Just up the road from my home is a field, with two horses in it. From a distance, each horse looks like any other horse. But if you stop your car, or are walking by, you will notice something quite amazing....
Looking into the eyes of one horse will disclose that he is blind. His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made a good home for him.
This alone is amazing. If you stand nearby and listen, you will hear the sound of a bell. Looking around for the source of the sound, you will see that it comes from the smaller horse in the field. Attached to the horse's halter is a small bell. It lets the blind friend know where the other horse is, so he can follow.
As you stand and watch these two friends, you'll see that the horse with the bell is always checking on the blind horse, and that the blind horse will listen for the bell and then slowly walk to where the other horse is,trusting that he will not be led astray.
When the horse with the bell returns to the shelter of the barn each evening, it stops occasionally and looks back, Making sure that the blind friend isn't too far behind to hear the bell..
Like the owners of these two horses, God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems or challenges.
He watches over us and even brings others into our lives To help us when we are in need..
Sometimes we are the blind horse being guided by the little ringing bell of those who God places in our lives. Other times we are the guide horse, helping others to find their way....
Good friends are like that... You may not always see them, but you know they are always there..
Please listen for my bell and I'll listen for yours, and remember...
Be kinder than necessary- Everyone you meet is fighting Some kind of battle.
Live simply, Love generously, Care deeply, Speak kindly.......
FOR WE WALK BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Add God's Name
One rich man owned 19 horses when he died. In his last will and testament he had written that upon his death, half the horses should go to his only son; one fourth to the village temple and one fifth to the faithful servant. The village elders could not stop scratching their heads. How can they give half of the 19 horses to the son? You cannot cut up a horse. They puzzled over this dilemma for more than two weeks and then decided to send for a wise man who was living in a neighboring village.
The wise man came riding on his horse and asked the villagers if he can be of any help to them. The village elders told him about the rich man’s last will and testament which stated that half of the (19) horses must be given to his only son, one fourth must go to the temple and one fifth to the faithful servant.
The wise man understood the complication in the will and derived a solution to solve the puzzle. He had the 19 horses placed in a row standing next to one another. Then he added his own horse as the 20th horse. Now he went about giving half of the 20 horses that is ten horses to the son. One fourth of 20-that is 5 horses were given to the temple committee. One fifth of twenty-that is 4 horses were given to the faithful servant. Ten plus five plus four made 19 horses (10 + 5 + 4 = 19). The remaining 20th horse was his own which he promptly mounted, spoke a few inspiring words, and rode back home.
The villagers were simply dumbfounded, full of disbelief and filled with admiration. And the parting words of the wise man were inscribed in their hearts and minds which they greatly cherished and passed on to their succeeding generations till today.
The wise man said: In our daily lives, in our daily affairs, simply add God’s name and then go about facing the day’s happenings. Problems (if any) will disappear and most complex puzzle will be solved..
The wise man came riding on his horse and asked the villagers if he can be of any help to them. The village elders told him about the rich man’s last will and testament which stated that half of the (19) horses must be given to his only son, one fourth must go to the temple and one fifth to the faithful servant.
The wise man understood the complication in the will and derived a solution to solve the puzzle. He had the 19 horses placed in a row standing next to one another. Then he added his own horse as the 20th horse. Now he went about giving half of the 20 horses that is ten horses to the son. One fourth of 20-that is 5 horses were given to the temple committee. One fifth of twenty-that is 4 horses were given to the faithful servant. Ten plus five plus four made 19 horses (10 + 5 + 4 = 19). The remaining 20th horse was his own which he promptly mounted, spoke a few inspiring words, and rode back home.
The villagers were simply dumbfounded, full of disbelief and filled with admiration. And the parting words of the wise man were inscribed in their hearts and minds which they greatly cherished and passed on to their succeeding generations till today.
The wise man said: In our daily lives, in our daily affairs, simply add God’s name and then go about facing the day’s happenings. Problems (if any) will disappear and most complex puzzle will be solved..
Wedding Ring
This is interesting. Try it out !
Firstly, open your palms (face to face), bend the middle fingers and hold them together - back to back
Secondly, open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb
Now, try to separate your thumbs.., they will open, Please join your thumbs as before and separate your Index fingers.., they will also open, Now join the Index fingers and separate your Little fingers..., they will open too.
Finally, join your Little fingers, and try to separate your Ring fingers (representing your spouse).You will be surprised to see that you just CAN’T.., see the significance of the 4th finger / Ring finger?
Practical DEMONSTRATION – bonded for life :)...!!
Firstly, open your palms (face to face), bend the middle fingers and hold them together - back to back
Secondly, open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb
Now, try to separate your thumbs.., they will open, Please join your thumbs as before and separate your Index fingers.., they will also open, Now join the Index fingers and separate your Little fingers..., they will open too.
Finally, join your Little fingers, and try to separate your Ring fingers (representing your spouse).You will be surprised to see that you just CAN’T.., see the significance of the 4th finger / Ring finger?
Practical DEMONSTRATION – bonded for life :)...!!
Monday, November 28, 2011
Zappos success story
Zappos success story - Tony Hsieh built $1 billion Company in less than 10 years by focusing on customer service, core values, and treating people with a little respect.
Customer Service Rules at Zappos: Somewhere along with way from selling $0 in shoes to $1billion online in the same year, Tony and the gang at Zappos decided that their brand would be customer service.
Here are just a few of the ways they are re-writing the rules of business:
1. In the United States, they offer free shipping both ways so that you can order a bunch of shoes, and return the ones you don’t want.
2. They also offer a 365-day return policy. Doesn’t THAT cost a lot of money? Of course it does.
3. They make it incredibly easy to contact a real human being. In fact, they train their employees to spend as much time on the phone as they need in order to deliver a WOW experience to their customers.
4. For most customers, they upgrade shipping to overnight rather than standard ground shipping.
By being so damn good that you can’t help but tell your friends and neighbors how awesome this little shoe company is. Your brand is how you treat your customers. And Zappos, as it turns out, is pretty good.
Delivering Happiness: Everything they did at Zappos was geared towards making customers happy. In fact, they viewed every shipment that left the Zappos warehouse as “Happiness in a Box”. There are 4 things that truly impact happiness: perceived control, perceived progress, Connectedness and vision/meaning.
So there you have it - building your brand, culture, and wrapping it in a nice large dose of happiness, really can lead to a business that not only profits, but can take on the world. 10 years after founding the company, Zappos was acquired by Amazon for $1.2 billion. How’s that for success?
Customer Service Rules at Zappos: Somewhere along with way from selling $0 in shoes to $1billion online in the same year, Tony and the gang at Zappos decided that their brand would be customer service.
Here are just a few of the ways they are re-writing the rules of business:
1. In the United States, they offer free shipping both ways so that you can order a bunch of shoes, and return the ones you don’t want.
2. They also offer a 365-day return policy. Doesn’t THAT cost a lot of money? Of course it does.
3. They make it incredibly easy to contact a real human being. In fact, they train their employees to spend as much time on the phone as they need in order to deliver a WOW experience to their customers.
4. For most customers, they upgrade shipping to overnight rather than standard ground shipping.
By being so damn good that you can’t help but tell your friends and neighbors how awesome this little shoe company is. Your brand is how you treat your customers. And Zappos, as it turns out, is pretty good.
Delivering Happiness: Everything they did at Zappos was geared towards making customers happy. In fact, they viewed every shipment that left the Zappos warehouse as “Happiness in a Box”. There are 4 things that truly impact happiness: perceived control, perceived progress, Connectedness and vision/meaning.
So there you have it - building your brand, culture, and wrapping it in a nice large dose of happiness, really can lead to a business that not only profits, but can take on the world. 10 years after founding the company, Zappos was acquired by Amazon for $1.2 billion. How’s that for success?
Friday, November 25, 2011
Value Those who are in your life..
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, 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.”
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. Do not value THINGS you have in your life, but value WHO you have in your life.
The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, 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.”
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. Do not value THINGS you have in your life, but value WHO you have in your life.
Monday, November 21, 2011
6 Lessons from the life of Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson
Here, in the next 10 minutes, there are the 6 lessons you can learn from the life of Steve Jobs, written by Walter Isaacson .
Walter Issacson conducted more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs over two years, as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues. Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the creative Genius .To many people, Steve Jobs was a hero. Whatever you believe about him and his life, one thing is certain: his vision and ability to innovate left a dent on the universe. Leaving a dent on the universe is what he set out to do when he and Steve Wozniak launched Apple Computers from their garage in Los Alto. He was a man of contradictions – upon his return to Apple for his “second term”, he worked for $1 per year, but demanded a corporate jet and millions of stock options.
Here are the six lessons:
Lesson 1: Focus:
When Steve Jobs came back to Apple for his second tenure, he found a company that had lost its way. They had 350 product lines, all of which were floundering in mediocrity. So, he took out his scalpel and started cutting, even to the point where some people would argue that he was cutting into the bone. He cut 340 product lines in total, bringing Apple’s focus down to a core of 10 product lines. This is the type of thinking that spawned the iMac, iPod, iTunes iPhone, and the iPad. Had Apple deployed their resources across 340 other product lines, there is no doubt that this unprecedented string of successes would have been impossible. IPHONE: when the first design of the iPhone was almost ready to go into production, he had an insight that had eluded him until it was almost too late: the screen should be the focus of the iPhone, and everything else was secondary. So, with a design that probably looks a lot like other phones on the market today, Jobs told his team that they needed to start over. A heroic effort allowed them to create and produce the iPhone that millions around the world know and love today. Focus on the most important things, and eliminate everything else .
Lesson 2: Inspiration
Where does one company find the inspiration to produce products that transform entire industries overnight? Many people have asked this question, and seemingly come to the answer that Jobs and his team just seem to have this knack for understanding what people want, before they do. Jobs often quoted the famous Henry Ford line that “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Ford got the idea for the assembly line while visiting a slaughterhouse in Chicago. Jobs got the idea for the design of the first Macintosh by visiting Macy’s and studying the designs of different appliances, in particular, the Cuisinart. Jobs found his ideas everywhere except for in the computer industry. CURIOSITY. So while other companies in your industry are busy stealing each others ideas, you should get busy stealing your own from anywhere else.
Lesson 3: Product
There’s no question that an Apple product is a well designed product. The fanaticism that Jobs instilled about making the product “perfect” is probably the single biggest thing that Jobs has left as a legacy for the company. To Jobs, the product was everything. It was so important in fact that when he came back to Apple he decided that Jonathan Ives – their lead designer at the time, should report directly to him. In most companies, the design team does not have a seat at the boardroom table. The engineering team tells the design team the specs they want to create, and then they build a nice case around it. At Apple, this relationship gets reversed, the design team tells the engineering team how they need to configure their contribution to the end product. The dominating theme of any Apple product, from the beginning of the company is simplicity. Jobs felt that it was critical that their products are incredibly easy to use, right out of the box.
Lesson 4: Platform Strategy
Near the start of his second round as Apple CEO, Jobs realized that in order to have the success he always envisioned for the company, that they would need to great a platform instead of a bunch of disconnected products. In 2001, when the technology world was imploding and the luster was coming off the personal computer, he announced his grand vision for the future of Apple: the personal computer would become the digital hub that coordinated many (if not all) of the devices in your life. It would manage your music, your pictures, your videos, everything in your digital life would revolve around the personal computer. They of course went on to carry this thinking through to music by creating both iTunes and the iPod and literally transformed that entire industry. By creating a platform that was superior to the competition, sales of the iPod would spur on sales of iMacs and MacBooks as well. Start thinking about what you can do to start creating a platform rather than just a product or a service.
Lesson 5: IGNORE REALITY
Jobs famously had what most people who knew him called the “reality distortion field”. He had the unique ability to make people believe that anything was possible, even though after they walk away from him they know it to be impossible. He would demand more from his teams than anybody else could reasonably expect, often pushing people over the edge. Ignoring reality is fine when you are attempting to get people to see beyond their limits. However, there is a dark side to the reality distortion field, and Jobs met his match when he was diagnosed with cancer. Originally ignoring it and believing he could treat it with a modified diet, he waited far too long to have an operation that could have saved his life. But one thing is for sure –there are limits that we all place on ourselves that we would be better off ignoring – if we want to do something great with our lives, that is.
Lesson 6: Experience
Owning the entire customer experience is an issue that has gotten Jobs into hot water over the years. They not only controlled things like who got their apps approved in the Apple apps store, they went as far as making making special screws for their devices so that consumers wouldn’t be able to take the machine apart and “hack” it. This ethos led Jobs to take one of the biggest leaps of his career, to build the Apple stores. At the time, everybody thought this was a boneheaded idea, including and especially the press. Jobs argued that they couldn’t let their products be sold in large box stores by employees who didn’t know the myriad of reasons why an Apple product was superior to everything else on the shelf. It turns out that he was right. They built the stores, and aside from being architectural marvels and a delight to shop in, they run the most revenue per square foot of any retailer in the world.
Action:
1) How many priorities are you working on right now? start crossing them off until you only have 2 or 3. Are your best people (or all of your effort) on those 2 or 3?
2) List 5 industries besides your own where you could get inspiration from. Now, go looking for what makes people in those other industries successful. How can that apply to your business?
3) Think of all the things that surround your product or service. For example, for Apple the iPod was surrounded by the music industry. How can you take those things that surround your business and extend your offering into a platform?
Walter Issacson conducted more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs over two years, as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues. Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the creative Genius .To many people, Steve Jobs was a hero. Whatever you believe about him and his life, one thing is certain: his vision and ability to innovate left a dent on the universe. Leaving a dent on the universe is what he set out to do when he and Steve Wozniak launched Apple Computers from their garage in Los Alto. He was a man of contradictions – upon his return to Apple for his “second term”, he worked for $1 per year, but demanded a corporate jet and millions of stock options.
Here are the six lessons:
Lesson 1: Focus:
When Steve Jobs came back to Apple for his second tenure, he found a company that had lost its way. They had 350 product lines, all of which were floundering in mediocrity. So, he took out his scalpel and started cutting, even to the point where some people would argue that he was cutting into the bone. He cut 340 product lines in total, bringing Apple’s focus down to a core of 10 product lines. This is the type of thinking that spawned the iMac, iPod, iTunes iPhone, and the iPad. Had Apple deployed their resources across 340 other product lines, there is no doubt that this unprecedented string of successes would have been impossible. IPHONE: when the first design of the iPhone was almost ready to go into production, he had an insight that had eluded him until it was almost too late: the screen should be the focus of the iPhone, and everything else was secondary. So, with a design that probably looks a lot like other phones on the market today, Jobs told his team that they needed to start over. A heroic effort allowed them to create and produce the iPhone that millions around the world know and love today. Focus on the most important things, and eliminate everything else .
Lesson 2: Inspiration
Where does one company find the inspiration to produce products that transform entire industries overnight? Many people have asked this question, and seemingly come to the answer that Jobs and his team just seem to have this knack for understanding what people want, before they do. Jobs often quoted the famous Henry Ford line that “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Ford got the idea for the assembly line while visiting a slaughterhouse in Chicago. Jobs got the idea for the design of the first Macintosh by visiting Macy’s and studying the designs of different appliances, in particular, the Cuisinart. Jobs found his ideas everywhere except for in the computer industry. CURIOSITY. So while other companies in your industry are busy stealing each others ideas, you should get busy stealing your own from anywhere else.
Lesson 3: Product
There’s no question that an Apple product is a well designed product. The fanaticism that Jobs instilled about making the product “perfect” is probably the single biggest thing that Jobs has left as a legacy for the company. To Jobs, the product was everything. It was so important in fact that when he came back to Apple he decided that Jonathan Ives – their lead designer at the time, should report directly to him. In most companies, the design team does not have a seat at the boardroom table. The engineering team tells the design team the specs they want to create, and then they build a nice case around it. At Apple, this relationship gets reversed, the design team tells the engineering team how they need to configure their contribution to the end product. The dominating theme of any Apple product, from the beginning of the company is simplicity. Jobs felt that it was critical that their products are incredibly easy to use, right out of the box.
Lesson 4: Platform Strategy
Near the start of his second round as Apple CEO, Jobs realized that in order to have the success he always envisioned for the company, that they would need to great a platform instead of a bunch of disconnected products. In 2001, when the technology world was imploding and the luster was coming off the personal computer, he announced his grand vision for the future of Apple: the personal computer would become the digital hub that coordinated many (if not all) of the devices in your life. It would manage your music, your pictures, your videos, everything in your digital life would revolve around the personal computer. They of course went on to carry this thinking through to music by creating both iTunes and the iPod and literally transformed that entire industry. By creating a platform that was superior to the competition, sales of the iPod would spur on sales of iMacs and MacBooks as well. Start thinking about what you can do to start creating a platform rather than just a product or a service.
Lesson 5: IGNORE REALITY
Jobs famously had what most people who knew him called the “reality distortion field”. He had the unique ability to make people believe that anything was possible, even though after they walk away from him they know it to be impossible. He would demand more from his teams than anybody else could reasonably expect, often pushing people over the edge. Ignoring reality is fine when you are attempting to get people to see beyond their limits. However, there is a dark side to the reality distortion field, and Jobs met his match when he was diagnosed with cancer. Originally ignoring it and believing he could treat it with a modified diet, he waited far too long to have an operation that could have saved his life. But one thing is for sure –there are limits that we all place on ourselves that we would be better off ignoring – if we want to do something great with our lives, that is.
Lesson 6: Experience
Owning the entire customer experience is an issue that has gotten Jobs into hot water over the years. They not only controlled things like who got their apps approved in the Apple apps store, they went as far as making making special screws for their devices so that consumers wouldn’t be able to take the machine apart and “hack” it. This ethos led Jobs to take one of the biggest leaps of his career, to build the Apple stores. At the time, everybody thought this was a boneheaded idea, including and especially the press. Jobs argued that they couldn’t let their products be sold in large box stores by employees who didn’t know the myriad of reasons why an Apple product was superior to everything else on the shelf. It turns out that he was right. They built the stores, and aside from being architectural marvels and a delight to shop in, they run the most revenue per square foot of any retailer in the world.
Action:
1) How many priorities are you working on right now? start crossing them off until you only have 2 or 3. Are your best people (or all of your effort) on those 2 or 3?
2) List 5 industries besides your own where you could get inspiration from. Now, go looking for what makes people in those other industries successful. How can that apply to your business?
3) Think of all the things that surround your product or service. For example, for Apple the iPod was surrounded by the music industry. How can you take those things that surround your business and extend your offering into a platform?
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
First Aid Kit - What Should be in it?
Did you cut yourself and search your whole room for a band aid? This is a common scenario in many house-holds. To prevent this, maintain a well stocked first aid kit. It is very effective in common injuries and emergencies. Store your kits in easy-to-retrieve locations that are out of the reach of young children.
You can assemble your own kit.
Basic supplies:
• Adhesive tape
• Antibiotic ointment
• Antiseptic solution
• Bandages and bandage strips (Band-Aid) in assorted sizes
• Cotton balls and cotton-tipped swabs
• Gauze pads
• Safety pins in assorted sizes
• Scissors, tweezers and a needle
• Instant hand sanitizer
• Sterile eyewash, such as a saline solution
• Thermometer
• Triangular bandage
Medications:
• Anti-diarrhoea medication
• Over-the-counter oral antihistamine
• Pain relievers
• Calamine lotion
• Personal medications that don't need refrigeration
• Medicine cup or spoon
Emergency items:
• Emergency phone numbers, including contact information for your family doctor and paediatrician, local emergency services.
• Small flashlight (torch) and extra batteries
• Sunscreen
• First-aid instruction manual
Check your first-aid kits regularly, at least every three months, to be sure the flashlight batteries work and to replace supplies that have expired.
This is always useful in an emergency! Be safe!
Src: http://chihealth.in/articles/First-Aid-Kit:-What-Should-Be-In-It?/1089
Also, read "First Aid - Things you should know" @ http://wipro.chihealth.in/DisplayArticles.do?artID=90
You can assemble your own kit.
Basic supplies:
• Adhesive tape
• Antibiotic ointment
• Antiseptic solution
• Bandages and bandage strips (Band-Aid) in assorted sizes
• Cotton balls and cotton-tipped swabs
• Gauze pads
• Safety pins in assorted sizes
• Scissors, tweezers and a needle
• Instant hand sanitizer
• Sterile eyewash, such as a saline solution
• Thermometer
• Triangular bandage
Medications:
• Anti-diarrhoea medication
• Over-the-counter oral antihistamine
• Pain relievers
• Calamine lotion
• Personal medications that don't need refrigeration
• Medicine cup or spoon
Emergency items:
• Emergency phone numbers, including contact information for your family doctor and paediatrician, local emergency services.
• Small flashlight (torch) and extra batteries
• Sunscreen
• First-aid instruction manual
Check your first-aid kits regularly, at least every three months, to be sure the flashlight batteries work and to replace supplies that have expired.
This is always useful in an emergency! Be safe!
Src: http://chihealth.in/articles/First-Aid-Kit:-What-Should-Be-In-It?/1089
Also, read "First Aid - Things you should know" @ http://wipro.chihealth.in/DisplayArticles.do?artID=90
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