One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry.
He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, "How much do I owe you?" "You don't owe me anything," she replied. "Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness." He said..... "Then I thank you from my heart."
As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.
Year's later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly ! was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to room. Dressed in his doctor's gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to the case. After a long struggle, the battle was won.
Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She read these words..... "Paid in full with one glass of milk"
Signed Dr. Howard Kelly. Tears of joy flooded her eyes as her happy heart prayed: "Thank You, God, that Your love has spread abroad through human hearts and hands."
Based on real event
You are a DOG
Sometimes back, a person came to me and told, "You know one thing, you are a DOG". I said, 'I am too happy as a Human Being and I have not done anything big or great to be called as DOG". It is simple; if you reverse the spellings of DOG it will become GOD. Now, whenever I pass through those big societies and bungalows and see those boards, "Dog is on Duty" or "Beware to dogs", I just cannot stop myself from smiling.
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Color of this world is based on the color of your eyes, color of your glasses. The way you perceive the things; your understand, your thoughts and your experiences. Good and Bad people you will find everywhere in the world, in every country, in every society it is up to us, what we are looking for.
Stories of Wisdom - Entertaining and Enlightening Stories
There was a wrestler named "Great Waves". He was immensely strong and knew the art of wrestling. In his private bouts, he was so powerful that even his teacher was no match for him. But in public, he was so bashful that his own pupils defeated him. He therefore went into mountains to seek the advice of a Zen master.
"Your name is Great Waves. Imagine that you are those billows. You are those huge waves sweeping everything before them, swallowing all in their path. You are no longer a wrestler who is afraid." The master continued, "Do this and you will be the greatest wrestler in the land. No one will be able to defeat you."
Great Waves remained in the temple sitting in meditation, trying to imagine himself as waves. At first his mind was restless and he thought about all kind of things. Before long...He turned more and more to the feeling of the waves. As night advanced the waves became larger and larger. They swept away the flower vases and things inside the room. The waves inundated the great Buddha statue and then the temple. Before dawn the temple was nothing but the ebb and flow of an immense sea.
"Wake up! You have done it." The master tapped his shoulder from behind. " Nothing can disturb you now. You can be like the waves which overwhelm all."
Since then, during competitions Great Waves imagined himself to be like those sweeping waves. He became the greatest wrestler in the land and no one was able to defeat him.
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To really master something, it has to become part of you.
The Beautiful Flower In The Broken Pot
By: Author Unknown
Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to out patients at the clinic.
One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man. "Why, he's hardly taller than my eight-year-old," I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing was his face, lopsided from swelling, red and raw.
Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening. I've come to see if you've a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there's no bus 'til morning."
He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but with no success, no one seemed to have a room. "I guess it's my face... I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments..."
For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: "I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning."
I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch. I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join us. "No thank you. I have plenty." And he held up a brown paper bag.
When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with him a few minutes. It didn't take a long time to see that this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body. He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.
He didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was preface with a thanks to God for a blessing. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going.
At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children's room for him. When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man was out on the porch.
He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a treatment? I won't put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair." He paused a moment and then added, "Your children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don't seem to mind." I told him he was welcome to come again.
And on his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning.
As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen. He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so that they'd be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m. and I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.
In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden.
Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these, and knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly preciou s.
When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning.
"Did you keep that awful looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people!"
Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But oh! If only they could have known him, perhaps their illnesses would have been easier to bear.
I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude to God.
Recently I was visiting a friend, who has a greenhouse, as she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms. But to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented, rusty bucket. I thought to myself, "If this were my plant, I'd put it in the loveliest container I had!"
My friend changed my mind. "I ran short of pots," she explained, and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn't mind starting out in this old pail. It's just for a little while, till I can put it out in the garden."
She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was imagining just such a scene in heaven. "Here's an especially beautiful one," God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old fisherman. "He won't mind starting in this small body."
All this happened long ago - and now, in God's garden, how tall this lovely soul must stand.
Source: InspirationPeak.com
Stories of Wisdom - Entertaining and Enlightening Stories
Love Never Dies
When Nazi did the holocaust in Germany by burying alive the Jews, there also spread a story of undying love. A mother and her daughter happened to be captured as well, soon to be buried alive together along with the other thousands of Jews. The little girl did not understand and had no idea at all what was going to happen to her and her mother. She just kept playing and singing out her innocent heart.
After being tired of playing around, the little girl returned back to the camp. She was not able to find her mother any longer. In her innocent world, she still have not understand yet what was death, even more of what dying a horrible tragic death was. She waited and waited, when is her dear mother going to come back. In her wait, she had persistent faith that mom would surely returned, so that she would be able to hear again her lullaby.
The next day was supposed to be her turn. She faced all that fully with her innocent heart till she reach the hole of where she was going to be buried. When she was about to be dragged to the hole, her soft voice said to the muscular soldier in charge, "Mister, please don't put me in too deep ok, just put me in near the surface, so that when mommy comes, she will still see me waiting for her here.
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Love is undying. Violence, brutality can only bury and destroy the body, but it cannot towards love. Love never dies.
Stories of Wisdom - Entertaining and Enlightening Stories
The Real Talent
After winning several archery contests, the young and rather boastful champion challenged a Zen master who was renowned for his skill as an archer. The young man demonstrated remarkable technical proficiency when he hit a distant bull's eye on his first try, and then split that arrow with his second shot.
"There," he said to the old man, "see if you can match that!" Undisturbed, the master did not draw his bow, but rather motioned for the young archer to follow him up the mountain. Curious about the old fellow's intentions, the champion followed him high into the mountain until they reached a deep chasm spanned by a rather flimsy and shaky log.
Calmly stepping out onto the middle of the unsteady and certainly perilous bridge, the old master picked a far away tree as a target, drew his bow, and fired a clean, direct hit. "Now it is your turn," he said as he gracefully stepped back onto the safe ground.
Staring with terror into the seemingly bottomless and beckoning abyss, the young man could not force himself to step out onto the log, no less shoot at a target.
"You have much skill with your bow," the master said, sensing his challenger's predicament, "but you have little skill with the mind that lets loose the shot."
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"The real talent is being able to apply your skills even in the most adverse situation- without fear, hesitation, or doubt."
And A Meadow Lark Sang
The child whispered, "God, speak to me"
And a meadow lark sang.
The child did not hear.
So the child yelled, "God, speak to me!"
And the thunder rolled across the sky
But the child did not listen.
The child looked around and said,
"God let me see you" and a star shone brightly
But the child did not notice.
And the child shouted,
"God show me a miracle!"
And a life was born but the child did not know.
So the child cried out in despair,
"Touch me God, and let me know you are here!"
Whereupon God reached down
And touched the child.
But the child brushed the butterfly away
And walked away unknowingly.
By: Ravindra Kumar Karnani
(Old Hindu poem)
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God touches and is present everywhere in our life, regardless we realize it or not
Teddy Stoddard Story
There is a story many years ago of an elementary teacher. Her name was Mrs. Thompson. And as she stood in front of her 5th grade class on her very first day of school, she told the children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. But that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.
Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he didn't play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. And Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.
At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise. Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners... he is a joy to be around." His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle." His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best but his father doesn't show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken." Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class."
By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present which was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one quarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to." After the children left she cried for at least an hour.
On that very day, she quit teaching reading, and writing, and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one her "teacher's pets."
A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had in his whole life. Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer-the letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D.
The story doesn't end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he'd met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. And she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together. They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference." Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."
