The Seeds !

Welcome to 58^th Monday Musings:

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A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business..

Instead of choosing one of his Directors or his children, he decided to do something different. He called all the young executives in his company together.

He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO.

I have decided to choose one of you..

"The young executives were Shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each one of you a SEED today - one very special SEED... I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO."

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed.

He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed. Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.

Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.

Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing.

By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by -- still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however.

He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - He so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection.

Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sick to his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right. He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful -- in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.

Jim just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the CEO. "Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!"

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him to the front. Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!"

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed - Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, "Behold your next Chief Executive Officer!

His name is Jim!"

Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed.

"How could he be the new CEO?" the others said.

Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you.

Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive Officer!"

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Moral of the story :

·       If you plant honesty, you will reap trust

·       If you plant goodness, you will reap friends

·       If you plant humility, you will reap greatness

·       If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment

·       If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective

·       If you plant hard work, you will reap success

·       If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation

·       If you plant faith in God, you will reap a harvest

So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later !

"Whatever You Give To Life, Life Gives You Back"

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh

Winds of forgiveness !

Welcome to 57^th Monday Musings:

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A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert During some point of the Journey they had an Argument, and one friend slapped the other one In the face.

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything,

He wrote in the sand:

Today my best friend slapped me in the face .

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning,

He wrote on a stone:

Today my best friend saved my life.

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?"

The other friend replied  "When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away.

But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in stone!!!

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.

Moral of the story :

Happiness is not something you find, it's something you create , Life Is Too Short To Waste Time Hating Anyone.

Do not value the THINGS you have in your life. But value WHO you have in your life!

Value your good friends, wish you a happy Friendship week !

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh

The 99 Club !

Welcome to 56^th Monday Musings:

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Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content.

One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked.

This fascinated the King; why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy.

The King asked the servant, "Why are you so happy?"

The man replied, "Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies."

The king was not satisfied with that reply.

Later in the day, he sought the advice of his most trusted advisor.

After hearing the King's woes and the servant's story,

The advisor said, "Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club."

"The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?" the King inquired.

The advisor replied, "Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep."

When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When he opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy... So many gold coins!

He began to count them.

After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were 99 coins. He wondered, "What could've happened to that last gold coin?

Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!"

He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive.

Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection.

From that day, the servant's life was changed. He was overworked, horribly grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin.

He stopped singing while he worked.

Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought his advisor's help, the advisor said, "Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club."

He continued,

"The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are never content, because they're always yearning and striving for that extra 1 telling to themselves: "Let me get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life."

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Moral of the story :

We can be happy, even with very little in our lives, but the minute we're given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, we hurt the people around us; all these as a price for our growing needs and desires.

That's what joining The 99 Club is all about..

Don’t leave your life behind to just to make it better, It already is better, live it fullest J

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh

Never Ever Give Up !

Welcome to 55^th Monday Musings:

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On July 4, 1952, Florence Chadwick was on her way to becoming the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel.

She had already conquered the English Channel.

The world was watching. Chadwick fought the dense fog, bone-chilling cold and many times, the sharks.

She was striving to reach the shore but every time she looked through her goggles, all she could see was the dense fog.

Unable to see the shore, she gave up.

Chadwick was disappointed when she found out that she was only half a mile from the coast.

She quit, not because she was a quitter but because her goal was not in sight anywhere.

The elements didn't stop her.

She said, "I'm not making excuses. If only I had seen the land, I could have made it."

Two months later, she went back and swam the Catalina Channel. This time, in spite of the bad weather, she had her goal in mind and not only accomplished it but beat the men's record by two hours.

Moral of the story :

Never Ever Give Up and always Keep your goals in mind.

Also, It is more important that we should take failure with the right perspective, and we should not give up on failure.

Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, stated, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.  Each failure moved him closer to success, He Never Gave Up as it eliminated what would not work.  It was a lot like my experience with the lights.

The Only thing we should give up is the habit of Giving up, If you never give up, you'll be successful.

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh

The Story of a Lost Watch !

Welcome to 54^th Monday Musings:

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Once there was a farmer who lost his watch in the barn.

