

Lessons from The GodFather by Mario Puzo

2007-08-28T16:49:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer: These are collected by me, and it should be taken with a pinch of salt. My interpretation and application of the following lines will vary from your's in business and real life.

Behind every great fortune, there is a crime [ Balzac ].
Don't let anybody kid you, it's all personal, every bit of business. Like God, take everything personal.
Accidents don't happen to people who take accidents as a personal insult.
Every man has but one destiny!
"I'll reason with him".
Great men are not born great, they grow great!
Get everyone on it even if they can not help us right now. I believe in friendship and I am willing to show my friendship first.
Unleashing of anger without forethought is the most dangerous indulgence.
No greater natural advantage in life than having an enemy overestimate your faults, unless it was to have a friend underestimate your virtues.
"Only your voice could have brought me here!"
I would trust you with my life and the welfare of my children. I would trust you with my whole fortune.
I want to thank you all for coming....I consider it a service done to me personally and I am in debt of each and every one of you. And so I will say at the beginning that I am not here to quarrel or convince, but only to reason and as a reasonable man do everything possible for us all to part friends here too. I give my word on that and some of you who know me well know I do not give my word lightly. We are all honorable man here, we don't have to give each other assurances as if we were lawyers.
"What matter of men are we then, if we do not have our reason" .. " we are all no better than beasts in a jungle, if that were the case. But we have reason, we can reason with each other and we can reason with ourselves".
Now, any man should be allowed one foolishness in his life. I have had mine!
I want all precautions taken. Now don't take this amiss. I'm not preparing anything. I'm being prudent, I have always been a prudent man, there is nothing I find so little to my taste as carelessness in life. Women and children can afford to be careless, men cannot.
I made the peace, remember, I can't go back on my word.
Sun was more important than water, water also was important; but the two, imprudently mixed, could cause great misfortune.
"Life is so beautiful!"
You cannot say "no" to the people, you love, not often. That's the secret. And then when you do, it has to sound like a 'yes', or you have to make them say 'no'. You have to take time and trouble.
Revenge is a dish that tastes best, when it is served cold.
I have done my share in life, I have not got the heart anymore. And there are some duties the best of men can't assume. That's it then.
Let's wait and see what happens! Let them break the peace first.
Just sit tight. Don't react to any provocation. Give me a few weeks to straighten things out to see which way the wind is going to blow. Then I'll make the best deal I can for everybody here.
He's the most intelligent and he did what seems to him to be the smart thing.
He could never turn back.
There are people who wander through the world shouting 'kill me, kill me'. The trick is that since he does not fear death and indeed looks for it, then the trick is to make yourself the only person in the world that he truly desires not to kill him. He has only that one fear, not of death, but that you may be the one to kill him. He is yours then!
Treachery can't be forgiven. People never forgive themselves and so they would always be dangerous.

UW-L Commencement Address by Lynda Drews

2007-08-22T21:43:00.000+05:30

UW-L Commencement Address by Lynda Drews
College of Science and Health

Chancellor, Dean, Faculty, Graduates of 2007, chosen family of graduates, and a special mention and tribute to all who helped pay the bills. I know my husband and I have been doing so the last eight years with our two sons. We are very proud of them, as I know you areof yours.

Driving to La Crosse yesterday, I marveled as the Wisconsin terrain was transformed before my eyes: The flat farmland rising into these magnificent bluffs. It still takes my breath away, even though we come back yearly, for the UW-L Cross-Country Alumni weekend, or the Jim Drews Invitational, named in my husband’s honor. And despite the practice of naming events for the deceased, he’s very much alive. We both loved our college experience on this beautiful campus with its caring professors. Each visit, when I smell Mr. D’s Doughnuts, the Mississippi River, and the aroma of pizza, beer, and popcorn from downtown, my memories resurface.

Back in 1974, I didn’t realize that what I learned at La Crosse would greatly mold and affect the rest of my life. Now I realize those lessons were for keeps. Those lessons still endure in my heart and mind.

It is a great honor for me to be here today. It’s been 33 years since I graduated. I have a collage on my wall of my husband in his spiffy plaid suit, and me in an empire-waisted mini-dress, holding our cap tassels with big grins on our faces. It feels like yesterday. I’m sure we had a speaker, but honestly I can’t remember. Maybe the individual generalized a lot, or I wasn’t listening. Maybe many of you won’t either. But here are five things I wish I’d been told at my commencement.

Lesson #1 – Do what you love. All the boring, repetitive jobs out there are going to be automated by technology or outsourced. The good jobs remaining will be those that demand or encourage some human creative flair, passion, and imagination. These will be jobs that can only be done by people who love what they do. The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has termed these kinds of people as "untouchable."

So what does that mean?

First, they are the people who are really special like Tiger Woods, Bill Gates, or Oprah.

Second, they are people who are really specialized like exercise physiologists, industry consultants, brain surgeons, fashion designers, or molecular biologists.

Third, they are people who can adapt to change.

Graduates, if you love what you do, there is a much better chance you will make yourself special, specialized, or adaptable.

I learned that quite by accident, taking a basic studies course here at UW-L. All my life I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. But my freshman year, I took Introduction to Computer Science, and everything changed, like it may have for many of you. I switched my sights into this emerging field. It wasn’t until my senior year that it was even designated as a major at the university. I was one of two women within a group of pony-tailed, sock-and-sandals guys. We hung out in the basement of Wing Communication Center with our paper tapes and decks of cards, waiting for computer time. Two of us were the first graduates. A year earlier, there were some landmark consent decrees to eliminate discriminatory recruiting, hiring, and promotion practices against women and minorities. I honestly felt I was at the right place at the right time.

I was offered a technical job at IBM in Rochester, Minnesota. Within three months at my new profession, my husband accepted a teaching position in Green Bay. In order to stay with IBM, I was rehired into the Green Bay Sales and Marketing Office as a systems engineer. Daily I was required to perform calls on clients. I was very shy and after failing in my Sales Call training class, my instructor informed me I was not IBM material. A door was slammed in my face. Someday that door could slam in yours. You must wedge it open, and instead of resigning yourself to defeat, take it as a challenge to change, to focus on becoming special, specialized, or adaptable.

