A Wise Camel

A mother and a baby camel were lazing around and suddenly the baby camel asked…

Baby: Mother, mother may I ask you some questions?

Mother: Sure! Why son is there something bothering you?

Baby: Why do camels have humps?

Mother: Well, son, we are desert animals, we need the humps to store water and we are known to survive without water

Baby: Okay, then why are our legs long and our feet rounded?

Mother: Son, obviously they are meant for walking in the desert, you know with these legs I can move around the desert better than anyone does! Said the mother proudly

Baby: Okay, then why are our eyelashes long? Sometimes it bother my sight

Mother: My son, those long thick eyelashes are your protective cover. They help to protect your eyes from the desert sand and wind. Said mother camel with eyes rimming with pride…….

Baby: I see. So the hump is to store water when we are in the desert, the legs are for walking through the desert and these eyelashes protect my eyes from the desert. Then what the hell are we doing here in the zzzoooooooo!

MORAL OF THE STORY IS: “Skills, knowledge, abilities and experiences are only useful if you are at the right place”

Warren Buffet

There was a one hour interview on CNBC recently with Warren Buffet, the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity.

Here are some very interesting aspects of his life:

1. He bought his first share aged 11, and he now regrets that he started too late!

2.. He bought a small farm aged 14, with savings from delivering newspapers.

3.. He still lives in the same small 3-bedroom house in mid-town Omaha that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. Out side of His house does not have a wall or a fence.

4 . He drives his own car, everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.

5. He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.

6.. His company," Berkshire Hathaway", owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis.

He has given his CEO's only two rules.

Rule number 1:" Do not lose any of your shareholder's money".

Rule number 2:" Do not forget-The rule number 1".

7. He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His pass time after he gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch TV.

8. Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet. So he had scheduled his meeting only for "half hour"..

But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for "Ten hours" and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet. 9. Warren Buffet does not carry a 'cell phone', nor has a computer on his desk.

His advice to young people: "Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself and Remember: -

A. Money doesn't create a man; it is the Man who created money.

B. Live your life as simple as you are.

C. Don't do what others say, just listen to them. But," Do what you feel good."

D. Don't go for a brand name; just wear those things in which you feel
comfortable.

E. Don't waste your money on unnecessary things; Just spend on "Those who really are in need".

F. After all it's your life..., so why give the chance to others to rule your life."

A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure

(Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic forum, Philadelphia, March 22, 2008)

Question: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?


Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV 3. Our goal was to put India's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.


By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I
bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.


The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The hole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today." I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.

A Cup Of Coffee

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:

"If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. It is, but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress."

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other's cups.

Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it." So, don't let the cups drive you... enjoy the coffee instead.

Enjoy Life

Posted by ramangaur at Monday, October 11, 2010 | 0 comments  
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Effort Is Important Good Lesson

A giant ship engine failed. The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.

Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"
So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."

The man sent a bill that read:


Tapping with a hammer....... ........ ........ $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap......... ........ ......... $ 9,998.00


Moral of the story is . . . . . . . . .... .. .


"Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference"
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