A young man was getting ready to graduate college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer’s showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted.

As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the morning of his graduation his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son
a beautiful   wrapped gift box.

Curious, but somewhat disappointed the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible. Angrily, he raised his voice at his father and said, “With all your money you give me a Bible?” and stormed out of the house, leaving the holy book.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had   not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of the things. When he arrived at his father’s house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart.

He began to search his father’s important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. As he read those words, a car key dropped from an envelope taped behind the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer’s name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words…PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss God’s blessings because they are not packaged the way we expected??

SHAHRUKH KHAN ' ACTOR

EARNING RS. 247 PER MINUTE

AMITABH BACHCHAN ' ACTOR

EARNING RS. 361 PER MINUTE

MUKESH AMBANI ' CHAIRMAN

EARNING RS. 413 PER MINUTE

SACHIN TENDUKAR ' CRICKETER

EARNING RS. 1163 PER MINUTE

INDRA NOOYI ' CFO

EARNING RS. 2911 PER MINUTE

(MESSAGE: DON'T ABORT A GIRL CHILD)

Every action of yours right from switching on washing machine, electric stoves, radio sets, music systems, computers to using refrigerators add to global warming. How? See it yourself:

An air conditioner (2.5 tonne) used for an hour generates 3 kg of CO2. If you go without air conditioning for an hour a day, the release of 3×365= 1095 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere per year can be prevented

Using a microwave oven for an hour generates 1.3 kg of CO2. If you eat food without using microwave to heat just for an hour a week, you can stop the release of 1.3×52 = 67.6 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere per year.

Using a geyser for an hour generates 3.3 kg of CO2. If you can cut down the use of geyser by just an hour a day tou can stop the release of 3.3×365 = 1204.5 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere annually.

One dripping tap in the house wastes 13 litres of water in a single day. Therefore the wastage of water in a year = 13×365 = 4745 litres a year.

On an average a person who lets the tap run while brushing his teeth wastes about 7 litres of water. If 1.13 billion Indians (population as on March 2008) change this habit, we could save 1.13 x7 = 7.91 billion litres of water in just a day.

Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) use one third the electricity used by regular bulbs. If every family in India replaces regular light bulbs with CFLs, 10000 MW of power could be saved. Using less power means lower emission of greenhouse gases

Recycling paper uses 90% less water and 50% less energy than to manufacture new paper. It also produces 36% less CO2.

Using one litre petrol produces about 2.17 kg of CO2. Walking, carpooling or using public transport will save at least 2 litres of petrol a week. This will stop the release of 2.17×2x52 = 225.68 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere annually.

The estimated population of India as on March 2008 was 1.13 billion. If each person plants just one tree in his lifetime, we can eliminate 1.13 billion ton of CO2 from the atmosphere. One tree absorbs one ton of CO2 during his lifetime.

Your everyday actions have far reaching consequences. It determines whether life on Earth will flourish or perish. One thoughtful action or a simple change in your habit will go a long way in saving our planet.

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race.The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he’d sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ.The hare woke up and realised that he’d lost the race.

The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the race.

This is the version of the story that we’ve all grown up with.But then recently, someone told me a more interesting version of this story. It continues.

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some Defect Prevention (Root Cause Analysis). He realised that he’d lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there’s no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed. This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.

The moral of the story？ Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady.

If you have two people in your organisation, one slow, methodical and reliable, and the other fast and still reliable at what he does, the fast and reliable chap will consistently climb the organisational ladder faster than the slow, methodical chap. It’s good to be slow and steady; but it’s better to be fast and reliable.

But the story doesn’t end here. The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realised that there’s no way he can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. He thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route.The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river. The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

The moral of the story? First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency.

In an organisation, if you are a good speaker, make sure you create opportunities to give presentations that enable the senior management to notice you.If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort of research, make a report and send it upstairs. Working to your strengths will not only get you noticed but will also create opportunities for growth and advancement.

The story still hasn’t ended.

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together. Both realised that the last race could have been run much better.

So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back.On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they’d felt earlier.

The moral of the story? It’s good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you’re able to work in a team and harness each other’s core competencies, you’ll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you’ll do poorly and someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.

There are more lessons to be learnt from this story.

Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure.The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could. In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work harder and put in more effort. Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different. And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.

When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola in the 1980s, he was faced with intense competition from Pepsi that was eating into Coke’s growth. His executives were Pepsi-focussed and intent on increasing market share 0.1 per cent a time. Goizueta decided to stop competing against Pepsi and instead compete against the situation of 0.1 per cent growth. He asked his executives what was the average fluid intake of an American per day? The answer was 14 ounces. What was Coke’s share of that? Two ounces. Goizueta said Coke needed a larger share of that market.

The competition wasn’t Pepsi. It was the water, tea, coffee, milk and fruit juices that went into the remaining 12 ounces. The public should reach for a Coke whenever they felt like drinking something.To this end, Coke put up vending machines at every street corner. Sales took a quantum jump and Pepsi has never quite caught up since.

To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise teaches us many things.

Important lessons are:

�that fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady;

�work to your competencies;

�pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers;

�never give up when faced with failure;

�and finally, compete against the situation. Not against a rival.

We convince ourselves always that life will be better after we finish school; after we finish college, after we start working, after we get married, after we have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren’t old enough and we’ll be more content when they are. After that we’re frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when we get a nicer car, when we are able to go on a nice vacation or when we retire.

The truth is, there’s no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when?

Our life will always be filled with challenges. It’s best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. So, treasure every moment that you have. And treasure it more because you share it with someone special, special enough to spend your time…and remember that time waits for no one…

So stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose ten kgs, until you gain ten kgs, until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday night, until Sunday morning, until you get a new car or home, until your car or home is paid off, until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter, until the first or fifteenth, until you’ve had a drink, until you die, until you are born again to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy…

Happiness is a journey, not a destination so work like you don’t need money, love like you’ve never been hurt and dance like no one’s watching .!!