Apr 28, 2017

The Brighter Side...

A  king had a frightening dream. He dreamt that all his teeth has fallen out, one after the other. Very upset about this, he called for a dream interpreter. 

The man listened with great concern to the king’s account of his dream and said to him, “Your Majesty, I have bad news for you. Just as you lost all your teeth, you will lose all of your family, one after the other.” This sad interpretation kindled the king’s rage. The dream interpreter, who had nothing better to say, was thrown in jail at the king’s command. 

Then the king summoned a different dream interpreter. This one heard him tell the dream and then said, “Your Majesty, I have good news for you. You will become older than all of your family. You will outlive them all. Long live the king ”! 

The king rejoiced and rewarded the man richly for saying this. But the courtiers were very surprised. “Your words were really no different from your poor predecessor’s. But why was he punished, while you received a reward?” they asked. The lucky dream interpreter replied, “You are right. We both interpreted the dream in the same way but it is not a question of what you say, but also how you say it.”

Everything in our daily lives has two sides – the bright and the dark or as it is presented to us in reality , the bright and the less bright .The wiser one chooses the brighter side.

Apr 21, 2017

The Salesman...

A Salesman was given a vigorous target of selling $100,000 worth of medical equipment each month, the most on his team, and was expected to somehow get to $140,000.Every month he kept falling short of the target and his old aged boss grew disappointed with him. 

The next day he took the salesman for a coffee and tried to strike a conversation ,”Do you think the market is dull?” The young salesman replied “ I understand the set target ,but in reality it is not that easy. We all know that targets are usually overambitious .Isn’t it ? “

The elderly boss gave a reassuring smile and continued ,”Tell me what would it take for you to sell $200,000 worth of equipment each month”. 

"$200,000!" he shouted. "No! That's impossible. "You don't understand. I want to hit $140,000 a month, and even that is so hard that I don't know how I'll do it and here you fantasize about $200,000.” The boss insisted ,”Just play along ,give it a try seriously assuming that $200,000 is your real target “

The salesman laughed and said "Okay, but remember, we're talking about something that's impossible”. He then started listing things. After he got through the ridiculous ideas, like stealing other people's accounts and cooking the books, he began to think of more ideas. At first it was hard.

"I'd have to be in two places at once," he said. "I'd have to make twice as many presentations as I'm making. I'd have to present to two clients at once!"

Then it hit him. All of a sudden he got the idea that he might be able to stage a large presentation of his product with a number of clients in the room at one time. "I could rent a room at a hotel and have 20 people in for coffee and donuts, and I could make a big deal out of it," he said. A number of other ideas came to him- ways to combine his cold-calling with his travel time, ways to utilize e-mail as a sales tool, how to use the administrative staff better. Ideas poured in while the old aged boss wrote them furiously on a flip pad and handed it over to him saying ,” All your ideas were a result of his thinking big- "How would I sell $200,000 if I absolutely had to?"

He surpassed his goal and achieved over $200,000 sales the very next month.

Many of us become self-satisfied with what we do right now and that is what makes us stagnant .Take a certain goal and double it, Or triple it, Or multiply it by 10. And then ask yourself, quite seriously, what you would have to do to achieve that new goal. You will end up  with ideas that can turn the impossible to possible.

If your goal doesn’t challenge you , it doesn’t change you

Apr 14, 2017

The Falcon

Once there was a king who received a gift of two magnificent falcons. They were peregrine falcons, the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. He gave the precious birds to his head falconer to be trained.

Months passed, and one day the head falconer informed the king that though one of the falcons was flying majestically, soaring high in the sky, the other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived. The king summoned healers and sorcerers from all the land to tend to the falcon, but no one could make the bird fly.

He presented the task to the member of his court, but the next day, the king saw through the palace window that the bird had still not moved from its perch. Having tried everything else, the king thought to himself, “May be I need someone more familiar with the countryside to understand the nature of this problem.” So he cried out to his court, “Go and get a farmer.”

In the morning, the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high above the palace gardens. He said to his court, “Bring to me, the doer of this miracle.”

The court quickly located the farmer, who came and stood before the king. The king asked him, “How did you make the falcon fly?”

With his head bowed, the farmer said to the king, “It was very easy, your highness. I simply cut the branch where the bird was sitting.”

We are all made to fly — to realize our incredible potential as human beings but at times we sit on our branches, clinging to the things that are familiar to us. The possibilities are endless, but for most of us, they remain undiscovered. We conform to the familiar, the comfortable, and the mundane. So for the most part, our lives are mediocre instead of exciting, thrilling and fulfilling. 

Let us learn to destroy the branch of fear we cling to and free ourselves to the glory of flight!

Apr 7, 2017

The Monk

A young man met an accomplished monk and asked him for the secret to success. The Monk asked the young man to meet him near a river the next morning to know about it .

Next morning when they met ,the monk asked the young man to walk with him towards the river. When the water got up to their neck, the monk took the young man by surprise and ducked him into the water. The boy struggled to get out but the monk was strong and kept him there until the boy started turning blue. 

The Monk pulled his head out of the water and the first thing the young man did was to gasp and take a deep breath of air. 

The Monk asked: " What did you want the most when you were there?" The boy replied "Air."

The Monk said "My son, that is the secret to success. When you want success as badly as you wanted the air, then you will get it. There is no other secret.

Just like a small fire cannot give much heat, a weak desire cannot produce great results. A burning desire with a staunch belief is the starting point of all accomplishments. The motivation to succeed comes from the burning desire to achieve a purpose. 

Whenever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.