THE MAN WHO GAVE INDIA HER WINGS OF FIRE

Born in a tiny hamlet in TamilNadu,   Is fascinated by the flight of seagulls.   Sells newspapers for his school fees.   Pawns sister’s jewellery for higher studies.   Heads a DRDO prototype project that never took off.   Joins the ISRO, launches ROHINI.   Makes India only the 6th country capable of launching satellites.   In 1981, honored with the Padma Bhushan.   Returns to DRDO as Director.   Launches PRITHVI ballistic missile. Puts India in elite company.   In 1990, awarded the Padma Vibhushan.   In 1997, honored with India’s highest civilian award, the   BHARAT RATNA.     On May 11th, 1998, orchestrates the Pokharan nuclear tests.   And as the ground beneath shook,   So did the rest of the world.   In 2002, takes over as the President of the world’s largest democracy.   Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam.   Vows to transform India into a developed nation by 2020.   Gave a country its Wings of Fire.   And taught an entire nation the Importance of Dreams.   Twitter: MrGladPortBlair

 

SMALL COMMITMENTS FOR BIG CHANGES

Make Small Commitments! Get Big Changes!!!

 

 

“Real and permanent change doesn’t happen by simply resolving to do something. That’s not enough. True change is a slower process. It takes time and self-reflection,” preached persistently an accomplished motivator, Santosh Nair, my superb mentor in the business of helping people.

 

This simple, yet profoundly powerful, advice can gently help you change your life and accelerate your Personal Growth.

 

What’s this got to do with MLM, sales or network marketing? Nothing and everything!!!

 

I’ve been at my learning best ceaselessly ever since I started my career about seventeen odd years ago, and have found it all utterly conducive to my present personal capacities and have always helped me be a cut above the rest in the marathon for success in life. Here’s a synopsis of the simple but pretty potent things that I’ve been learning, for you…

 

Taking Care of You:

 

1. Drink plenty of water.

2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.

3. Eat more fruits and vegetables and eat less that is manufactured in processing plants.

4. Avoid eating food that is handed to you through a window.

5. Live the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy.

6. Play more games.

7. Read more books than you did in 2009.

8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.

9. Sleep for 7 hours.

10. Take a 10-30 minute walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

 

 

Your Outlook:

 

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

2. Don’t have negative thoughts of things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

3. Don’t overdo. Keep your limits.

4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.

6. Dream more while you are awake.

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

8. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind others of their past mistakes.

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

10. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.

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

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

13. Learn a new word every day.

14. Smile and laugh more.

15. You don’t have to win every argument.

 

Your Relationships:

 

1. Call your family often.

2. Each day give something good to others.

3. Forgive everyone for everything.

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

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

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

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

 

Your Life:

 

1. The worst promise you can break is one made to yourself.

2. Do the right thing!

3. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

4. You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.

5. However good or bad a situation is; it will change.

6. The best is yet to come.

7. When you awake alive in the morning, thank God for it!

8. Your Innermost Self is always happy. Follow it.

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

 

 

Keep these rules handy and review them often. Follow them and small, almost imperceptible, changes will accumulate into something big. Your life will change, for sure! Cheers all the way…!!! J

GIVING UP, ALREADY!!!

Giving up, already?

 

Quitting is easy. When things are difficult, most people simply give up. They don’t have the vision to keep going when it gets tough. The unfortunate thing about giving up is that after you give up once, it becomes easier to give up a second time. This can lead to a third time and before you know it, you have made it a habit.

 

You can’t get away from failure and rejection if you want to make something of yourself. This is life, and it happens from time to time. This is where ‘working on your internal communication’ comes in.

 

 

Brush through your history books and you will be served with countless stories of both men and women who knew the importance of perseverance and of the warnings of those who gave up!

 

Did you know that Walt Disney was turned down 302 times before the bank lent him money to build Disneyland? Walt had a vision, and stayed committed to fulfilling it and he made what is today known to be ‘The Happiest Place on Earth’.

 

Colonel Sanders was in his sixties when he decided his social security check wasn’t enough to live on and went to market his great idea. What was it? A chicken recipe that he thought everyone would want. He went from restaurant to restaurant asking everyone if they would use his recipe, and they thought that he was crazy and so was his recipe. Finally, after hundreds of rejections, somebody gave him a nod, and the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was born.

 

When we think of Thomas Alva Edison, did you know that he failed over 9999 times in the process of inventing a light bulb? He said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent, perspiration!” In the beginning Dr. Seuss was rejected by twenty-eight publishers. The publishers considered his books “too outlandish to appeal to children”. In its first attempt to send a rocket to space, NASA failed 20 times. Would you have kept trying after hundreds of failures? Unfortunately, most people wouldn’t.

 

Sometimes, you won’t be able to see what lies ahead. Sometimes you’ll question yourself. Sometimes, you’ll look into the tunnel, and you won’t be able to tell whether you see the sunlight at the other end of the tunnel or a train is coming right toward you. Sometimes you get discouraged and confused when you can’t see the solution. This is all part of the process.

 

If you really want something, the entire universe will conspire for you towards achieving it. But it will take great persistence. Anything that is given consistent attention will grow.

 

 

Michael Jordan once said, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions, I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot…and missed. I have failed over and over again in my life and that’s why… I succeed.

 

Hence, my dear Success-Seeker! In a nutshell, the entire phobia about failure lies in your mind. If you think, you can, you will, but only if you’re ready to sustain your attempts, ‘unconditionally’, at what you really ‘want’.

 

“Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached!”

- Swami Vivekananda

RIGHT TIME TO BE BORN AN INDIAN

“This is the country of tomorrow. Starting today.”

- cover page punch line on Special Report on India brought out by Khaleej Times, Aug 15, 2003.

 

For more than half a century after India gained independence, we tried to do things in a manner that failed to produce the desired results. But things have suddenly changed. There is a lot that needs to be done. But there is a lot that has started to happen.

 

 

The factors responsible for the upsurge in the Indian fortune have been:

1.   Exposing Indian industry to global competition and doing away with licensing provisions,

2.   Allowing industries like software to operate with minimum legal hassles,

3.   Easy availability of low-interest consumer credit coupled with stringent recovery procedure,

4.   Rising aspirations of the masses due to media explosion.

 

 Paradoxically, factors like consumerism, competition and ambition have done what talks on spirituality, Swadeshi and tradition could not. Yet ‘some people’ just don’t want to change. They continue to behave in a manner that serves their purpose. They take shelter of relative concepts like religion, morality and patriotism. They try to instill fear of the future in the minds of the younger generation.

 

We, my dear friends, can never achieve perfection. Anything pursued to an illogical proportion, turns negative. This does not mean we should not strive for perfection. This simply means that we must learn the art of balancing.

 

What is it that we are missing? What is it that needs to be corrected? There seems to be an attitude problem, as if we cannot shake ourselves out of a mindset of limited achievement.

– APJ Abdul Kalam.

 

Materialism has many negative aspects. But we have to use our judgment and choose between pursuing bread and pursuing ‘Mandir/Masjid’ – when about one-fourth of the population sleeps hungry. Youngsters today may not worship the goddess Lakshmi everyday, but they honestly and aggressively pursue money. They may not be interested in gifts and charities. They are more interested in earnings.

 

 

After having earned their fortune, they don’t mind attending an ‘Art of Living’ session to gain peace of mind. At least, now, they can afford to be free from the thought of money.

 

We are almost there as global leaders in the export of spirituality. Since we have immense knowledge base in this field, some of it will go in taking care of our own youngsters. Teach them the values of integrity and honesty, train them in channelizing their youthful energy in the right direction and allow them to pursue their dreams vigorously.

 

Therein lays the hope for India – in the ambition, dreams and aspirations of the youngsters, who are not afraid of the competition. Rather, they are making the competition afraid of them, as umpteen numbers of glaring examples that our countrymen and women produce on a regular basis in multifarious fields, demonstrate.

 

Hardly anyone in the world would have imagined that the outstandingly worthy sons and daughters of Mother India, which was mercilessly plundered and exploited by the oppressive rule of the foreigners for centuries together, would be among the coveted list of the Top Ten Richest Persons on earth, over barely half a century after independence.

 

 

If there ever was a right time to be born an Indian, it is now! God willing, we shall live to see India as a global economic superpower by the year 2020.

 

But hope alone is not enough. Actions are necessary. There is no worse crime than letting an opportunity go by, unexploited.  If we do that, future generations will not forgive us.

 

A great nation cannot abandon its responsibilities. Responsibilities abandoned today return as more acute crises tomorrow.

– Gerald Ford.

 

Twitter: MrGladPortBlair

THE COVETED SECRET OF GOOD LEADERSHIP

The Leadership Secret - Knowledge of Theory

 

The man at the top is usually someone who has been in the habit of going to the bottom of things. – Anonymous.

 

 

It’s been quite some time since I last shared a little secret of success at ‘Leadership’ with you, my dear friends! Hence, let me talk about the same with you today. It’s the sine-qua-non of being a good leader to go into the details of any given situation in order to comprehend the same to the T. An average person is not interested in going into the details of a situation. So he argues that he is interested only in practical knowledge. Any effort to educate such a person about “why” and “what” of a situation is ridiculed and labeled as boring theory.

 

It is true that theory alone is not enough. Practice is necessary. Knowing “how to….” is essential for the execution of a job. However, the practice will not be perfect without theoretical knowledge. Moreover, learning a skill is easier compared to decision-making. Visionary people know ‘why’ something must be done and they only decide ‘what’ needs to be done. Average people feel satisfied with learning a skill and think it to be enough.

 

Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways doesn’t probably know how to fly an aircraft but he owns the company.

 

Remember: In order to grow in your career, apart from learning technical skills, you must also have a vision, an analytical mind, decision-making abilities and a definite involvement in the affairs of the organization you belong to. You must be a thinker and you must learn the ‘whys’ and ‘what’s’ too.

 

The one who knows ‘how’

Shall always have a job,

But the one who knows ‘why’

Will be his BOSS.

 

THOUGHT     You say “I think” ten times a day Or fifteen times, or twenty And even more. Well, anyway You sure repeat it plenty. But pause and ponder half a wink And start your brain-cells clinking; “I think” you say, but do you think Or only thinking you’re thinking?   How often is the thing you’ve thought Out of yourself created And not a dictum you’ve been taught And simply imitated? Into a revive you sink And like an owl you’re blinking, But do you actually think, Or only Think you’re thinking?   “I think” you say – and ladle out Some fusty old opinion That probably was known about In Pharaoh’s dominion. Do new ideas ever slink Into your cranium’s chinking? I wonder – do you really think Or only think you’re thinking?   Traditions, customs, fill your head And some of them have virtue, But most of them have long been dead They fester there and hurt you. Son, chuck that clutter in the drink, Wake up – don’t sit there blinking! Wake up! And then perhaps you’ll think And not just think you’re thinking!     - Berton Braley (As quoted in the Forbes Book of Business Quotations)

PLEASE INFECT ME!

Please Infect Me!

Smiling is infectious; You catch it like the flu, When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too.   I passed around the corner and Someone saw my grin When he smiled I realized I’d Passed it on to him.   I thought about that smile and Then I realized its worth, A single smile, just like mine, could travel round the earth.   So if you feel a smile begin, Don’t try to contain it, Let’s start an epidemic, quick, And get the world infected! Twitter: MrGladPortBlair