This moves me to Lesson #2 – You can never stop learning. With the help of my manager and mentor, I enrolled in leadership courses and began to conquer my shyness. With this came a quiet self-confidence, not cocky or conceited. The late, tennis great Arthur Ashe said, “One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” So, graduates, prepare.

In addition to conquering my shyness, I realized technical work friends, not anchored into an industry specialization, were continually at risk of losing their jobs. I immersed myself into the unfamiliar Retail & Distribution industries. At a conference, a few years later, I received an award for selling and implementing the most Industry Application Solutions in the country. In the audience was my training instructor. As I returned to my seat, I couldn’t help but smile at his shocked face.

On average, graduates, you will change jobs at least eight times in your professional life. I changed seven, just within IBM. Each time you may need to get an equivalent of a Master’s degree. Hopefully, you’ve come out of college having learned how to learn. Keep in mind though, in this age of laptops, PDA’s, fancy cell phones, and the Internet, all these tools might make you smarter and extend your reach, but they can’t download your passion, imagination, and creativity—the traits that will make you untouchable. You have to upload them the old fashioned way, with study, travel, reflection, and human interaction.

This moves me into Lesson #3 – Don’t let your real life pass you by. When all is said and done, and you look back on your life, you are not going to wish you had spent more time at work. Take time to enjoy. Because of my job, I frequently flew. Luckily, IBM let me keep my accumulated miles. Yearly, after my two boys reached sixth grade, I let them pick a one-on-one trip with just their mom. I’ll never forget each trip and the close bond I established with each of my sons.

One chose exotic places like Cancun, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, skiing in Oregon, while the other son went to the bathroom-sized PEZ Museum in San Francisco, and to eight different locales where the Dave Mathews Band played. I may be the oldest person in the world that’s been to fifteen DMB concerts. These trips are something I’d never trade for anything I accomplished at work. The lyrics to one of Dave’s songs says:

“Don't burn the day away Come sister, my brother Shake up your bones, shake up your feet I'm saying open up And let the rain come flooding in Wash out this tired notion That the best is yet to come”

You need to walk through life and relish every step. Like Dorothy on the yellow brick road, you’ll see the promise of Oz up ahead, but there are many twists and turns along the way—lots of tin men and green women will stall your progress and cause you pain. You must tread carefully and possess absolute, unbending integrity. This is what will define your character and give you a satisfying journey.

This road doesn’t necessarily have to be filled with job transfers and moves. Advancement in IBM used to mean, I’ve Been Moved. But because of new technology, IBM, like many other companies, allows advancement while you work from home. My last ten years, my team was dispersed throughout the world. Planes, conference calls, video conferencing, instant messaging, and emails now change the way we work and allow each of us to possibly minimize moves.

This leads me to Lesson #4 – Stimulate the spirit with friendship and exercise. Close friendships enrich a life, whether they are work related, or within an organization of varying occupations that shares some common interest. At UW-L, another course I took my senior year was called Diet and Weight Control. I don’t think I did too well staying away from the doughnuts and beer, but I did take up running. I’ve done it ever since and completed eight marathons. My closest friends, from all walks of life, are my running pals. This physical exercise was my savior throughout my career. It reduced stress, made me goal-oriented, and provided a quiet time to analyze problems, think creatively, and let me bounce ideas off of running companions. It provided an immense appreciation for nature, and while listening to music on my Ipod, an inner sense of calm. Running may not be for everyone, but a walk, rollerblading, or a bike ride alone, or with friends, can produce the same results. Dr. Ronald Rook said, “I do not run to add days to my life—I run to add life to my days.” And so can we.

Finally, the Fifth Lesson is to Journal your life. It’s something I wish I had done. Knowing you’re going to have to write something every day sharpens your attention to everything around you. When I made my decision to retire from IBM, after thirty years, at age 51, I returned to a nearly forgotten passion. In college I’d greatly enjoyed a creative writing course. Now, since retirement, I’ve been working on a book called Trial Run, about a specific point in my life, dealing with the death of a dear friend, and the trial of her husband. Attempting to sort through my past, I now realize how much of my life I’ve already forgotten.

In closing, I hope these lessons will aid you in your life journey: Remember, do what your love. Never stop learning. Don’t let your real life pass you by. Stimulate the spirit with friendship and exercise. And journal your life.

The Sages have said, "Make the study of life your main occupation, and your profession secondary." The question is not, "What are you doing for a living?" but rather "What do you do for life?"

Good luck and congratulations, my fellow La Crosse graduates!

A Quote

2007-07-10T17:50:00.001+05:30

If you are not a socialist before 30, then you do not have a heart; If you are not a capitalist after 30, then you do not have a brain.

-(George Bernard Shaw)
*Heard from Ganesh Ram Natarajan*

Life lessons from Narayana Murthy

2007-06-27T23:06:00.000+05:30

N R Narayana Murthy, chief mentor and chairman of the board, Infosys Technologies, delivered a pre-commencement lecture at the New York University (Stern School of Business) on May 9. It is a scintillating speech, Murthy speaks about the lessons he learnt from his life and career. We present it for our readers:

Dean Cooley, faculty, staff, distinguished guests, and, most importantly, the graduating class of 2007, it is a great privilege to speak at your commencement ceremonies.

I thank Dean Cooley and Prof Marti Subrahmanyam for their kind invitation. I am exhilarated to be part of such a joyous occasion. Congratulations to you, the class of 2007, on completing an important milestone in your life journey.

After some thought, I have decided to share with you some of my life lessons. I learned these lessons in the context of my early career struggles, a life lived under the influence of sometimes unplanned events which were the crucibles that tempered my character and reshaped my future.

I would like first to share some of these key life events with you, in the hope that these may help you understand my struggles and how chance events and unplanned encounters with influential persons shaped my life and career.

Later, I will share the deeper life lessons that I have learned. My sincere hope is that this sharing will help you see your own trials and tribulations for the hidden blessings they can be.

The first event occurred when I was a graduate student in Control Theory at IIT, Kanpur, in India. At breakfast on a bright Sunday morning in 1968, I had a chance encounter with a famous computer scientist on sabbatical from a well-known US university.

He was discussing exciting new developments in the field of computer science with a large group of students and how such developments would alter our future. He was articulate, passionate and quite convincing. I was hooked. I went straight from breakfast to the library, read four or five papers he had suggested, and left the library determined to study computer science.

Friends, when I look back today at that pivotal meeting, I marvel at how one role model can alter for the better the future of a young student. This experience taught me that valuable advice can sometimes come from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors.

The next event that left an indelible mark on me occurred in 1974. The location: Nis, a border town between former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, and Bulgaria. I was hitchhiking from Paris back to Mysore, India, my home town.

By the time a kind driver dropped me at Nis railway station at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, the restaurant was closed. So was the bank the next morning, and I could not eat because I had no local money. I slept on the railway platform until 8.30 pm in the night when the Sofia Express pulled in.

The only passengers in my compartment were a girl and a boy. I struck a conversation in French with the young girl. She talked about the travails of living in an iron curtain country, until we were roughly interrupted by some policemen who, I later gathered, were summoned by the young man who thought we were criticising the communist government of Bulgaria.

The girl was led away; my backpack and sleeping bag were confiscated. I was dragged along the platform into a small 8x8 foot room with a cold stone floor and a hole in one corner by way of toilet facilities. I was held in that bitterly cold room without food or water for over 72 hours.

I had lost all hope of ever seeing the outside world again, when the door opened. I was again dragged out unceremoniously, locked up in the guard's compartment on a departing freight train and told that I would be released 20 hours later upon reaching Istanbul. The guard's final words still ring in my ears -- "You are from a friendly country called India and that is why we are letting you go!"

The journey to Istanbul was lonely, and I was starving. This long, lonely, cold journey forced me to deeply rethink my convictions about Communism. Early on a dark Thursday morning, after being hungry for 108 hours, I was purged of any last vestiges of affinity for the Left.

I concluded that entrepreneurship, resulting in large-scale job creation, was the only viable mechanism for eradicating poverty in societies.

Deep in my heart, I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused Leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist! Inevitably, this sequence of events led to the eventual founding of Infosys in 1981.

While these first two events were rather fortuitous, the next two, both concerning the Infosys journey, were more planned and profoundly influenced my career trajectory.

On a chilly Saturday morning in winter 1990, five of the seven founders of Infosys met in our small office in a leafy Bangalore suburb. The decision at hand was the possible sale of Infosys for the enticing sum of $1 million. After nine years of toil in the then business-unfriendly India, we were quite happy at the prospect of seeing at least some money.

I let my younger colleagues talk about their future plans. Discussions about the travails of our journey thus far and our future challenges went on for about four hours. I had not yet spoken a word.

Finally, it was my turn. I spoke about our journey from a small Mumbai apartment in 1981 that had been beset with many challenges, but also of how I believed we were at the darkest hour before the dawn. I then took an audacious step. If they were all bent upon selling the company, I said, I would buy out all my colleagues, though I did not have a cent in my pocket.

There was a stunned silence in the room. My colleagues wondered aloud about my foolhardiness. But I remained silent. However, after an hour of my arguments, my colleagues changed their minds to my way of thinking. I urged them that if we wanted to create a great company, we should be optimistic and confident. They have more than lived up to their promise of that day.

In the seventeen years since that day, Infosys has grown to revenues in excess of $3.0 billion, a net income of more than $800 million and a market capitalisation of more than $28 billion, 28,000 times richer than the offer of $1 million on that day.

In the process, Infosys has created more than 70,000 well-paying jobs, 2,000-plus dollar-millionaires and 20,000-plus rupee millionaires.

A final story: On a hot summer morning in 1995, a Fortune-10 corporation had sequestered all their Indian software vendors, including Infosys, in different rooms at the Taj Residency hotel in Bangalore so that the vendors could not communicate with one another. This customer's propensity for tough negotiations was well-known. Our team was very nervous.

First of all, with revenues of only around $5 million, we were minnows compared to the customer.

Second, this customer contributed fully 25% of our revenues. The loss of this business would potentially devastate our recently-listed company.

Third, the customer's negotiation style was very aggressive. The customer team would go from room to room, get the best terms out of each vendor and then pit one vendor against the other. This went on for several rounds. Our various arguments why a fair price -- one that allowed us to invest in good people, R&D, infrastructure, technology and training -- was actually in their interest failed to cut any ice with the customer.

By 5 p.m. on the last day, we had to make a decision right on the spot whether to accept the customer's terms or to walk out.

All eyes were on me as I mulled over the decision. I closed my eyes, and reflected upon our journey until then. Through many a tough call, we had always thought about the long-term interests of Infosys. I communicated clearly to the customer team that we could not accept their terms, since it could well lead us to letting them down later. But I promised a smooth, professional transition to a vendor of customer's choice.

This was a turning point for Infosys.

Subsequently, we created a Risk Mitigation Council which ensured that we would never again depend too much on any one client, technology, country, application area or key employee. The crisis was a blessing in disguise. Today, Infosys has a sound de-risking strategy that has stabilised its revenues and profits.

I want to share with you, next, the life lessons these events have taught me.

1. I will begin with the importance of learning from experience. It is less important, I believe, where you start. It is more important how and what you learn. If the quality of the learning is high, the development gradient is steep, and, given time, you can find yourself in a previously unattainable place. I believe the Infosys story is living proof of this.

Learning from experience, however, can be complicated. It can be much more difficult to learn from success than from failure. If we fail, we think carefully about the precise cause. Success can indiscriminately reinforce all our prior actions.

2. A second theme concerns the power of chance events. As I think across a wide variety of settings in my life, I am struck by the incredible role played by the interplay of chance events with intentional choices. While the turning points themselves are indeed often fortuitous, how we respond to them is anything but so. It is this very quality of how we respond systematically to chance events that is crucial.

3. Of course, the mindset one works with is also quite critical. As recent work by the psychologist, Carol Dweck, has shown, it matters greatly whether one believes in ability as inherent or that it can be developed. Put simply, the former view, a fixed mindset, creates a tendency to avoid challenges, to ignore useful negative feedback and leads such people to plateau early and not achieve their full potential.

The latter view, a growth mindset, leads to a tendency to embrace challenges, to learn from criticism and such people reach ever higher levels of achievement (Krakovsky, 2007: page 48).

4. The fourth theme is a cornerstone of the Indian spiritual tradition: self-knowledge. Indeed, the highest form of knowledge, it is said, is self-knowledge. I believe this greater awareness and knowledge of oneself is what ultimately helps develop a more grounded belief in oneself, courage, determination, and, above all, humility, all qualities which enable one to wear one's success with dignity and grace.

Based on my life experiences, I can assert that it is this belief in learning from experience, a growth mindset, the power of chance events, and self-reflection that have helped me grow to the present.

Back in the 1960s, the odds of my being in front of you today would have been zero. Yet here I stand before you! With every successive step, the odds kept changing in my favour, and it is these life lessons that made all the difference.

My young friends, I would like to end with some words of advice. Do you believe that your future is pre-ordained, and is already set? Or, do you believe that your future is yet to be written and that it will depend upon the sometimes fortuitous events?

Do you believe that these events can provide turning points to which you will respond with your energy and enthusiasm? Do you believe that you will learn from these events and that you will reflect on your setbacks? Do you believe that you will examine your successes with even greater care?

I hope you believe that the future will be shaped by several turning points with great learning opportunities. In fact, this is the path I have walked to much advantage.

A final word: When, one day, you have made your mark on the world, remember that, in the ultimate analysis, we are all mere temporary custodians of the wealth we generate, whether it be financial, intellectual, or emotional. The best use of all your wealth is to share it with those less fortunate.

I believe that we have all at some time eaten the fruit from trees that we did not plant. In the fullness of time, when it is our turn to give, it behooves us in turn to plant gardens that we may never eat the fruit of, which will largely benefit generations to come. I believe this is our sacred responsibility, one that I hope you will shoulder in time.

Thank you for your patience. Go forth and embrace your future with open arms, and pursue enthusiastically your own life journey of discovery!

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

2007-06-26T00:19:00.000+05:30

By Stephen R. Covey

1. Be Proactive.

2. Begin with the End in Mind.

3. Put First Things First.

4. Think Win/Win.

5. Seek First to Understand...Then to be Understood.

6. Synergize.

7. Sharpen the Saw.

Some Thoughts...

2007-06-25T23:57:00.000+05:30

...gathered from Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey.

Anwar Sadat: ... he who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore make any progress.

Amiel: Moral truth can be conceived in thought. One can have feelings about it. One can will to live it. But moral truth may have been penetrated and possessed in all these ways, and escape us still. Deeper even than consciousness there is our being itself -- our very substance, our nature. Only those truths which have entered into this last region, which have become ourselves, become spontaneous and involuntary as well as voluntary, unconscious as well as conscious, are really our life -- that is to say, something more than property. So long as we are able to distinguish any space whatever between Truth and us we remain outside it. The thought, the feeling, the desire or the consciousness of life may not be quite life. To become divine is then the aim of life. Then only can truth be said to be ours beyond the possibility of loss. It is no longer outside us, nor in a sense even in us, but we are it, and it is we.

Emerson: ..That which we persist in doing becomes easier - not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.

Teilhard de Chardin: We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

T.S.Eliot: .. We must not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.

After a While..

2007-06-21T06:55:00.000+05:30

By Veronica A. Shoffstall

After a while you learn
the subtle difference between
holding a hand and chaining a soul
and you learn
that love doesn't mean leaning
and company doesn't mean security.
And you begin to learn
that kisses aren't contracts
and presents aren't promises
and you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes ahead
with the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child
and you learn
to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow's ground is
too uncertain for plans
and futures have a way of falling down
in mid-flight.
After a while you learn
that even sunshine burns
if you get too much
so you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone
to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure
you really are strong
you really do have worth
and you learn
and you learn
with every goodbye, you learn...

Picked from the hand book - The Assertive You [ Reader's Digest Special Edition ] by Stanley Phelps & Nancy Austin

Tap into your Intuition to solve problems

2007-06-05T16:42:00.000+05:30

1) Find a quiet place.

2) Breathe deeply a few times.

3) Quiet the voices in your head.

4) Remember a pleasant experience.

5) Imagine that time has passed and it’s now weeks or months in the future and the problem no longer exists.

6) Let go off the problem.

7) Go about your daily tasks with a feeling of expectancy and be aware of the hunches and ideas that you receive.

Author: John Harricharan
Source

Essence of Trust

2007-05-14T16:10:00.000+05:30

A little girl and her father were crossing a bridge. The father was
kind of scared so he asked his little daughter, "Sweetheart,
please hold my hand so that you don't fall into the river."
The little girl said, "No, Dad. You hold my hand." "What's the
difference?"asked the puzzled father.
There's a big difference," replied the little girl.
If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are
that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for
sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go."

In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond.
So hold the hand of the person whom you love rather than expecting them to hold yours.

How to take the best money decisions

2007-04-18T14:10:00.000+05:30

Whenever I am confused and have no definite answers, I am torn between acting with knowledge and information.

Confusion arises from the fact that people tend to act on information without applying knowledge.

I am not talking about complex things like PE, forward PE, BV, EV, etc. I am talking about simple, basic things that affect investments and, thereby, the overall value of your assets. These are very obvious, yet very little understood.

Let me highlight four examples that, I believe, are quite pertinent now.

1. Interest rates

Let’s talk about short-term interest rates. The equation is simple: if rates go up, markets go down and vice versa. That is all that there is.

Basically, the government hikes interest rates to regulate the economy. Let's look at the simpler side: people are generally risk or loss averse and tend to prefer security in their earnings. So if interest rates rise, the money moves to safer, more secure havens.

Money tends to move where it is treated best. Unfortunately, for us, institutional money moves at a pace that retail investors cannot match. Hence, before retail investors act, they would have accumulated reds in their portfolio.

What should we do to act knowledgeably? If rates are rising and stock prices are falling, the reverse will also happen in due course. Rising interest rates does not mean you start selling. Perhaps you could start selective buying.

Rising rates can have severe effects. And it is wise not to be too aggressive in such times.

2. Index levels

The second thing most people do is make decisions based on the index levels. This does not make any sense. Why? Very simple. The indices -- Sensex, Nifty -- are generally a very poor measure of the overall health of the market. They represent a few stocks and are subject to movement in a few stocks.

If you really want to study the trend, perhaps you should look at the advance/ decline ratios for a while, perhaps months, and then make an analysis. That will give you a broad level insight into the real health of the market.

Companies are an ongoing concern. A falling index does not mean the company will shut down and the business will not grow. A well managed company will continue to make strategies to tide over differing demands based on their product/ service life cycle.

3. Price

A Rs 30 stock is not necessarily cheaper than a Rs 300 stock. The real value of a stock does not depend on market price. It depends on the earning capability of the company.

In the short term, it is driven by emotions. But, in the long run, earnings dictate the gains you make as a shareholder. Similarly, a Rs 10 net asset value (NAV) does not mean a new fund offering is cheaper than existing ones.

So even if you invested in a Rs 200 NAV fund in both cases, your fresh money will enter the market at almost the same time. In all probability, if the fund NAV is Rs 200 or so, look at its inception date. This will reflect the manner and consistency with which the fund has been managed over the years. That would be a knowledgeable, prudent decision to make.

4. Dividends

Dividends from shares and mutual funds are quite different. The first is reflective of a profitable company that is keen to add to shareholder wealth. This is healthy, welcome and the more, the better.

Now, investing in a mutual fund based on information of the dividend declaration is ridiculous. It is your own money coming back to you. The market value of your investment is the difference between what you invested and the dividend you got.

You would have done a couple of transactions instead of one with no particular benefit. To have this money treated as tax-free income, you need to hold your investment for many months.

What if, in this time, the fund under performs or does not perform in line with peers? You would have made an opportunity loss.

In the times we live, information inflow is ample; knowledge is really sparse. It is, unfortunately, only available by doing all the hard work yourself.

The author, Kartik Jhaveri, an expert at Financial Planning, is a Certified Financial Planner and a Chartered Wealth Manager. He may be reached at kartik.jhaveri@transcend-india.com.

Disclaimer:

The contents of the above articles are the intellectual property and copyright of the author, Kartik Jhaveri. No part may be used or reproduced in any form or manner. If you choose to act upon the information contained in the above article it is at your own risk. This article is purely educative and you are strongly advised to consult an expert prior to taking any significant decision.

Loans: Don't let the lender outsmart you

2007-04-18T13:24:00.000+05:30

Remember how our fathers and forefathers used to tell us to live within our means?

The things are different today. The interest rates have reduced considerably making them quite affordable. The process also has become more customer-friendly. Tax advantages to certain loans such as home loans have made then quite attractive. Consumerism has increased making us wanting to enjoy things today rather than wait for months/years to save sufficient amount to buy things of our choice. Therefore, today we don’t think twice before committing ourselves to indebtedness.

Yes, no doubt, the loan scenario is quite promising today. But we need to be careful.

Not all loans are good. Loans which finance the consumption are bad. Unsecured loans – such as credit cards, personal loans – are usually very expensive and must be shunned at all costs. Loans which strain our finances must be curtailed.

Loans that build assets are worth a look. While, the competitive environment may have made availing a loan affordable and simple, it does have a drawback. In their eagerness to get the business, the banks may not always tell the full story. Therefore, it is for us delve deep into any loan offer and make the right choice.

1. Firstly, one should do a detailed market survey of the various options. Who are the major lenders in the business? What are the interest rates that they offer? What are the other costs and charges that they levy? What terms and conditions are likely to affect us? Preparing a comparative chart would be very useful.

2. Interest is the most critical of all the costs that you pay. Hence, needless to say that one should go for the cheapest option. But beware of the jargon.

Don’t be misled by banking terminology. For example flat interest rates may appear to be cheaper but are in fact the most expensive – a 8% flat rate would work out to an effective cost of around 15%. Therefore, choose a daily or monthly reducing balance option rather than a half-yearly or annual reducing option. This will mean lower effective cost for the same stated interest rate.

3. Another concept – Advance EMIs – misleads many borrowers. Using this concept the lenders are able to quote lower interest rates. But the effective interest that the borrowing ends up paying works out much higher. Therefore, it would be prudent to go in for a plain vanilla loan rather than exotic variations.

Interest-free loans or other such offers are too good to be true and thus should be viewed with suspicion.

4. Apart from interest there will be other costs such as administrative fees, processing charges etc. Work out as to how much these other costs add up to. These costs could make your loan more expensive even though the interest rate may be lower.

5. Sometimes the EMIs may work out more than what you can afford on a monthly basis. This can be reduced by increasing the loan tenure (or of course by reducing the loan amount) and make it convenient for you to avail the loan. But keep in mind that the total quantum of interest you pay over the loan tenure will be higher.

6. Make sure that all verbal discussions or offers are supported by relevant papers. Do not go by anyone’s words. What ultimately matters is the written word.

7. Do not give any false information. Sometimes you may be coaxed into declaring something which is not the truth. Desist from any falsification. This amounts to fraud and could land you in serious trouble.

8. Ideally, one should ask for zero penalty/fees for a pre-payment option. If this is not possible, then lower the better. This is more relevant to a longer-term loan like home loan which runs for 10-15 years. During such a long period circumstances could arise necessitating you to prepay the loan – interest rates may become too steep; your income may have increased substantially leaving you with lot of spare cash; tax structures may have changed making the loan unviable; etc.

9. Recheck all terms and conditions before you finally sign the documents. Ensure that interest rate, loan amount, tenure etc. are what was agreed upon.

10. Do not sign any blank documents or leave any blank spaces in the loan documents. Even if you have to spend a few hours to fill-up the form in full, do so. Do not leave anything for the lender or his agent to fill-up.

Remember that there is no free lunch. In this age of information overload, alluring advertisements and unbridled consumerism, it is easy to get bedazzled and baffled. Therefore, it calls for our ingenuity and intelligence not to be deceived and make the best possible loan choice.

The author, Sanjay Matai, is an investment advisor. He can be reached at smatai@hotmail.com

5 ways to assess your financial health

2007-04-17T16:30:00.000+05:30

Does your money usually lie idle for quite sometime before finally you invest?

Are you going overboard with your debts?

Are you uncomfortable with the amount you have kept aside for emergencies?

If these questions bother you, then here's what you can do about it.

You have a unique financial profile in terms of income, expenses, assets and liabilities. Work out a few financial ratios, accordingly.

1. The Liquidity Ratio

Liquidity Ratio = (Cash + Balance in Savings A/c, etc)/Avg monthly expenses

Liquidity Ratio essentially indicates whether you can meet emergency needs comfortably. These could include a great investment opportunity (e.g. the recent crash in the markets), a sudden marriage in the family, emergency hospitalisation, etc.

You must be prepared for unexpected expenses. If all your money is locked-up in long-term investments, you could incur a loss in converting them into cash. Sometimes you may not even be able to do so.

While there is no perfect number, a ratio of around three is generally considered to be okay; i.e. money equivalent to about three months’ of your expenses should be kept handy. A lower ratio means you run a risk and too high a ratio means your money is earning less returns.

2. The Idle-Cash Ratio

Idle-Cash Ratio = (Cash, Balance in Savings A/c etc – Emergency Corpus)/Take-home pay

Any cash lying idle (over and above what you need to keep aside for emergencies) is a lost opportunity. If this ratio is say up to around 10-15%, then it’s fine. But a higher ratio means you are lazy with your investments. This, in turn, means losing a chance to earn better returns on your funds. You are not making your money work efficiently for you.

In today’s world of conveniences – home service, online options, automatic investing etc – this is simply not done. You need to immediately get down to the business of automating your investments as far as possible. And as soon as possible.

3. The Savings Ratio

Savings Ratio = Amount invested per month/Take-home pay

As life spans increase and job spans reduce, we all need to build larger retirement corpuses to take care of a higher number of non/less-productive years. The more you save, the more capital you will accumulate. That’s simple logic. But too much saving, at the cost of not enjoying life today, is also bad. The idea is to get the balance right.

First, broadly work out what corpus would be sufficient for you to live comfortably from say the age of 50 to 80 if there were no other income (don’t forget to factor in inflation). Now see if your present savings ratio is sufficient to build that corpus. If yes, then you need not worry. If not, you have to tighten your wallet.

However, there is a limit up to which this is possible. If, even after improving the savings ratio, there is still a shortfall expected, then you either need to increase your earnings, or have a re-look at your retirement corpus and make it more modest.

4. The Debt Service Coverage Ratio

Debt Service Coverage Ratio = Total loan EMIs per month / Per-month take home pay

Easy availability and low interest rates have made loans quite common. Personal loans, home loans, vehicle loans, credit card outstanding balances, etc all add-up to a quite a sizeable amount these days for many individuals.

Considering the uncertainties in life – job loss, accidents, terrorism, natural disasters, etc – it would be advisable that one doesn’t go overboard with his loans. Financial prudence demands that one’s DSCR should not exceed 40-50%.

Further more, ideally one should restrict oneself to loans for home or vehicles, which at least build some assets. Personal loans, credit card loans, loans for finance consumption, should ideally be avoided or at best restricted to 10-12%. Also try to become debt-free as you approach retirement.

5. The Solvency Ratio

Solvency Ratio = Total Assets / Total Loan and other liabilities

If tomorrow you were asked to pay-off all your loans by selling your assets, would you be able to do it (assuming, of course, that every asset is readily convertible into cash)? If yes, you will not become bankrupt. If no, then you are living dangerously.

A solvency ratio of 1.5 or more is comfortable as it can withstand any fall in the value of your assets. Also, it leaves you with a cushion to borrow some more if required. Solvency ratio of 1 or below is extremely risky and you must take immediate steps to reduce your debt levels.

Once you calculate these ratios, you can judge for yourself whether you are financially healthy or not. Accordingly, you can take the proper corrective action(s), if need be.

The author, Sanjay Matai, is an investment advisor and can be reached at sanjay.matai@moneycontrol.com.

Opportunity

2007-04-17T07:59:00.000+05:30

By Dr. Abdul Kalam, The President of India

Waiting for the opportunity is Laziness.
Missing the opportunity is Foolishness.
Creating the opportunity is Intelligence.

How to Have a Business Conversation

2007-04-16T23:23:00.001+05:30

by Ben Stein

In the course of climbing the corporate ladder, or of just managing the little corner of the world you occupy, you have to communicate with people. It's not always easy, but you have to do it.

Some of this communication amounts to simple conversation, and it's been dawning on me for a long time now that a great many young people don't know how to have one. In fact, a great many older people don't know how to have a conversation, either.

Ten Conversation Tips

Frankly, I don't see how people can advance in their careers if they don't know how to have a conversation. For most people, work -- not investments -- is their livelihood.

So I thought I'd offer up a few basic ideas on how to have a conversation with someone you just met.

1. Begin by knowing that the people you're talking to mostly want to talk about themselves.

They want to talk about their lives, their tastes, their views. To the extent that you let them do that, you facilitate conversation and good feeling.

A simple way to begin a conversation is to ask a person the most basic question: "How are you today?" The person will usually give a cursory answer such as, "I'm fine. How are you?"

If your conversation partner goes off on a long tangent about what she had to eat that morning, what she bought that afternoon, and how her mother treated her that evening, you're warned to simply terminate the conversation at once and go on to the next person.

Otherwise, you might continue by asking, "Where are you from?" This usually allows for the next rule of conversation:

2. Establish common ground.

For example, if your conversation partner is from Idaho, talk about how often you've been to Idaho and how beautiful it is there. If you've never been to Idaho, talk about how you've heard it's beautiful there and how much you've always wanted to visit.

This helps to establish the next rule:

3. Say kind, generous things to your conversation partner.

Talk about how beautiful his home area is. Talk about how you have seen the mountains there and how fabulous they are. Talk about how bracing the air there is.

Or, if you can't think of anything to say about the person's home, offer compliments about something else. Talk about how nice her hair looks or how nice his suit is. People like to be complimented. If they don't like to be complimented, they're not well in the head and you ought to leave them well enough alone.

If they react negatively to compliments, again, move on to the next topic or the next person.

4. Keep your comments brief.

Don't respond to a question about where you're from with a long, detailed answer about all the places you've ever been. Talk about how you are that day in a short, punchy way. Answer in detail only if your partner asks in detail.

You know how you don't like to be bored by long answers? Everyone else on the planet feels the same way. Brevity is a good way to make friends. You never want to be so brief as to be rude, but again, brief is good.

5. Get back on common ground again as soon as you can.

Ask what your colleague or neighbor does for a living. If he or she does anything at all, say how interesting that is. Ask for an explanation of what it is if you don't understand.

I've had some of the most interesting, revealing conversations of my life just by asking people what they do. What does a "chemical engineer" do? Just by asking that I learned volumes about how the energy business works. What does a petroleum geologist do? What's sedimentary rock and how do you get oil out of it? I learned all this just by asking people what they do and then asking for more explanation.

People want to talk about their lives, and you oblige them, make them like you, and learn from them by allowing them to talk.

This is especially true in job interviews. You want to allow your interviewer to do a big chunk of the talking. In so doing, you learn where to make your points, where to keep quiet, and how to explain yourself so you fit into the interviewer's world.

6. Don't brag unless you do it in a funny way.

Don't tell people how much money you make. Don't tell people how cool you are. No one likes a braggart. No one likes to feel small compared with anyone else.

Just be modest about your achievements. Even if the person you're talking to brags, don't brag yourself.

7. Unless you're specifically asked about it, don't talk about religion at all.

You're very likely to make enemies and not at all likely to make friends if you bring up religion. Most people have different views about religion from yours, and you can scarcely conceive of a better way to alienate people than trying to press your religious views on them.

8. The same goes for politics.

You can hardly hope to meet someone whose political views exactly match yours, so you can easily offend by pressing your views on someone else. Just smile and listen quietly and go on to the next thing.

Unless you meet someone who says, "I know you and I totally agree with you," don't get into politics at all.

9. If you talk about current issues, do so in a genial, friendly way.

Don't start fights about Hillary Clinton or George Bush or anyone else. Just smile and laugh about it, and if the person you're talking to insists on saying provocative things, change the subject.

If the person persists, say you have work to do and, with a smile, go on to something else.

10. Make whatever points you need to make in a hurry, and then leave.

Don't feel your time and your conversation partner's time have no value. Time is everything in life, and you oblige people by saving their time.

In a job interview, for example, make whatever points -- always complimentary -- you care to make, answer questions, and then leave. But leave with a smile and a firm handshake.

You'd be amazed at how many people don't know any of these rules. If you do, you're way ahead of the game.

Do You Have What It Takes to Run a Home-Based Business?

2007-04-16T23:04:00.000+05:30

By AllBusiness.com

Yes, you're eager to put the commute and the office politics behind you and finally bring your brilliant idea to fruition. It sounds like a dream come true, but home-based business ownership is not for everyone. Before you leave the workaday world and its steady paycheck, you need to determine if you have what it takes to make it as a home-based entrepreneur.

Here are 10 characteristics of successful home-based business owners that will help you to determine if you have the right personality traits, experiences, and values to make a go of it -- before you invest your valuable time, energy, and financial resources.

Confidence. Home-based business owners need confidence to pull through tough times. You have to be positive, focused, dedicated, and you must truly believe that your venture will be successful.
Entrepreneurial spirit. Most entrepreneurs discover their affinity for making money at an early age -- launching a babysitting empire at age 12, selling lemonade, delivering newspapers, or working after-school jobs. If you have what it takes to run a successful home-based business, you know that the harder you work, the more likely you are to succeed.
Vision. If you are to succeed, you need to be able to see the future. You don't need to be prescient, but you must be able to predict trends in your industry and to evolve to meet new needs. You must also be able to picture your business as a successful enterprise.
A maverick mentality. Many successful entrepreneurs couldn't hack it in corporate America; they cannot fully realize their vision while working as a cog in a larger machine. Of course, the mere fact that you don't like working for someone else isn't enough to guarantee your success; successful mavericks can approach their endeavors from an entirely different and inimitable perspective.
Preparation. Are you really ready to strike out on your own? Do you have a small nest egg, inheritance, or retirement income to live on until you get the business going? Have you built up a network of contacts and possible customers through your previous lines of work or will you be starting from scratch? The answers to these questions will help to guide your decision and subsequent progress.
Discipline. You have to work even when you don't want to -- and without someone to look over your shoulder. Sometimes you will have to force yourself to choose work over fun, a boring task over a more satisfying one, or a sales call that frightens you over one you can make without breaking a sweat.
Focus. You have to stay focused when telemarketers call, when neighbors show up at the door, when laundry and dishes beckon, when and your children demand attention. As a successful home-based business owner, you have to master the art of multitasking and learn to stay focused on the task at hand.
The ability to work alone. Home-based entrepreneurs are the ultimate self-starters. They don't need to be energized by frequent communication during the workday. If you are someone who takes frequent breaks to chat with coworkers or friends, a home-based business may not be for you.
Courage. To start your own business is a huge risk; to go it alone is even more so. You will face rejection and will have to live without a steady paycheck. But if you can make it through these trials, you'll be rewarded for your hard work.

One Solution to Cauvery Problem!

2007-04-16T11:56:00.000+05:30

Let's be one in doing this with faith:

Let's all pray with faith that Karnataka will get sufficient rains, and they will have enough water to release to Tamilnadu. Let's have faith in the rain god, and the rain god will solve the problem.

-Meganathan, a farmer from Tamilnadu.

Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs

2007-04-12T11:58:00.000+05:30

Ten Tips on Career Advancement

2007-04-12T00:37:00.000+05:30

By AllBusiness.com

Many career experts agree that the best time to look for a new job is while comfortably in your old one. If you're starting to feel unchallenged in your present position, you may be ready for a promotion to the next level. If there aren't many career advancement opportunities where you work, the best next job may be waiting for you elsewhere.

Nowadays, it's up to you to take control of your professional future and make sure you are progressing wisely down the right career path. Here are 10 proven strategies to help you get started:

Talk to your boss. Sit down and have a very direct and pointed conversation with your boss about your future in the company. Stress that you want your job performance to meet the company's goals. Share your own career goals with him or her. Your boss will respect this display of confidence and maturity.
Ask for more. Volunteering to help out other departments or teams -- or simply asking for more responsibilities -- increases your value within the organization. Asking for additional work shows an interest and desire to help your department and company to succeed. It also puts a spotlight on your value to the business.
Volunteer for boards. If you have your career set on something beyond what you are doing in your present position, seek out opportunities to volunteer or serve on advisory boards, where you can build a reputation as someone who is passionate and dedicated to your particular industry.
Sharpen your people skills. Having strong interpersonal skills plays a crucial role in gaining the respect of your boss and coworkers, as well as attracting the notice of outside influencers who might open new doors of opportunity for you. Be friendly, outgoing, and personable. Listen carefully to people and practice being a clear, effective communicator.
Be innovative. Never be afraid to think outside of the box and put your business acumen to work. Stay on the lookout for creative solutions to problems that will make you -- and your boss -- look good.
Find a mentor. Develop mentoring relationships, either inside or outside the company. Recent studies have shown that four out of five promotions are influenced by a mentor higher up in the company. Mentors are also great sources of information and career guidance.
Sell yourself. Learn the fine art of self-promotion. If you have had major accomplishments or created successful programs, make sure people know about it -- especially those in influential positions who could help you advance professionally. Let it be known that you are seeking a promotion or the next step up in your career.
Keep learning. A proven way to advance in your career is to be continually acquiring new knowledge. Stay on top of trends or developments in your field and make sure that your current rÃ©sumÃ© reflects the needed skills.
Network. Strengthen your personal network by joining professional organizations, attending industry conferences, and even volunteering. The more people who are aware of your strengths and abilities, the better your chances of hearing about any new opportunities that might arise.
Build your reputation. In business, your reputation is the most valuable thing you own. Be known for being dependable, professional, and cooperative. Act and look the part by dressing professionally. Make a name for yourself by attending conferences, delivering speeches, or writing articles.

Shortcuts to Success

2007-04-09T15:28:00.000+05:30

PLAN while others are playing.
STUDY while others are sleeping.
DECIDE while others are delaying.
PREPARE while others are daydreaming.
BEGIN while others are procrastinating.
WORK while others are wishing.
SAVE while others are wasting.
LISTEN while others are talking.
SMILE while others are frowning.
COMMEND while others are criticizing.
PERSIST while others are quitting.

- Anonymous

Five lessons from a Pencil

2007-04-03T11:03:00.000+05:30

First: Pencil tells you that everything you do will always leave a mark.

Second: You can always correct the mistakes you make.

Third: What is important is inside you, and not outside you.

Fourth: In life you will undergo painful sharpening that will make you a better, in what you do.

Fifth: To be the best you can be, you should allow yourself to be held and guided by the hand that holds you!

-Anonymous

PEACE

2007-04-01T16:46:00.000+05:30

Become aware of your original qualities. Imagine that nothing exists outside the room. You feel completely insulated from the outside world and free to explore your inner world. Turn all attention inward, concentrating on thought energy at the center of the forehead. Feel a sense of detachment from the physical body and surroundings. Become aware of the stillness around you and within you. A feeling of natural peacefulness steals over you. Waves of peace gently wash over you, removing any restlessness and tension from your mind. Concentrate on this feeling of deep peace. Just peace. Peace is your true state of being.Your mind becomes very calm and clear. Sit for a while enjoying this feeling of calmness and serenity.

You are a peaceful person.The original nature of every human being is peace. Return to the moment of birth. What were you then? Just a living being, a being who does not think, who does not feel the expansion of family, religion, nationality. You were at complete rest. Relax. You are in complete silence. Silence is creation of positive powerful thoughts. Silence gives rest to the mind and this means giving rest to the body. Sometimes rest is the only medicine needed. A man would like to take rest after continuous running; similarly man’s mind requires rest from continuous thoughts. We need to check the speed of our thoughts and its breaking system otherwise we may meet with an accident. Silence is not mere absence of sound, but stillness of mind. If feasible, embrace silence as it gives rise to valuable and eternal thoughts.

He who seeks peace must look for it within himself. Spend some time with yourself. It is only when you love for yourself that you forgive yourself. Mistakes are caused by lack of attention, and then there is tension.We learn from our success, but we really learn from our mistakes. To regret deeply is to start afresh. If you miss an opportunity, don’t cloud your eyes with tears; keep your visions clear so that you will not miss the next one. When one door closes, another door opens. But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which opened for us.

You can experience lightness when each thought of yours is special. You are a special person. Nobody can play your role, better than you. Be light by checking and changing at the same time. If through some error, yesterday was lost in grief, don’t lose today by keeping it in your memory. Your lightness lies in your ability to forget the past and enjoy the present. To taste the sweetness of life, you must have the power to forget the past. If you think high, you feel heavy & burdened. Consider your critics as your well wishers. By describing your weaknesses and drawbacks they are acting as a psychotherapist without charging fees. You can have good wishes for everyone when you consider the people who put obstacles in your way as your teachers.

Forgive all people who have created hurdles in your life and made it more difficult to live. Unless you take this positive step you won’t be able to forget all those unhappy and painful incidents.To tolerate someone else’s mistake is one thing; to forgive them is even greater. Hate the sin, not the sinner. Good feelings towards others improve relationships. If some one speaks with anger, pour the soothing waters of love on the fire. Use the weapon of knowledge instead of using anger, which is the weapon of ignorance. If you wanted and didn’t get in spite of your handsome efforts then, may be that is of no use to you. Become free from obstacles by finishing wasteful questions.

Lightness make you to fly if you let the waste to go. The more you try to guess, the less you are at rest. Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer. You may not be knowing the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. Success comes from calmness of the mind. It is a cold iron, which cuts and bends hot iron. Calmness and tolerance act like air-conditioning in a room; they increase man’s efficiency. To stay peaceful, you need compassion and strength. Freedom starts in the mind not by cutting ropes.

You can truly experience freedom when you are free from weakness.To be really independent means not even to lean on excuses. If there is turmoil internally, then everything outside seems confused. Often postponement of actions causes lapse of concentration. No matter how far you have gone on a wrong road, turn back. If your direction is right, you don’t have to look at your watch. Simplicity in life leads to peace. Gandhiji told the British “the more times you put me in the jail, the more powerful I become” through the power of silence. You cannot make a fool of the one who keeps cool.The way to make each and every task easy is to consider it to be easy.

Feel free while interacting with others. Good relations make us light. Each person is special. If you always compare with others you may suffer either with inferiority or superiority complex, both of which are harmful. To maintain peace of mind, use your eyes, ears & mouth with care. Your eyes deceive you most. Control them. An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. If man can’t find peace within himself, can there be peace in the world? For war, one side is enough but for peace you need two. Wars are born in the minds of men, not in the battlefields. With science many things are possible but with silence nothing is impossible.

If you consider all your actions are for God, then every task becomes a pleasure to perform. Never disclose your weakness to anyone except God.To forget troubles remember God. Whatever you do, surrender the result to God. Have a peaceful day.

Compilation:
VVN Satya Suresh, Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga Center, Hyderabad