One  day  Buddha was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young

man  came  up and began insulting him. “You have no right teaching others,”

he  shouted.  ”You  are  as  stupid as everyone else. You are nothing but a

fake.”

Buddha was not upset by these insults. Instead he asked the young man “Tell

me,  if  you  buy  a gift for someone, and that person does not take it, to

whom does the gift belong?”

The man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered, “It

would belong to me, because I bought the gift.”

The  Buddha  smiled  and said, “That is correct. And it is exactly the same

with your anger.

If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the anger falls

back on you.

You are then the only one who becomes unhappy, not me. All you have done is

hurt yourself.”

“If  you  want to stop hurting yourself, you must get rid of your anger and

become  loving  instead. When you hate others, you yourself become unhappy.

But when you love others, everyone is happy.”

The  young man listened closely to these wise words of the Buddha. “You are

right,  o  Enlightened  One, “he said. “Please teach me the path of love. I

wish to become your follower.”

The  Buddha  answered kindly, “Of course. I teach anyone who truly wants to

learn. Come with me.”

A German once visited a temple under construction where he saw a

sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he noticed a similar idol

lying nearby.

Surprised, he asked the sculptor, “Do you need two statues of the same

idol?”

“No,” said the sculptor without looking up, “We need only one, but the

first one got damaged at the last stage.”

The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage.

“Where is the damage?” he asked.

“There is a scratch on the nose of the idol.” said the sculptor, still

busy

with his work.

“Where are you going to install the idol?”

The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet

high.

“If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch

on the nose?” the gentleman asked.

The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and

said, “I will know it.”

The desire to excel is exclusive of the fact whether someone else

appreciates it or not.

“Excellence” is a drive from inside, not outside “.

There was a crowed of kids around the balloon seller. As usual he was an

expert in his trade. He tookout colourful balloons from his shoulder bag,

thrust it on the helium cylinder nozzle, blew it and with his deft fingers

he then tie the inflated balloon with a long string. With a winning smile,

he would then hand over balloon to the bunch of eager hands beckoning him

fervently. The kids were eyeing him with awe! Because he produced the

inflated balloon like magic, out of nowhere!

The balloons were in brilliant colours of red, yellow, pink, green and

white. The kids would hold the strings, tugging playfully for a few

seconds, then release their hold making the helium gas soar the balloons up

in the sky. The vivid colours made the balloons looked like a bunch of

emperor butterflies in their maiden flight. The suns golden rays casted a

scintillating hue over them.

The black little boy stood aloof, for he was scared. Among the shining

apparels of the fair skinned kids, his old cloths looked out of place like

himself. Like the balloons there was not a single kid with dark

skin ..except him.

.

When all the kids left, the black boy approached the vendor nervously and

asked: "Sir, do you have a black balloon?"

"Sure, son I do have some black coloured balloons. Do you want one?"

enquired the man with balloons

"No Sir, but .. is it possible for the black balloons too can go high?"

Doubt and a bit of anxiety were shrouded in the little boy's countenance.

Surprised, he asked the sculptor, “Do you need two statues of the same

idol?”

“No,” said the sculptor without looking up, “We need only one, but the

first one got damaged at the last stage.”

The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage.

“Where is the damage?” he asked.

“There is a scratch on the nose of the idol.” said the sculptor, still

busy

with his work.

“Where are you going to install the idol?”

The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet

high.

“If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch

on the nose?” the gentleman asked.

The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and

said, “I will know it.”

The desire to excel is exclusive of the fact whether someone else

appreciates it or not.

“Excellence” is a drive from inside, not outside “.

Ten years ago, I set out to examine luck. I wanted to know why some people

are always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently

experience ill fortune. I placed advertisements in national newspapers

asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me.

Hundreds of extraordinary men and women volunteered for my research and

over the years, I have interviewed them, monitored their lives and had them

take part in experiments.

I carried out a simple experiment to discover whether this was due to

differences in their ability to spot opportunities. I gave both lucky and

unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me

how many photographs were inside. I had secretly placed a large message

halfway through the newspaper saying : “Tell the experimenter you have seen

this and win £250.”

This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more

than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the

unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people spotted it.

It goes to show that they miss opportunities because they are too focused

on looking for something else. They go with the intention of finding their

perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends.

My research eventually revealed that lucky people make lucky decisions by

listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via

positive expectations and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad

luck into good.

Towards the end of the work, I wondered whether these principles could be

used to create good luck. Finally, I had found the elusive “luck factor.”

Here is all, Professor Wiseman has to say :

1) Listen to your gut instincts - they are normally right,

2) Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine,

3) Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well,

4) Visualize yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone

call. Luck is very often a self- fulfilling prophecy.