It wasn't an ordinary watch because had had so much sentimental values for that watch.

After searching in the hay for a long time he gave up and asked the help of a group of children playing outside. He promised them that whoever would find it would get a very nice reward.

Hearing this, the children rushed to the barn, went through the entire stacks of hay, but couldn’t find the watch.  Just when the farmer was about to give up looking for his watch, a little boy asked him to be give him some more time.

The farmer looked at him and thought, "Why not? After all, this kid looks pretty sincere."

So, the farmer sent the little boy back to the barn.

After a while the little boy came out with the watch in his hand!

The farmer so surprised and very happy.

He asked the boy how did he find it while all others failed.

The boy replied, "I did nothing but sit in the barn and listen.

In the quietness, I heard the ticking of the watch and just looked for it in that direction

Moral of the story :

A peaceful mind can think better than a stormy mind.

You get peace of mind not by thinking about it or imagining it, but by quietening and relaxing the restless mind. Allow a few minutes of silence to your mind every now and then, and see, how good it helps...!

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh

Day Dreaming priest !

Welcome to 53^rd Monday Musings:

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Long time ago there lived a priest who was extremely lazy and poor at the same time. He did not want to do any hard work but used to dream of being rich one day. He got his food by begging for alms. One morning he got a pot of milk as part of the alms. He was extremely delighted and went home with the pot of milk. He boiled the milk, drank some of it and put the remaining milk in a pot. He added slight curds in the pot for converting the milk to curd. He then lay down to sleep.

Soon he started imagining about the pot of curd while he lay asleep. He dreamed that if he could become rich somehow all his miseries would be gone. His thoughts turned to the pot of milk he had set to form curd. He dreamed on; “By morning the pot of milk would set, it would be converted to curd. I would churn the curd and make butter from it. I would heat the butter and make ghee out of it. I will then go to that market and sell that ghee, and make some money. With that money I will buy a hen. The hen will lay may eggs which will hatch and there will be many chicken. These chicken will in turn lay hundreds of eggs and I will soon have a poultry farm of my own.” He kept on imagining.

“I will sell all the hens of my poultry and buy some cows, and open a milk dairy. All the town people will buy milk from me. I will be very rich and soon I shall buy jewels. The king will buy all the jewels from me. I will be so rich that I will be able to marry an exceptionally beautiful girl from a rich family.

Soon I will have a handsome son. If he does any mischief I will be very angry and to teach him a lesson, I will hit him with a big stick.”During this dream, he involuntarily picked up the stick next to his bed and thinking that he was beating his son, raised the stick and hit the pot. The pot of milk broke and he awoke from his day dream.

Moral of the story :

There is no substitute for hard-work, dreams cannot fulfilled without hard-work.

Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves - or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.

If you can dream it, then you can achieve it, And  The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh

Honesty !

Welcome to 52^nd Monday Musings:

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There was a farmer who sold a pound of butter to the baker. One day the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he was getting a pound and he found that he was not. This angered him and he took the farmer to court.

The judge asked the farmer if he was using any measure.

The farmer replied, "your Honor, I am primitive.

I don't have a proper measure, but I do have a scale."

The judge asked, "Then how do you weigh the butter"

The farmer replied "Your Honor, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the baker."

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Moral of the story :

Always be honest in your life, because what goes around always comes around, Walk on the path of honesty no matter how hard it is ! If you have been honest you will feel proud on it, no matter how other will do in their life because

Honesty is very expensive gift,  don’t expect it from cheap people…..

Don’t forget honesty starts with being honest to yourself.

Whenever We take an action, we must ask ourselves this question - Am I giving fair value for the money I hope to make ?

Honesty and dishonesty become a habit, Some people practice dishonesty and can lie with a straight face. Others lie so much that they don't even know what the truth is anymore. But who are they deceiving ? Themselves -- more than anyone else.

Honesty can be put across gently. Some people take pride in being brutally honest. It seems they are getting a bigger kick out of the brutality than the honesty. Choice of words and tact are important. It is Better to  fail with honor than  succeed by fraud

Remember: No legacy is so rich as honesty ~ William Shakespeare

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh