Listen to Understand !

Welcome to 97^th Monday Musings:

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A teacher teaching Mathematics to seven-year-old Emily

and asked her, "If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?

"Within a few seconds Emily replied confidently, "Four!"

The dismayed teacher was expecting an effortless correct answer (three).

She was disappointed. "Maybe the child did not listen properly," she thought.

She repeated, "Emily, listen carefully. If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?"

Emily had seen the disappointment on her teacher's face.

She calculated again on her fingers. But within her, she was also searching for the answer that will make the teacher happy.

Her search for the answer was not for the correct one, but the one that will make her teacher happy.

This time hesitatingly she replied, "Four!"

The disappointment stayed on the teacher's face. She remembered that Emily liked strawberries.

She thought maybe She doesn't like apples and that is making her lose focus.

This time with an exaggerated excitement and twinkling in her eyes she asked, "If I give you one strawberry and one strawberry and one strawberry, then how many you will have?"

Seeing the teacher happy, young Emily calculated on her fingers again.

There was no pressure on her, but a little on the teacher. She wanted her new approach to succeed.

With a hesitating smile young Emily enquired, "Three?"

The teacher now had a victorious smile. Her approach had succeeded. She wanted to congratulate herself.

But one last thing remained.

Once again she asked her, "Now if I give you one apple and one apple and one more apple how many will you have?"

Promptly Emily answered, "Four!"

The teacher was aghast. "How Emily, how?" she demanded in a little stern and irritated voice.

In a voice that was low and hesitating young Emily replied, "Because I already have one apple in my bag."

Moral of the story :

When someone gives you an answer that is different from what you expect don't think they are wrong.

There may be an perspective that you have not understood at all. You will have to listen and understand, but never listen with a predetermined notion.

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand. Most people listen with the intent to reply.

Listen to the sound

Understand the situation

Act after making use of the intuition and the brain

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh

Every success story is also a story of great failure !

Welcome to 96^th Monday Musings:

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Failure is the highway to success !

Tom Watson Sr. said, "If you want to succeed, double your failure rate."

If you study history, you will find that all stories of success are also stories of great failures. But people don't see the failures.

They only see one side of the picture and they say that person got lucky: "He must have been at the right place at the right time."

Let me share someone's life history with you.

This was a man

·         Who failed in business at the age of 21 ,

·         He was defeated in a legislative race at age 22;

·         failed again in business at age 24;

·         overcame the death of his sweetheart at age 26;

·         Had a nervous breakdown at age 27;

·         lost a congressional race at age 34;

·         lost a senatorial race at age 45;

·         Failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47;

·         lost a senatorial race at age 49;

…and was elected president of the United States at age 52.This man was “Abraham Lincoln”.

Would you call him a failure? He could have quit. But to Abraham Lincoln, defeat was a detour and not a dead end.

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In 1913, Lee De Forest, inventor of the triodes tube, was charged by the district attorney for using fraudulent means to mislead the public into buying stocks of his company by claiming that he could transmit the human voice across the Atlantic. He was publicly humiliated. Can you imagine where we would be without his invention?

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As a young cartoonist, Walt Disney faced many rejections from newspaper editors, who said he had no talent. One day a minister at a church hired him to draw some cartoons. Disney was working out of a small mouse­ infested shed near the church. After seeing a small mouse, he was inspired. That was the start of Mickey Mouse.

Successful people don't do great things, they only do small things in a great way.

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One day a partially deaf four year old kid came home with a note in his pocket from his teacher, "Your Tommy is too stupid to learn, get him out of the school." His mother read the note and answered, "My Tommy is not stupid to learn, I will teach him myself." And that Tommy grew up to be the great Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison had only three months of formal schooling and he was partially deaf.

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Henry Ford forgot to put the reverse gear in the first car he made.

Moral of the story :

Do you consider these people failures? They succeeded in spite of problems, not in the absence of them. But to the outside world, it appears as though they just got lucky.

The list goes on

Steven Spielberg: He applied and was denied two times to the prestigious University of Southern California film school. Instead he went to Cal State University in Long Beach.

Michael Jordan: He’s famous for being cut from his high school basketball team. He turned out to be the greatest basketball player but never let failure deter him. I love this quote

"I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games.

On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed.

I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

J.K Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, The author didn't magically become richer than the Queen of England overnight, Twelve publishers rejected the manuscript! A year later she was given the green light by Barry Cunningham from Bloomsbury, who agreed to publish the book but insisted she get a day job cause there was no money in children’s books.

What if she stopped at the first rejection? The fifth? Or the tenth?

All success stories are stories of great failures. The only difference is that every time they failed, they bounced back. This is called failing forward, rather than backward. You learn and move forward. Learn from your failure and keep moving.

In 1914, Thomas Edison, at age 67, lost his factory, which was worth a few million dollars, to fire. It had very little insurance. No longer a young man, Edison watched his lifetime effort go up in smoke and said, "There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burnt up. Thank God we can start anew."  In spite of disaster, three weeks later, he invented the phonograph. What an attitude !

If you think

if you think you are beaten, you are.

If you think you dare not, you don't!

If you like to win, but think you can't,

It's almost a cinch you won't.

you think you'll lose, you're lost;

For out in the world we find

Success begins with a fellow's will;

It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,

You've got to think high to rise,

You've got to be sure of yourself before

You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go

To the stronger and faster man,

But sooner or later the man who wins

Is the man who thinks he can

Whenever you face tough time don’t let it distract you from your success, just don’t give up,  because “Tough Times Don't Last Tough People Do”

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh

Life is meaningless without a friend !

Welcome to 95^th Monday Musings and Wish you a Happy Friendship Week:

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This is a story of Two inseparable friends, Sam and Jason.

One day they met with an accident on their way to Boston City.

The following morning, Jason woke up blind and Sam was still unconscious.

Dr. Berkeley was standing at his bedside looking at his health chart and medications with a thoughtful expression on his face.

When he saw Sam awake, he beamed at him and asked." How are you feeling today Sam?"

Sam tried to put up a brave face and smiled back saying, "absolutely wonderful Doctor.

I am very grateful for all that you have done for me. Sam Said

"Dr. Berkeley was moved at Sam's deed. All that he could say was, "You are a very brave man Sam and God will make it up to you in one way or another".

While he was moving on to the next patient, Sam called back at him almost pleading, "promise me you won't tell Jason anything".

"You know I won't do that. Trust me." and walked away.

"Thank you " whispered Sam. He smiled and looked up in prayer " I hope I live up to your ideas...please give me the strength to be able to go through this……………..Amen"

Months later

When Jason had recuperated considerably, he stopped hanging around with Sam. He felt discouraged and embarrassed to spend time with a disabled person like Sam.

Sam was lonely and disheartened ,since he didn't have anybody else other than Jason to count on.

Things went from bad to worse.

And one day Sam died in despair.

When Jason was called on his burial, he found a letter waiting for him.

Dr. Berkeley gave it to him with an expressionless face and said "This is for you Jason. Sam had asked me to give it to you when he was gone".

In the letter he had said:

"Dear Jason,

I have kept my promise in the end to lend you my eyes if anything had happened to them.

Now there is nothing more than I can ask from God, than the fact ,that will see the world through my eyes.

You will always be my best friend........

Sam".

When he had finished reading Dr. Berkeley said " I had promised Sam to keep his sacrifice he made a secret from you. But now I wish I didn't stick it Because I don't think It was worthy it" .

All that was left for Jason while he stood there was tears of regret and memories of Sam for the rest of his life .

Moral of the story :

No matter what If we make a friend, we should stick by him till the end. Life is meaningless without a friend.

Millions of people but only few are made to be the real friends....

and if you found them keep them

unless you were just playing nice....

friendship does not have a contract

to breach but memories of laughter

and moments of sharing should diminish

one single mistake....

friendship goes through thick and thin

as they said....

unless again you are not real and just playing nice ...

life's too short to be so difficult

with the people who took you as one of the best buddy ever met....

just to lose them just like that....

treasure them like they treasure you....

I know above story is a little sad story ! so just on humor side ! another story J

Moral: We should have friends everywhere for not only sharing joyful moments but for support in rainy days also .

Make it a great & Friendship filled Week!

Shailesh

Two Brothers !

Welcome to 94^th Monday Musings:

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This is a story of two brothers.

One was a drug addict and a drunkard who frequently beat up his family.

The other one was a very successful businessman who was respected in society and had a wonderful family.

Some people wanted to find out why two brothers from the same parents, brought up in the same environment, could be so different.

The first one was asked, "How come you do what you do? You are a drug addict, a drunk, and you beat your family. What motivates you?"

He said, "My father."

They asked, "What about your father?"

The reply was, "My father was a drug addict, a drunk and he beat his family. What do you expect me to be? That is what I am."

They went to the brother who was doing everything right and asked him the same question. "How come you are doing everything right ? What is your source of motivation?"

And guess what he said? "My father”.

“When I was a little boy, I used to see my dad drunk and doing all the wrong things. I made up my mind, that is not what I wanted to be."

Both were deriving their strength and motivation from the same source, but one was using it negatively and the other positively....

Moral of the story :

Negative motivation brings the desire to take the easier way which ends up being the tougher way.

Remember: The greatest motivator is belief. We have to inculcate in ourselves the belief that we are responsible for our actions and behavior. When people accept responsibility, everything improves: quality, productivity, relationships and teamwork

In our life we see many things every day and we can draw either positive motivation or negative motivation from it,  we need to decide wisely and choose what is right !

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh

Old clock & a new clock !

Welcome to 93^rd Monday Musings:

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There was an Old Church. It was more than 100 years old. While roaming around the Church building, Priest thought to do some renovation in the church to make it more attractive. With the help of the church committee, they did many things like bought new carpets, painted the walls, put new sealing etc.

As part of the renovation, the priest thought to change the old clock which is powered by key and making noise with a brand new electronic clock. But the priest decided to keep the New clock beside the old clock for the time being as many old people are so much attached to the old clock.

The new clock was very happily and smoothly jumping each second with "tick" "tick" "tick" "tick" sound. There was power and enthusiasm in his jumping.

At the same time the old clock with very difficulty and with the noise of wheels also tried to move along with the new clock.

In the beginning the new clock was very proud and was reluctant to speak to the Old clock. But after some time to burn the boredom, the new clock decided to talk to the old clock.

During the conversation, the new clock asked the old clock "How long have you been here?"

to that the old clock replied that more than 100 years.

Hearing the answer, the new clock fell into thoughts. It tried to calculate the jumps to make in order to complete the 100 years. For one minute 60 jumps, for one hour 3600 jumps, for one day 86400 jumps, for one month 2592000 jumps, for one year 31536000 jumps, for 100 years 3153600000 jumps.

Shortly after the calculation, the new clock stopped jumping the seconds. The old clock, noticing the silence of the new clock, asked the reason for the silence.

To that the new clock replied "I was calculating the jumps you have competed last 100 years. You have dome millions of jumps. I don't think I would be able to complete that much jumps. Thinking about all that jumps, I am stressed and cannot move. I am helpless and cannot jump one second. While thinking about it I had a heart attack."

The old clock knowing the situation, asked one question. "I know your situation, but I would like to ask you one question, Can you jump one second?"

To that the new clock replied. "It is very easy, I can easily jump one second. It is very easy.

“The Old clock replied "Do that."

The old clock continued, Just think about one second at a time and jump.

Don't think about 100 years, just think about one second. The new clock happily started to jump one second at a time.

Moral of the story :

Don't think about all the things to be done in a lifetime. Just think about the next moment. Just think about one day at a time. It will help us to continue our journey. Don't get depressed or discouraged.

One step at a time will lead you to the destination.

Don't give up!!!! Don't be a quitter!!, Just live the moment, live for today and plan for tomorrow.

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh

Only one Move !

Welcome to 92^nd Monday Musings:

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A 10-year-old boy decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.

The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, but he couldn’t understand why, after three months of training the master had taught him only one move.

The boy finally said, "Master, Shouldn't I be learning more moves?"

"This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know," the Master replied.

Not quite understanding, but believing in his Master, the boy kept training. Several months later, the master took the boy to his first tournament.

Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches.

The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals.

This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be over-matched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out.

He was about to stop the match when the Master intervened. "No, Let him continue."

Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament.

He was the champion. On the way home, the boy and Master reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind.

Master, "how did I win the tournament with only one move?"

"You won for two reasons," the master answered.

1)      You've almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo.

2)      The only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm.

The boy’s biggest weakness had become his biggest strength.

Moral of the story :

Sometimes we feel that we have certain weaknesses and we blame God, the circumstances or ourselves for it but we never know that our weaknesses can become our strengths one day.

Each of us is special and important, so never think you have any weakness, never think of pride or pain, just live your life to its fullest and extract the best out of it!

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh

Push your way out of the comfort zone !

Welcome to 91^st Monday Musings:

This week I will continue from my previous week’s  Monday Musings…

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After an initial hard phase, Henry Ford's parents started doing well in America and they settled on a farm in Dearborn.

For young Henry, this meant that he need not struggle like his parents.

He could settle comfortably well in his father's farm. However, Henry chose a tougher path. When he was 16 years, he left the farm, and proceeded to Detroit, where after much struggle he found work as a mechanic's apprentice

His dream break followed soon, in the form of an offer as an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company, where he would eventually climb the ladder to be the chief engineer.

Henry could have again very well settled into his comfort zone. He decided to break the mould this time again. He realized that there was a huge opportunity, if he could build a car which the masses of America could afford, since till then a car was a luxury reserved for the richest class.

He set his eyes on building such a car and toiled relentlessly towards it in a shed at the backyard of his family home. Most people, including his idol Thomas Alva Edison, thought that Henry should settle down in his job instead of wasting his time. But Henry was determined not to contain himself inside his comfort zone, but focused on the opportunity that he had carved for himself.

Leaders like Henry Ford are almost always defined by a continuous search for new opportunities. They are constantly striving to redefine the status quo. But this is easier said than done. Because 

people tend to be happy with their current lives, they definitely do not want to disturb it. Even the most adventurous sailor needs and feels at home in a particular attitude and lifestyle.

People build comfort zones for themselves in their lives and work places. They populate these comfort zones with known events and known people. Breaking out would mean a certain amount of physical and emotional pain. Embracing a new situation would mean loss of these comfort zones. And in this process, they end up ignoring opportunities around them, though they recognize them as important.

Moral of the story :

Potential leaders normally ignore valuable opportunities for one or more of three reasons.

1. People are faced with opportunities they start doubting their capabilities and resources to take charge of the opportunity. They start doubting themselves.
2. They start feeling insecure about the risks surrounding the opportunity and choose to remain in their comfort zones instead.
3. And third, they convince themselves that there would be grander opportunities tomorrow, when they would be better prepared and equipped.

Unfortunately, that tomorrow never comes. As people choose to ignore opportunities, their confidence levels start dipping. They start feeling pessimistic about events around them, doubting their abilities and that of the people around them.

Little do they realize that, if they utilized the opportunities that came their way, the more they would have them. And the more courage they would have to discover more of them.

I’m not really a fan of being out of my comfort zone but I’m amazed how some the best things in life happen when I step out into the open, follow my heart and let God lead the way.  So Wriggle out of your comfort zone and push open that door now! Because twice the amount of opportunities will knock at your door, if you open the door the first time around.

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh