Rule #1...It's Golden.

I grew up in Trenton, a west Tennessee town of five thousand people. I have wonderful memories of those first eighteen years, and many people in Trenton influenced my life in very positive ways. My football coach, Walter Kilzer, taught me the importance of hard work, discipline, and believing in myself. My history teacher, Fred Culp, is still the funniest person I've ever met. He taught me that a sense of humor, and especially laughing at yourself, can be one of life's greatest blessings.

But my father was my hero. He taught me many things, but at the top of the list, he taught me to treat people with love and respect...to live the Golden Rule. I remember one particular instance of him teaching this "life lesson" as if it were yesterday. Dad owned a furniture store, and I used to dust the furniture every Wednesday after school to earn my allowance. One afternoon I observed my Dad talking to all the customers as they came in...the hardware store owner, the banker, a farmer, a doctor. At the end of the day, just as Dad was closing, the garbage collector came in.

I was ready to go home, and I thought that surely Dad wouldn't spend too much time with him. But I was wrong. Dad greeted him at the door with a big hug and talked with him about his wife and son who had been in a car accident the month before. He empathized, he asked questions, he listened, and he listened some more. I kept looking at the clock, and when the man finally left, I asked, "Dad, why did you spend so much time with him? He's just the garbage collector." Dad then looked at me, locked the front door to the store, and said, "Son, let's talk."

He said, "I'm your father and I tell you lots of stuff as all fathers should, but if you remember nothing else I ever tell you, remember this...treat every human being just the way that you would want to be treated." He said, "I know this is not the first time you've heard it, but I want to make sure it's the first time you truly understand it, because if you had understood, you would never have said what you said." We sat there and talked for another hour about the meaning and the power of the Golden Rule. Dad said, "If you live the Golden Rule everything else in life will usually work itself out, but if you don't, your life probably will be very unhappy and without meaning."

I recently heard someone say, "If you teach your child the Golden Rule, you will have left them an estate of incalculable value." Truer words were never spoken.

What you just read is one of 28 short chapters in The Power of Attitude. It was titled: "Rule #1...It's Golden."

Neck Exercise (-:

I am sure many of us get paid to warm our seats. Jokes aside but I am sure software engineers have to not only sit for hours but also stare at computer for hours. I came across this pic recently and found it very useful.

The original email had a reference to a doctor who used this picture to advise his patients to exercise by just reading this message. No wonder it was effective - no patient came back to him after reading it!! ;-)

Take a look at it yourself and find it out. If you cannot see the full pic - click on it and may be you will be able to view it in Picassa (-:

When to move on from your current job?

So, I have been a loyal employee of X organization for 5. years and 8 months now. This is my second job. At my first job – I joined as a trainee and stayed with them for a reasonable enough time 2 years 1 months

Staying with one organization for long time kind of slows down one’s learning and hence growth as a person. Mind you, I am not talking about climbing up the ladder and getting higher ranks, that comes easy if you stick to one organization for long time. My point is learning – what you get to carry along which will help you become the person you are supposed to be. I wouldn’t totally disagree with the school of thought that states – one should own one’s growth.

Now, this brings us to important question – when is the time to move on? When one outgrows the organization’s growth that is the exit time. One should plan his exit well and have to be very calculative of all available options. Ensure you have more than 1 (at least 3 choices) which gives you *what you want*. Relocation, Salary Hike, Subject of interests to work on, Travel Requirements, Learning Opportunities are some of the things to keep in mind while closing on that final option.

I think change is the way of life – one needs to take some pains to learn new things and that’s the way to grow and such steps should be taken based on calculated risk.

A Solution to Unhappy Employees

As an early emperor in Xia dynasty said "A picture speaks a thousand words" - I came across this picture which says it all. :-)

From

Socialism - A Theory

I am not sure of the authenticity of this - but found it worth a couple minutes and a ponder. It is interesting to see how the educationalists give a first hand experience to the students which is just enough to imbibe the lesson and not severe enough to ruin too much.

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The late Adrian Rogers said, "you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.... :-)

The Law of the Garbage Truck - A Short Story

A quote said it very rightly - "Life is 10% what you make and 90% how you take!" I bumped into this story the other day and its worth a read.

The Law of the Garbage Truck
One day, I hopped into a taxi and took off for the airport . We were driving in the right lane when suddenly, a black car, jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed the brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. I mean, was really friendly. So I asked, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!" This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call,'The Law of the Garbage Truck'He explained, "



Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. NEVER take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on with the routine life." Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home or on the streets.



The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so..... 'Love the people who treat you right.. Pray for the ones who don't.'

Effort : A Management Lesson

Came across this in a forwarded message - worth sharing.

Effort:
The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure out how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster.
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 ............ ......... .... $9998.00


Morale of the story:
Effort is important, but knowing where and when to make an effort in your life makes a difference.