You can never tell what type of impact you may have on another's life by your actions... or lack of actions. Please consider this fact in your venture through life and just try to...make a difference in someone else's life today
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Inspiring entertaining and enlightening stories of wisdom from cultures all around the world. Enjoy and get inspired!
A Blue Ribbon to Make a Difference
A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in high school by telling them the difference they each made.
She called each student to the front of the class, one at a time. First she told each of them how they had made a difference to her and the class. Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon imprinted with gold letters which read, "Who I Am Makes a Difference."
Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class project to see what kind of impact recognition would have on a community. She gave each of the students three more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony. Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honored whom and report back to the class in about a week.
One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company and honored him for helping him with his career planning. He gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt. Then he gave him two extra ribbons and said, "We're doing a class project on recognition, and we'd like you to go out, find somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon, then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person to keep this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to me and tell me what happened."
Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his boss down and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius. The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon and would he give him permission to put it on him. His surprised boss said, "Well, sure." The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his boss's jacket above his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said, "Would you do me a favor? Would you take this extra ribbon and pass it on by honoring somebody else? The young boy who first gave me the ribbons is doing a project in school and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going and find out how it affects people."
That night the boss came home to his 14-year-old son and sat him down. He said, "The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was in my office and one of the junior executives came in and told me he admired me and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius. Imagine. He thinks I'm a creative genius. Then he put this blue ribbon that says 'Who I Am Makes A Difference'" on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honor. As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would honor with this ribbon and I thought about you. I want to honor you.
My days are really hectic and when I come home I don't pay a lot of attention to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in school and for your bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me. Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life. You're a great kid and I love you!"
The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't stop crying. His whole body shook. He looked up at his father and said through his tears, "I have been contemplating suicide, Dad, because I didn't think you loved me. Now I know you care."
The boss went back to work a changed man. He was no longer a grouch but made sure to let all his employees know that they made a difference. The junior executive helped several other young people with career planning and never forgot to let them know that they made a difference in his life. The young boy and his classmates learned a valuable lesson.
Who you are DOES make a difference.
Crutches
When an accident deprived the village headman of the use of his legs, he took to walking on crutches. He gradually developed the ability to move with speed -- even to dance and execute little pirouettes for the entertainment of his neighbors.
Then he took it into his head to train his children in the use of crutches. It soon became a status symbol in the village to walk on crutches, and before long everyone was doing so.
By the fourth generation no one in the village could walk without crutches. The village school included "Crutchery -- Theoretical -- Applied" in its curriculum and the village craftsmen became famous for the quality of the crutches they produced. There was even talk of developing an electronic, battery-operated set of crutches!
One day a young Turk presented himself before the village elders and demanded to know why everyone had to walk on crutches since they had been provided with legs to walk on. The village elders were amused that this upstart should think himself wiser than they so they decided to teach him a lesson. "Why don't you show us how?" they said.
"Agreed!" replied the young man.
A demonstration was fixed for the following Sunday at the village square. Everyone was there when the young man hobbled on his crutches to the middle of the square, stood upright, and dropped his crutches. A hush fell on the crowd as he took a bold step forward -- and fell flat on his face.
With that everyone was confirmed in their belief that it was quite impossible to walk without the help of crutches.
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“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.”
-Arthur C Clarke
Gift of Insults
There once lived a great warrior. Though quite old, he still was able to defeat any challenger. His reputation extended far and wide throughout the land and many students gathered to study under him.One day an infamous young warrior arrived at the village. He was determined to be the first man to defeat the great master. Along with his strength, he had an uncanny ability to spot and exploit any weakness in an opponent. He would wait for his opponent to make the first move, thus revealing a weakness, and then would strike with merciless force and lightning speed. No one had ever lasted with him in a match beyond the first move.
Much against the advice of his concerned students, the old master gladly accepted the young warrior’s challenge. As the two squared off for battle, the young warrior began to hurl insults at the old master. He threw dirt and spit in his face. For hours he verbally assaulted him with every curse and insult known to mankind. But the old warrior merely stood there motionless and calm. Finally, the young warrior exhausted himself. Knowing he was defeated, he left feeling shamed.
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"An insult is like a glass of wine. It only affects you if you accept it."
The Stone Soup
There are many variations on the story of stone soup, but they all involve a traveler coming into a town beset by famine. The inhabitants try to discourage the traveler from staying, fearing he wants them to give him food. They tell him in no uncertain terms that there's no food anywhere to be found. The traveler explains that he doesn't need any food and that, in fact, he was planning to make a soup to share with all of them.
The villagers watch suspiciously as he builds a fire and fills a cauldron with water. With great ceremony, he pulls a stone from a bag, dropping the stone into the pot of water. He sniffs the brew extravagantly and exclaims how delicious stone soup is. As the villagers begin to show interest, he mentions how good the soup would be with just a little cabbage in it. A villager brings out a cabbage to share. This episode repeats itself until the soup has cabbage, carrots, onions, and beets-indeed, a substantial soup that feeds everyone in the village.
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This story addresses the human tendency to hoard in times of deprivation. When resources are scarce, we pull back and put all of our energy into self-preservation. We isolate ourselves and shut out others. As the story of stone soup reveals, in doing so, we often deprive ourselves and everyone else of a feast.
This metaphor plays out beyond the realm of food. We hoard ideas, love, and energy, thinking we will be richer if we keep to them to ourselves, when in truth we make the world, and ourselves, poorer whenever we greedily stockpile our reserves. The traveler was able to see that the villagers were holding back, and he had the genius to draw them out and inspire them to give, thus creating a spread that none of them could have created alone.
Are you like one of the villagers, holding back? If you come forward and share your gifts, you will inspire others to do the same. The reward is a banquet that can nourish many.
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Which Are You? Carrot, Egg, and Coffee
A daughter complained to her father about life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of struggling. It seemed that as soon as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. In about twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a
bowl.Turning to her he asked. "What do you see?" "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.
He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.
Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. She said, "What's the point?" He explained that each of the items had faced the same adversity -
boiling water - but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong and hard. But after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.
"Which are you?" he asked his daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"
A Simple Gesture
Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed that the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles.
Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden. As they walked, Mark discovered the boy's name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history, that he was having a lot of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend.
Mark went home after dropping Bill at his house. They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, then both graduated from junior high school. They ended up in the same high school, where they had brief contacts over the years. Finally the long-awaited senior year came. Three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk.
Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. "Do you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?" asked Bill. "You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn't want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mother's sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you did a lot more. You saved my life."
By John W. Schlatter
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Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
Leo Buscaglia
Hundred Fold Blessings
Three young men were once given three kernels of corn apiece by a wise old sage, who admonished them to go out into the world, and use the corn to bring themselves good fortune.
The first young man put his three kernels of corn into a bowl of hot broth and ate them.
The second thought, I can do better than that, and he planted his three kernels of corn. Within a few months, he had three stalks of corn. He took the ears of corn from the stalks, boiled them, and had enough corn for three meals.
The third man said to himself, I can do better than that! He also planted his three kernels of corn, but when his three stalks of corn produced, he stripped one of the stalks and replanted all of the seeds in it, gave the second stalk of corn to a sweet maiden, and ate the third.
His one full stalk’s worth of replanted corn kernels gave him 200 stalks of corn! And the kernels of these he continued to replant, setting aside only a bare minimum to eat. He eventually planted a hundred acres of corn.With his fortune, he not only won the hand of the sweet maiden but purchased the land owned by the sweet maiden’s father. And he never hungered again.
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The more you give, the more you get. However that should NOT be the reason for your giving.
Building Your House
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business to live a more leisurely life with his wife and enjoy his extended family. He would miss the paycheck each week, but he wanted to retire. They could get by.
The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go & asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but over time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.
When the carpenter finished his work, his employer came to inspect the house. Then he handed the front-door key to the carpenter and said, "This is your house... my gift to you."
The carpenter was shocked!
What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.
So it is with us. We build our lives, a day at a time, often putting less than our best into the building. Then, with a shock, we realize we have to live in the house we have built. If we could do it over, we would do it much differently.
But, you cannot go back. You are the carpenter, and every day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Someone once said, "Life is a do-it-yourself project." Your attitude, and the choices you make today, help build the "house" you will live in tomorrow. Therefore, Build wisely!
Unconditional Acceptance
When Andrew got ready for work one Friday morning, he announced to his wife that he finally decided to ask his boss for a salary raise. All day Andrew felt nervous and apprehensive as he thought about the upcoming showdown. What if Mr. Larchmont refuses to grant his request? Andrew had worked so hard in the last 18 months and landed some great accounts for Braer and Hopkins Advertising Agency. Of course, he deserves a wage increase.
The thought of walking into Larchmont's office left Andrew weak in the knees. Late in the afternoon he finally mustered up the courage to approach his superior. To his delight and surprise, the ever-frugal Harvey Larchmont agreed to give Andrew a raise!
Andrew arrived home that evening-despite breaking all city and state speed limits-to a beautiful table set with their best china, and candles lit. His wife, Tina had prepared an exquisite meal including his favorite dishes. Immediately he figured someone from the office tipped her off!
Next to his plate Andrew found a beautiful lettered note. It was from his wife. It read: "Congratulations, my love! I knew you'd get the raise! I prepared this dinner to show just how much I love you. I am so proud of your accomplishments!" He read it and stopped to reflect on how sensitive and caring Tina was.
After dinner, Andrew was on his way to the kitchen to get dessert and he observed that a second card had slipped out of Tina's pocket on to the ceramic floor. He bent forward to retrieve it. He read: "Don't worry about not getting the raise! You deserve it anyway! You are a wonderful provider and I prepared this dinner to show you just how much I love you even though you did not get the increase."
Suddenly tears swelled in Andrew's eyes. Total acceptance! Tina's support for him was not conditional upon his success at work.
Story adapted by Louis Lapides.
Stories of Wisdom - Entertaining and Enlightening Stories
Inspiring entertaining and enlightening stories of wisdom from cultures all around the world. Enjoy and get inspired!
Something Impractical
Source:
The Art of Peace: Practical Teachings of Mo Zi
During the chaotic Warring States Period (475-221BC), when China was divided into numerous small states locked in endless conflict and power struggle, one man spoke for peace and universal love among humankind. This was the philosopher Mo Zi.
As he travelled from state to state to spread his message of peace Mo Zi stressed the importance of mutual respect, caring for others and many other practical virtues that are still relevant today, more than 2,000 years later.
The Art of Peace complies the teachings of Mo Zi and using clear and lively illustrations, makes his wisdom easy to understand and enjoyable for everyone
Wisdom in Stories
The Fence
By Author Unknown
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper.
His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down.
He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.
He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one."
As William Arthur Ward once said,
"It is wise to direct your anger towards problems - not people;
to focus your energies on answers - not excuses."
Be Realistic: Create a Miracle
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom, Be Realistic: Create a Miracle, written by Harald Anderson, (c) 2004 - What is it that you really want in your life? Money? Status? Success? A Prosperous Business? A Loving Relationship? Now let me ask you a super blunt question: Why don't you have it yet? A few months ago I attended a seminar. One of the speakers began his presentation with what I initially considered a very confrontational remark. He paused very dramatically and bellowed… "What lies do you keep telling yourself?" Although the room fell deafly silent, we all knew that his question truly touched a nerve. That question has echoed in the hollows of my mind ever since. "What lies do you keep telling yourself?"
"You're calling me a liar?" "All the lies?" "How much time do you have?" "That's not a lie, that's the truth!" The responses that were firing up to that question were racing through my mind at the speed of light.
In Life We Can Have Results or Reasons. If you are not getting the results you want, your reasons are the lies that you keep telling yourself. You can try to argue with that statement but its kind of like wrestling with the wind, it will keep you real busy but you really won't get anywhere. Lies create the idea that we are powerless to make things any different than the way they are. I hate to admit it but we are all liars. We love our reasons and will go to extreme lengths to hold onto them. After all, our reasons are our stories, which define us. Those experiences "made us who we are today!" It's just the way things are……..
Results or reasons. Which do you have more of? If you answered reasons, its time to analyze the lies. I speak from experience. I spent the first thirty years of my life studying what I should believe in. Studied all the great reasons. Read all the great philosophers, not once did anybody ask me….."What is it that you want to experience with all these ideas?" So I got a little top heavy on reasons and a little short on results.
The problem with having so many reasons is that eventually these reasons create a logic of limitations. They are like a virus that creates "a story" that runs in the background of your minds hard drive. Whenever we see something that we want to create, the first thing we bump into is these beliefs (reasons) that have shaped our experience thus far. And so the battle ensues. Possibilities vs. Limitations.
The Grudge Match.
Its like a counterproductive stealth message has been implanted in your mind, "You never seem to really win at anything, so don't expect much here!" This message brought to you by your sponsor, "limiting lives is what we do!"
We all search for meaning in life. However sometimes life is meaningless. It just "is." The critical moments that shape our lives are when we define our experience and declare…."what this means is (fill in the blank)." If the statement that we make at this crucial moment, in filling in the blank, even mildly disempowers us, we empower the logic of limitations to control our perspective from that moment forward.
Don't believe me? Here are some famous examples for you to try on for size:
Oprah Winfrey was fired from one of her first jobs as a television reporter and told that "She wasn't fit for TV." How do you think she defined that moment? After his first performance on the Grand Ole Opry, Elvis Presley was banned from returning and told, "You ain't going nowhere son!" At that crucial moment do you think the King of Rock created a message of possibility or limitation?
Life just is. Sometimes when we look for meaning we might want to remember that.
What's your story?
Have you ever been fired, rejected, heartbroken, mistreated, insulted? How did you define the moment? I only ask, because that agreement has shaped your reality. Be Careful What You Agree With! The Results Can Be Lethal.
Now what did you say you really wanted in your life?
Listen carefully and you'll hear those reasons whispering their logic of limitations! It's no big deal if you hear the "stories" from time to time. The question is what are you going to do about it?
Mark Twain once commented that "life does not consist, mainly or even largely of facts or happenings. It consists mainly of the stream of thought forever flowing through ones head." Our REASONS create our definitions and create the energy of our life. Change our definitions and you change your experience. Change your meanings you alter your destiny. Life does not give us what we want. Life gives us whatever we expect. Life just is. The meaning that we attach to the events of our life defines our experience and creates the thoughts that allow us to create abundance or limitation.
When I was a kid I absolutely loved to read the cartoons and comics in the back of the newspaper. They made me laugh with glee. Now those cartoons were essentially a picture being defined by a clever or witty caption. One day I got the bright idea that I was going to change the captions on those cartoons and see if I could make them funnier. Isn't life the same way? Your pictures are your experiences. Your captions are your beliefs. Do you have the courage to change your own captions? It's your life after all. The only limitation we possess is the idea that there are limitations. Did you write your own captions or did you allow someone else to write them for you?
We all have a huge investment in what we have come to know. However, sometimes what we know has nothing to do with what we need to know to be successful. Sometimes what we know has nothing to do with what we need to know to be happy! To change all of that you need to locate your limiting beliefs and say goodbye to them. Change the captions of your life. Reasons or Results.
Marilyn Voss Savant writes a weekly column for Parade magazine. She is acclaimed as the person with the highest IQ on record. When she was asked by one of her readers about life, she responded with ""Feeling is what you get for thinking the way you do!" True poetry. To that I would simply add, be careful what you agree with it'll mess up your focus.
Consider this for a second: How many beliefs were you born with? How many beliefs do you have today? Along the way you have acquired a lot of baggage that is weighing you down. The problem most of us run into is that we believe in things that are "just not so", but we lead our lives in alignment with those lousy definitions and experiences to make them "so." It might be BELIEF-ECTOMY time.
One of the central tenets of the personal development movement is that we become whatever we focus upon most. Fifty years ago Earl Nightingale published his bestseller "The Strangest Secret" and made us realize that our focus creates our destiny. Web poet, adventurer and philosopher Mike Dooley of www.tut.com has eloquently modernized and improved upon this statement when he states, "Thoughts Become Things. Choose the Good Ones!" Most people don't get what they really want because their focus is fuzzy at best. Do you really know what you are focused on? Before you answer that question too quickly recognize that your focus has been responsible for creating your life up until this point. Your agreements shape your reality…. so be careful what you agree with.
So what is it that you really want? My advice is simple. Be Careful What You Agree With and Then Focus, Focus, Refocus and Refocus some more. And when you think you are through focusing, focus again. You wouldn't drive to your destination fixated on the rear view mirror! Reasons or Results. Be Realistic: Create A Miracle!
Mixed Blessings
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Mixed Blessings
I'll never forget the day Marilyn came in my office and said, "I am too old to learn how to use a computer."
I shook my head in disbelief. Here is a woman who has raised 6 children, who has progressed in her career telling me that she was too old to learn something new! My own philosophy on life is that you are NEVER too old to learn and do something in your life!!
Needless to say, she did learn how to use the computer! Marilyn is now retired and leading a very active life volunteering in her community helping anyone who needs help and utilizing her computer skills! This woman has an amazing talent for making people laugh and feel at ease.
So here she is well into her 60's and she calls me and says she is going to make a CD. You can imagine my surprise and delight!! All her life she has played the piano and has shared her talents in teaching others, and playing for people. Now she has her own CD, Mixed Blessings. My mind flashed back to the day of when she told me she was too old to learn!!!!
To produce the CD, she had a lot of learning to do. It was not just sitting at the piano and playing. She had to research the songs, learn about copyright issues, and learn about marketing. Pretty amazing for someone who once said she was too old to learn!!
Marilyn's story reinforces my beliefs that no matter what your age, you can learn and do whatever you set your mind on. Congratulations to you, Marilyn, you are an inspiration!
It is my hope in sharing Marilyn's story with you that it will inspire you to:
take action to learn and do that one thing that you
have thought about but have never done! Go for it!
The Professor and the Jar
Enjoy this story full of wisdom, a story that is inspirational and one that reminds us to always have time for our friends.
A Story with Wisdom
The Professor and the Jar
By Author Unknown (thanks to Beth for sending)
A Professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
So the Professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The Professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."
The Professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the space between the grains of sand.
"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else -the small stuff.
"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18.
There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. "Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand." One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The Professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."
My Father
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
My Father
When I was:
Four years old: My daddy can do anything.
Five years old: My daddy knows a whole lot.
Six years old: My dad is smarter than your dad.
Eight years old: My dad doesn't know exactly everything.
Ten years old: In the olden days, when my dad grew up, things were sure different.
Twelve years old: Oh, well, naturally, Dad doesn't know anything about that. He is too old to remember his childhood.
Fourteen years old: Don't pay any attention to my dad. He is so old-fashioned.
Twenty-one years old: Him? My Lord, he's hopelessly out of date.
Twenty-five years old: Dad knows about it, but then he should, because he has been around so long.
Thirty years old: Maybe we should ask Dad what he thinks. After all, he's had a lot of experience.
Thirty-five years old: I'm not doing a single thing until I talk to Dad.
Forty years old: I wonder how Dad would have handled it. He was so wise.
Fifty years old: I'd give anything if Dad were here now so I could talk this over with him. Too bad I didn't appreciate how smart he was. I could have learned a lot from him.
An Obstacle in Our Path
Enjoy this story filled with words of wisdom to inspire you to look at your obstacles as stepping stones. We hope you find it inspirational.
A Story with Wisdom
An Obstacle in Our Path
By Author Unknown (thanks to Sam for submitting)
Was printed in the November 16, 1997 issue of Bits and Pieces....thanks to Patrick for letting us know.
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock.
Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded.
After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse laying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.
The peasant learned what many of us never understand.
Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.
More thoughts on obstacles:
If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.
Frank A. Clark
Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats.
Og Mandino
The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.
Thomas Carlyle
Life is a Do-It-Yourself Project
This is a great story full of wisdom to remind you to always do your best. We hope you enjoy this inspirational story and the words inspire you to do your very best. A Story with Wisdom
Life is a Do-It-Yourself Project
By Author Unknown (thanks to Chris for submitting)
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.
He would miss the paycheck, but he wanted to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "my gift to you."
What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.
So it is with us. If we build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized that we would have done it differently.
Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely.
It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity.
The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it-yourself project."
Your attitudes and the choices you make today will be your life tomorrow, build it wisely.
Dreams
There are many messages in this story: you are never to old to learn, always pursue your dreams, you are never to old to set your goals and accomplish your dreams, laugh and find humor in everyday, find opportunities in change,especially in today's world where change is moving at a fast pace, don't let change overwhelm you, let change help you find opportunities you may have never seen! have no regrets - her story is so true, so many people use words such as "if only", "I wish", "I can't", etc. Do you have a dream, a wish, then turn it into a goal today - break it down, take one step, then another and accomplish your dream. A Motivational Story with Wisdom - Dreams by Author Unknown
The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that that lit up her entire being.
She said, "Hi, handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?" I laughed and enthusiastically responded, "Of course you may!" and she gave me a giant squeeze. "Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?" I asked. She jokingly replied, "I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of children, and then retire and travel." "No seriously," I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age. "I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!" she told me.
After class we walked to the student union building and share a chocolate milkshake. We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this "time machine" as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.
Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up. At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I'll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, "I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know."
As we laughed she cleared her throat and began: "We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. "You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many people walking around who are dean and don't even know it!" "There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight. Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change." "Have no regrets. The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets." She concluded her speech by courageously singing The Rose. She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives. At the years end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago.
One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be.
Ermas Angel
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Erma's Angel, written by Erma Bombeck
I would have talked less and listened more.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.
I would have eaten the popcorn in the "GOOD" living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.
I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.
I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren’t there for the day.
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn’t show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.
Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I’d have cherished every moment realizing that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.
When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, “Later. Now go get washed up for dinner.”
There would have been more "I love you's" And more, "I'm sorry's" but mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute…look at it and really see it…live it…and never give it back.
In honor of women’s history month and in memory of Erma Bombeck who lost her fight with cancer: Here is an angel sent to watch over you…
...(\ ** /)...
....(\( )/)....
...(_/ \_)...
..../__\….
Please pass this on to someone that you want watched over.
Where Was God on Sept 11th
A Story with Wisdom
Where Was God on Sept 11th?
by Author Unknown
Thanks to Marilyn for sending me this story.
God was very busy the morning of September 11th.
He was trying to discourage anyone from taking the hijackers' flights. Those four flights together held over 1000 passengers yet there were only 266 aboard.
He was on 4 commercial flights giving terrified passengers the ability to stay calm. Not one of the family members who were called by a loved one on any of the highjacked planes said that passengers were screaming in the background.
On one of the flights, He was giving strength to passengers to overtake the hijackers. In addition, one flight He grounded altogether. Who knows how many other planes never accomplished the terrorists' missions.
He was busy trying to create obstacles for employees at the World Trade Center. Only around 20,000 were at the towers when the first jet hit. Since the buildings hold over 50,000 workers, this was a miracle in itself. How many of the people who were employed at the WTC told the media that they were late for work or they had traffic delays.
He was holding up 2-110 story buildings so that 2/3 of the workers could get out. I was so amazed that the top of the towers didn't topple when the jets impacted.
He was patiently waiting for his children to join forces and love one another again. He opened our eyes and listened to our prayers. He has given us comfort, guidance and compassion. Satan's work has failed and I thank God for that. God was very busy on September 11th and I thank him for that, too...
Overcoming Other Peoples Opinion
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Overcoming Other People's Opinion
by Catherine Pulsifer
When our self confidence is low we sometimes tend to believe what others think of us. We do not have the confidence in ourselves to believe otherwise. One individual who has defied others beliefs is Les Brown.
It started when he was just a baby. He was put up for adoption. Thankfully, he was adopted by a woman, Ms. Mamie Brown. She was a single parent, had limited financial resources, and little education, but she had a big heart. She adopted Les and his twin brother.
As Les was growing up he encountered difficulties in school. He was incorrectly labeled as a "slow learner". When labels are put on children, they damage a child's self-esteem. However, Les was persistent. He refused to believe what others believe his abilities to be. He had big dreams. He had no formal education beyond high school, yet he had determination and was very persistent. He furthered his education by self-education. He had a passion to learn, to understand the human potential.
Today he is a very successful professional speaker and author. Growing up his self esteem and confidence were low. It took him many years to realize his potential.
Les is an example of someone who has overcome others peoples belief. When listening to his videos and tapes, he portrays confidence. He tells his story and how he overcame the challenges in his life. Listening to him speak, and listening to his laugh, which is certainly an infectious laugh, he is very motivating and inspiring.
To quote Les Brown, "You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change." For those who have low self confidence, start reading about the Les Browns of the world. Many people have so much more potential than where they are right now. If you have a dream, then start today to move yourself towards it.
As Les Brown says, "Other people's opinion of you does not have to become your reality."
Stopped By A Brick
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Stopped By A Brick
by Author Unknown
About ten years ago, a young and very successful executive named Josh was traveling down a Chicago neighborhood street. He was going a bit too fast in his sleek, black, Jaguar, which was only two months old. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no child darted out, but a brick sailed out and - WHUMP! - it smashed into the Jag's shiny black side door! SCREECH...!!!! Brakes slammed! Gears ground into reverse, and tires madly spun the Jaguar back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown.
Josh jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid and pushed him up against a parked car. He shouted at the kid, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing?!" Building up a head of steam, he went on. "That's my new Jag, that brick you threw is gonna cost you a lot of money. Why did you throw it?"
"Please, mister, please...I'm sorry! I didn't know what else to do!" pleaded the youngster. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop!"
Tears were dripping down the boy's chin as he pointed around the parked car. "It's my brother, Mister," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."
Moved beyond words, the young executive tried desperately to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat.
Straining, he lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be OK. He then watched the younger brother push him down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long walk back to the sleek, black, shining, Jaguar - a long and slow walk.
Josh never did fix the side door of his Jaguar. He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at him to get his attention.
Don't let the bricks in life hit you, be sensitive to those around you.
Inspirational Words of Wisdom
Today Is The Best Day
A Motivational Story with Wisdom
Today Is The Best Day
By Catherine Pulsifer
We sat on the swing enjoying the warm summer air, truly without a care in the world. Cody, my 6-year-old nephew laughed, as he swung higher than me. His laugh made me smile.
Afterwards, we went for a walk, looking at the gardens. As we were walking, Cody looked up at me and said, "Today is the best day!" I smiled at him and replied, "Yes, it is a great day."
I then started thinking about what had we done that day? We didn't really do anything special; there was nothing that we did that cost any money. It was a simple day…one where we talked, went for walks, and swung on the swing.
So often, we wait for our "best days" without realizing that "today is our best day". Or we say, "when I get this", or, "if only this", or, "when I have more money, I will", and we forget to live every day, enjoying today.
We should be more like children; they truly live in the moment! They don't need expensive things to make them happy; they don't use the phrase, "if only", or, "when I get this", or, "when I have more money".
There is a saying, "Carpe Diem" which means, "Seize the Day". As we get older, we need to remember this saying and enjoy each and every day. Keep your child like attitude of "living each moment to its fullest"!
adjusting Sails
A inspirational story about how we can't change events in our lives, but how we can change the future. We hope you enjoy the words of wisdom in this message.
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Adjusting Sails
by Catherine Pulsifer
"I can't change the direction of the wind,
but I can adjust my sails
to always reach my destination."
Jimmy Dean
A friend of mine had a terrible childhood. He was one of five children, his father was an alcoholic and died very young, and his mother was unable to support the family.
Unfortunately, the children were separated and placed in foster homes. My friend dropped out of school and did nothing to further himself even though opportunities were available to him. He eventually went through a divorce.
My friend's brother, although experiencing the same childhood, educated himself and obtained a job as a welder. He has a close family and a wonderful home.
Both brothers give a similar answer when asked why their lives turned out the way they did:
"You'd turn out this way too, if you had a childhood like mine."
Neither one of the brothers
could change his past,
but one of them adjusted his sail!
Adjust Sails
________________________________________
Inspirational Words of Wisdom.....
Drinking and Driving
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Drinking and Driving
Near to the door he paused to stand
as he took his class ring off her hand
all who were watching did not speak
as a silent tear ran down his cheek
and through his mind the memories ran
of the moments they walked
and ran in the sand (hand and hand)
but now her eyes were so terribly cold
for he would never again have her to hold
they watched in silence as he bent near
and whispered the words,
"I LOVE YOU" in her ear.
He touched her face and started to cry
as he put on his ring and wanted to die
and just then the wind began to blow
as they lowered her casket into the snow...
this is what happens to man alive.....
when friends let friends....
drink and drive.
Count Your Blessings
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Count Your Blessings
by Charley Mard
What a day I said to myself as I jumped out of bed with glee. Today was the day I planned to go and cut my Christmas Tree.
I wonder what I'll get this year, as I lugged it from a far. Maybe a watch or a real big ring or even a brand new car. I guess I better bake and clean and there's stockings I have to stuff. The time is short and moneys scarce and I never have enough. All these people coming over which gives me a lot of work. They never help and some complain about some silly quirk.
While in the store, I saw a boy who appeared to be really sad. He's got it made that silly kid, no work just fun to be had. He looks at me and I say, "You seem a little down today. Haven't you picked out your favourite toy? Why aren't you smiling and having fun like a normal little boy?
His words stung deep as he lifted his head and from his eye a tear, "I've picked it out but hope is gone and I'm afraid that Santa won't hear. I always loved this time of year for Santa always came. But now it won't mean as much to me or ever be the same. My dad left Mom and me years ago when I was very small. So I don't remember Christmas with him being there at all. But Mom and me we always laughed and put up the Christmas tree. Mom passed away this year and now there's only me."
I hung my head in deep regret because of my thoughts you see, because I wanted most of all for folks to think of me. Why couldn't I have the things I wanted as I worked real hard all year. I deserved those rings and a brand new car and something new to wear.
Now I discovered more precious gifts than I had never seen. They now became more valuable to me than they had ever been. My friends and family were right beside me to help at any time. I asked God to forgive me, how could I be so blind. When I get up each morning now I thank the Lord above. Who knows how long they will be there to shower me with love. A lesson was learned this year as I prepared for Christmas day. No more asking for me but to be thankful when I pray!
Christmas Shoes
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Christmas Shoes
A wonderful song, sung by Newsong
It is almost Christmas time, there I stood in another line tryin' to buy that last gift or two not really in the Christmas mood. Standing right in front of me, was a little boy waiting anxiously pacing round like little boys do. And in his hand he held a pair of shoes. His clothes were worn and old, he was dirty from head to toe and when it came his time to pay I couldn't believe what I heard him say
"Sir, I want to by these shoes, for my mama, please it's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size. Could you hurry, sir Daddy said there's not much time you see Moma's been sick for quite awhile and I know these shoes would make her smile and I want her to look beautiful, If Mamma meets Jesus tonight"
He counted pennies for what seemed like years. Then the cashier said, "son, there's not enough here." He searched his pockets frantically then he turned and he looked at me. He said, "Mama always made Christmas good at our house through most years she did without. Tell me sir what am I going to do somehow I've got to buy these Christmas shoes." I just had to help him out, and as I laid the money down I never forgot the look on his face when he said, "Mama's gonna look so great"
I knew I'd caught a glimpse of heaven's love as he thanked me and ran out. I know that God had sent that little boy my way to remind me just what Christmas is all about.
Who Packed Your Parachute?
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Who Packed Your Parachute
by Author Unkown
Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason.
Charles Plumb, a US Naval Academy graduate, was a jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.
One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"
"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man grabbed his hand and said, "I guess it worked!"
Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."
Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb kept wondering what the man might have looked like in a Navy uniform. He wondered how many times he might have seen him and not even said good morning, how are you or anything, because you see, he was a fighter pilot and the man was just a sailor. Plumb thought of the many hours that sailor had spent in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he did not know.
Now Plumb asks his audience, "Who is packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down. As you go through your week, month, and even New Year, recognize the people who have packed your parachute and enabled you to get where you are today!
Wanna Dos
An inspirational story with wisdom, Wanna Do's, written by Catherine Pulsifer. We hope you find words of wisdom in it. - Growing up, we lived in the country. There were not many houses in the area. My brother and I would walk to the bus stop every day. And every day we would pass by a driveway that had a sign saying, "Wanna Do's". We often wondered what the sign meant. Once we walked down the driveway where the sign was but all we could see was more driveway and trees. We had to leave or we would miss our bus. My brother pointed out that there was no word in the English dictionary that spelled "wanna". He figured the driveway was an old logging road and that no one lived down there. I questioned him about the sign but he didn't care. He said it was probably the name of a logging company. I was still curious. The following week every day as we passed the driveway I would look at the sign and wonder about what it meant. The following Saturday, I went out for a walk and of course came upon the sign and the driveway. Not caring what my brother thought, I ventured down the driveway. I walked for more than a half a mile. I was beginning to believe my brother was right. There was nothing around but trees. I then came upon a field full of flowers. It was was beautiful. I was so amazed. I wished my brother was with me to see this field. The driveway continued through the field, so I kept walking. Then, as I turned the corner, I was amazed to see a 2 story log home. It was not your usual log home. The front of this home was all windows. There was a large garage and a car parked in front of it. The place was unlike any I had every seen before. I could hear music coming from the house. Without thinking, I went up to the door and knocked. I could hear footsteps coming to the door, and for a second I thought maybe I should leave. But, before I could turn, the door opened and there stood a gentleman. "Well, young lady what can I do for you?" he asked. Before I could answer, I could hear a woman's voice saying "Is that someone at the door Henry?" She then joined her husband at the door. They were both looking at me strangely, and I am sure the look on my face was one of disbelief. I stood there saying nothing, thinking of the question, what was I doing there. Then my brain started to work again and I said, "Your sign, 'Wanna Do's', what does it mean? Every day I walk to the bus stop and see your sign. I have always wondered what it means?"
They both started to laugh. I immediately felt at ease. "Come in my dear", said the woman. Who was called Elsa. We sat down in the large room of windows and Henry started to tell me his story. "For many years Elsa and I worked. When we first started working we both loved our jobs. However, as the years went on we became disillusioned with the ways things were done. We found ourselves going further into debt and we found the area we were living in was becoming a concrete city. More and more houses being built, more and more traffic on the roads." Elsa laughed and said, "Yes, we used to drive to work in a half an hour, but with so many people moving in the area, we soon found it was taking us over an hour just to get to work."
Henry then piped up and said, "We used to call the new homes, 'reach out and touch your neighbor', as the homes were so close to each other. You would look out your window and you would be looking into your neighbors window." Elsa then picked up the conversation, stating, "We were both getting tired, going to jobs that no longer satisfied us. So we set a goal to pay off our bills. We both had hobbies and we both wanted to work on them. So we sold our house and moved here. We hung that sign at the end of our driveway to remind us how lucky we were to be able to do what we wanted to do. For many years we lived our life doing what others wanted us to do." She laughed and said, "Henry used to say we are living our life doing our 'gotta to do's', and that life is to short for gotta to do's!
Thinking about their wanna do's, I then butted in, "But it is not realistic. There are certain things we need and have to do in life, we can't always do what we want to do!" Elsa replied, "I agree. But when you look at your life, the majority of your time is spent doing things you have to do or the majority of your time is spent doing what you want to do? Some people haven't figured out what there 'wanna dos' actually are. Henry and I are lucky we know what our passions are. What our wanna dos are! To those people who don't know, I would say don't give up - keep looking. Pack all there is into your life; you only pass this way once! Sit back and think what is it you enjoy. Take courses, read books, find your passion, your 'wanna do's'."
Again, I butted in, "But some people would say, I don't have time, I am too busy doing my 'gotta dos'."
Henry quickly replied, "Then those people need to take a time management course, or read a book on time management. Find a way to make time to take that course, to try that one thing you have always wanted to do. The reason people should take this course is to make time to do the things that they want to do. A time management course should not be taken to make time to do more of the same things they are currently doing!" "Henry," Elsa said, "lets show our guest our wanna do's!" "Good idea", said Henry. They took me out to the garage. Henry had his tools set up and there were many wooden items he had built. He beamed as he showed them to me. They truly were works of art. Elsa then took me into the back room. In this room there were beautiful stain glass pieces all around. The sun streaming in the windows reflected off them all. I was amazed at the pieces the two of them made. "Where did you learn to do this", I asked them. Henry replied, "Well initially it was just an interest. We read books, we went to craft fairs and bought the items. But then one day we figured why can't we do it! You know, you can do anything you decide you can do! You can do it because you believe you can do it! So we practiced, and people started expressing interest when they saw our work. So we left the big city and we moved here. Now we don't need an alarm clock to get up. We enjoy our work so much we get up when the sun comes up. The stress in our life is non-existent. As you can see, we don't have a lot of luxuries but we have a comfortable home and we are very content here." Seeing them in their workshop, seeing their smiles, made me understand the "wanna do's" sign. Both of them enjoyed their work immensely. I thanked them for sharing their "wanna do's" with me and left with a feeling of contentment.
What are your "wanna do's?" Are you doing it? If so, great! If not, what goals have you set to move you in the direction of your "WANNA DO'S"?
Inspirational Words of Wisdom
Desperation to Inspiration in Thirty Minutes Flat
Read this an inspirational story with wisdom, Desperation to Inspiration in Thirty Minutes Flat, written by by Peter Simmons which is full of words of wisdom. - I'm no success guru, in fact I've never written an article on this subject before, ever! So why am I writing it now you ask? To tell you of something that truly inspired me and I hope will inspire you too. Steve and I have been best friends for about twenty years now. Like most people we've had our ups and downs over the years and despite moving to different areas we've still kept in touch. In fact I really like that about our friendship, no matter what happens we'll always keep in touch and support each other. We're not really the kind of best friends that contact each other every day or even every other day. On average it's probably about every two to three weeks. I suppose like most people we have tried to weave our way through life with what we have. Neither of us setting the world alight when we left school with only minor school qualifications and not really being good at anything in particular. Steve had always considered himself impaired in some way. He discovered he was dyslexic sometime later and led a dyslexic life. He didn't read or write unless forced and this ultimately had a huge impact on his life. He didn't learn much and he didn't know what was going on in the world because he didn't watch the news, read newspapers, books or sign up for any courses. Worst of all, he increasingly suffered from a lack of self-confidence that affected everything he did or thought about doing negatively. I noticed it more and more and it really got me down to see him like that. I tried to encourage him telling him he could do anything he wanted and giving examples of people who had achieved in their lives often against what seemed to be huge obstacles. It wasn't having much effect he just saw the negative. One day I saw one of those TV ads for a TV programme that was just about to start. The programme was apparently going to be investigating a new treatment for dyslexia sufferers. He might find it interesting I thought and sent him a phone text message, "channel 3 now". I watched the thirty-minute programme. Although it was still early in their research trials, their results were positive. I wondered if he had seen it and found it interesting. I didn't hear from him, so made a mental note to ask him what he thought of it next time we spoke and thought no more about it.
The TV programme had showed that so far in the trials, if sufferers did a series of eye and body coordination exercises daily, they significantly improved their learning abilities, reading and writing. This in-turn had a profound effect on their self-confidence and daily lives. They didn't consider themselves impaired or different anymore, they became new people and people saw that dramatic change in them instantly. A few days later he phoned me. Something had changed in his voice, he sounded charged with excitement. As I sat stunned he explained that his whole life had changed. Everything that the dyslexia sufferers in the TV programme had suffered he had also suffered. Feelings of being worthless, stupid, confused, lacking in concentration, severe frustration, lack of confidence. He identified with these people of all ages who felt the same as he did, he wasn't the only one suffering with it. He wasn't alone anymore.
I remained stunned as he continued to talk and eventually he became conscious of the fact he hadn't stopped talking. I told him to carry on because it was good to hear him talking so positively and confidently. He'd also just landed a new job as a care support worker which involves helping and supporting others with some kind of difficulty in their homes. I couldn't believe the transformation I was witnessing. A few days later I spoke to him again by phone and was relieved to find that it hadn't been a dream, it was real and he was still the new Steve. He was still positive and motivated. He'd even started to read a book, something he hadn't done before.
At the time I write this article, Steve has sent off for more information on the trials and the oversubscribed course they are beginning to offer. He hasn't yet received any information or taken any courses, yet he feels as if he's benefited because he's been doing some of the simple daily exercises he saw being done by the sufferers on the programme. Steve, you inspired me! I hope by writing this article it will inspire others to change their lives for the better too, whether you suffer with dyslexia or not. Always be on the lookout for that spark of opportunity that could change your life or someone close to you forever.
A Little Bit Every Day
An inspirational story about goals, being overwhelmed, and, taking one step at a time. We hope you enjoy the words of wisdom this story has to offer and that you find it inspirational.
A Story with Wisdom - A Little Bit Every Day
By Catherine Pulsifer
Recently I had a conversation with a person who has a long-term goal that will take a few years to achieve. The individual seemed overwhelmed with the size of the goal and was getting discouraged. Their focus was on all the things they need to do to reach the goal and their comment to me was, "I just can't do it". It reminded me of the story of the clock that had been running and running:
This clock had sat on the mantle for years. And it ran and ran. One day, the clock began to think about how many times it had to tick during the year. It counted up the seconds - it would have to tick 31,536,000 times a year. The clock seemed overwhelmed - "I can't do it, that is just too much." So the clock stopped ticking. Then somebody reminded the clock that it didn't have to tick the 31,536,000 seconds all at one time, but rather one tick at a time. The clock then realized this was okay and started ticking again!
When we set our goals, it is good to visualize the end results. But, getting to our goal is doing a little bit every day; not doing it all at once. So the next time you find yourself overwhelmed by your goal, remember the clock and the number of ticks - do a little bit every day and over time you will reach your goal. Believe me, reaching your goal is worth it!
How Poor Are We
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
How Poor Are We?
One day a father and his rich family took his son to a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show him how poor people can be. They spent a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"
"Very good Dad!" replied his son.
"Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked.
"Yeah!"
"And what did you learn?"
The son answered, "I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden; they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden; they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard, they have a whole horizon." When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless.
His son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are!"
Our outlook on life depends on the way you look at things. What others may think as riches, others may want.
The most important things in life are your friends, family, health, good humor and a positive attitude towards life. If you have these then you have everything!
How Valuable Are You
We hope this inspirational story filled with words of wisdom inspire you to take action rather than talking about what you are going to do.
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
How Valuable Are You?
"People would rather be shown
how valuable you are,
not told."
Roger W. Babson
Let me tell you a story of two people I worked with ten years ago.
Both of these individuals were the same age, and approximate intelligence. Both wanted to progress in their careers.
But, there was on major difference between them. One just talked and complained about not getting ahead while other person took the initiative by taking courses, and finding solutions.
Now, 10 years later, the person who talked and complained is still talking and complaining and still remains in the same position. The person who took the initiative and found solutions has been promoted several times.
What you have accomplished in the past is a much stronger example than talking about what you are capable of doing in the future.
Actions do speak louder than words!
Love, Wealth, or Success
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Love, Wealth, or Success?
A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said "I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat." "Is the man of the house home?", they asked. "No", she said. "He's out." "Then we cannot come in", they replied.
In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened. "Go tell them I am home and invite them in!" The woman went out and invited the men in.
"We do not go into a House together," they replied. "Why is that?" she wanted to know. One of the old men explained: "His name is Wealth," he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, "He is Success, and I am Love." Then he added, "Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home."
The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was overjoyed. "How nice!!", he said. "Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!" His wife disagreed. "My dear, why don't we invite Success?" Their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: "Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!" "Let us agree to our daughter-in-law's advice," said the husband to his wife. "Go out and invite Love to be our guest."
The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, "Which one of you is Love Please come in and be our guest." Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other 2 also got up and followed him.
Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: "I only invited Love, Why are you coming in?" The old men replied together: "If you had invited Wealth or Success. The other two of us would've stayed out, but since you invited Love. Wherever He goes, we go with him.
Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success!!
The Trouble Tree
A Story with Wisdom
The Trouble Tree
by Author Unknown
The carpenter I hired to help me restore an old farm house had just finished a rough first day on the job. A flat tire had caused him to miss an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and now his ancient pick-up truck refused to start.
As I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. When we arrived he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked to the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation. His tanned face was wreathed in smiles; he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.
Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed by the tree and my curiosity got the better of me.
I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.
"Oh, that's my trouble tree," he replied. "I know I can't help having troubles on the job, but one thing's for sure, they don't belong in the house with my wife and children. So, I just hang them on the tree when I come home in the evening and then I just pick them up again in the morning."
"Funny thing, though," he smiled, "when I come out in the morning to pick 'em up, there ain't nearly as many as I remembered hanging there the night before."
My Grandfathers Collection
A Story with Wisdom
My Grandfathers Collection
By Catherine Pulsifer
My Grandfather, Alan Beyea, lived into his 90's. A few months ago my Mum lent me some of the sayings and stories that he had collected over the years. I was surprised as I read through the pages, I had no idea that my Grandfather had collected motivational quotes and articles. Perhaps my love of motivation has been passed down from my Grandfather!
His pages are filled with wisdom of wonderful stories, poems and quotes. So I thought this week I would share one of the poems that he had collected. It is called "At Day's End". The author is not shown on his pages, but after searching the Internet I found John Hall wrote it.
Is anybody happier because you passed his way?
Does anyone remember that you spoke to him today?
Is there anyone to utter now a kindly word of you?
Can you say tonight, in parting with the day that's slipping fast,
That you helped a single brother of the many that you passed.
Is a single heart rejoicing over what you did or said;
Does the man whose hopes were fading, now with courage look ahead?
Did you waste the day, or lose it? Was it well or sorely spent?
Did you leave a trail of kindness, or a scar of discontent?
As you close your eyes in slumber, do you think that God will say,
"You have earned one more tomorrow by the work you did today?"
I hope you enjoyed the poem as much as I did. The first line, "is anybody happier because you passed his way" is really a question we should all remember as we start each day. Sometimes the smallest gesture can brighten someone's day. So my thanks to my Grandfather for his collection and to my Mum who saved them all and for sharing them!
The Power of PERHAPS
Enjoy this inspirational story with wisdom, The Power of PERHAPS written by by Anita Foley - Do you find that every time you think about making a change in your life you sabotage yourself by thinking it is unlikely that you'll be able to do it? Do all the negative, self-limiting thoughts come to the forefront and stop you in your tracks? You must learn to change these self-imposed limitations that are preventing you from reaching your potential. Then you can transform your life and achieve your dreams. An unlikelihood CAN become a possibility, which can lead to a probability, if you use the power of PERHAPS. You can use this simple word to change your negative beliefs into possibilities; and that is the first step toward changing them into probabilities. Remember when you were a kid and you asked your parents if you could have something? If their answer was "No, you can't," you knew there wasn't much chance you'd get it. But, if their answer was, "Perhaps, we'll see," it usually meant you'd be able to convince them.
The word PERHAPS left the door open to negotiation; it meant there was a POSSIBILITY that you'd get what you'd asked for. All you had to do was be persistent from that point on and you would probably get what you wanted. There's POWER in the word PERHAPS.
You can use the power of PERHAPS today, also, just like when you were a kid.
How?
By using the word PERHAPS in place of the words I CAN'T and I WON'T.
Let's say, for example, you have a belief that you can't do math. Either you did poorly in the subject when you were in school (internal belief from past experience) or someone told you that you were not good in math (external belief). What would happen if you simply changed "I can't do math" to "PERHAPS I can do math"? The word PERHAPS opens up the belief to other possibilities. It allows for some action to be taken that could result in a change in the belief. "PERHAPS I can do math if I . . ." get a tutor; take a class; study harder; concentrate more; buy some math software; work with numbers more often; read a math textbook.
Instead of just giving in to a negative belief, you are open to taking some ACTION that will help you change the belief. "I CAN'T do math" can become "PERHAPS I can do math if I take some action" and then become "I CAN probably do math".
Likewise, "I WON'T make money with an online business" becomes "PERHAPS I can make money with an online business if I start one and work at it" to "I CAN probably make money with an online business." Do you see how changing that one word will change the whole feeling of the belief? Use the word PERHAPS to change your negative beliefs to possibilities that invite ACTION and, ultimately, to positive beliefs and probabilities. Think about the potential outcome for your changed beliefs. Changing your negative beliefs is the first step in the transformation process that will really make a difference in your life. What are your possibilities?
The Farmers And His Sons
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
The Farmers And His Sons
by Aesop
A farmer who had a quarrelsome family called his sons and told them to lay a bunch of sticks before him. Then, after laying the sticks parallel to one another and binding them, he challenged his sons, one after one, to pick up the bundle and break it.
They all tried, but in vain. Then, untying the bundle, he gave them the sticks to break one by one. This they did with the greatest ease.
Then said the father, "Thus, my sons, as long as you remain united, you are a match for anything, but differ and separate, and you are undone.
More inspirational words fiiled with wisdom:
I think togetherness is a very important ingredient to family life.
Barbara Bush
When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
A family is only as strong as its commitment to togetherness.
Wes Fessler
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.
Helen Keller
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
Buddha
Leaving One's Comfort Zone Is No Small Chore!
A Motivational Story with Wisdom
Leaving One's Comfort Zone Is No Small Chore!
by Josh Hinds
When I was younger I had the good fortune of learning the value of doing what you enjoy. If you happen to be stuck in a place in your life where you're not particularly happy, please don't take this as though I am rubbing it in your face (I certainly know in my past I've done things I didn't particularly enjoy as well)...
With that said, "Where did I learn the lesson you ask?" I listened to the advice of my dad (and still greatest mentor). You see, my father, just married and still very young had gotten into the insurance industry. To say that he was successful is a gross understatement (he joined Nationwide's top sellers before 25 years of age and was featured in Time Life Magazine as a result). He went on to be one of the first independent insurance salesman in our area of Tuscaloosa, AL.
Then he decided to move on to other ventures. Why in the world would someone who had built security head face first into the uncertain you ask? Simply put, his heart was no longer in it. He wanted to do other ventures. So that's what he did. I won't tell you he was successful in everything he tried, but I can tell you he had the satisfaction of doing what he enjoyed.
My friend, leaving one's comfort zone is no small chore! Trust me, I've learned this first hand. I can say that when all's said and done it's worth it! For better or worse we will at least know without a doubt that we tried. And knowing that is worth much more than I can put into words.
It is with writing this message that I hope that you're also finding personal satisfaction in your life. You owe yourself nothing less!
Follow Your Bliss
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Follow Your Bliss
Author Joseph Campbell often talked about "following your bliss." I heard of a bus driver in Chicago who does just that. He sings while he drives. That's right... sings! And I don't mean he sings softly to himself, either. He sings so that the whole bus can hear! All day long he drives and sings.
He was once interviewed on Chicago television. He said that he is not actually a bus driver. "I'm a professional singer," he asserted. "I only drive the bus to get a captive audience every single day.
His "bliss" is not driving a bus, though that may be a source of enjoyment for some people. His bliss is singing. And the supervisors at the Chicago Transit Authority are perfectly happy about the whole arrangement. You see, people line up to ride his bus. They even let other busses pass by so they can ride with the "singing bus driver." They love it!
Here is a man who believes he knows why he was put here on earth. For him, it is to make people happy. And the more he sings, the more people he makes happy!
He has found a way to align his purpose in living with his occupation. By following his bliss, he is actually living the kind of life he believes he was meant to live.
Not everybody can identify a purpose in life. But when you do, and when you pursue it, you will be living the kind of life you feel you were meant to live. And what's more, you will be happy.
Mothers Love
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
A Mothers Love
A little boy came up to his mother in the kitchen one evening while she was fixing supper, and handed her a piece of paper that he had been writing on. After his Mom dried her hands on an apron, she read it, and this is what it said:
For cutting the grass: $5.00
For cleaning up my room this week: $1.00
For going to the store for you: $.50
Baby-sitting my kid brother while you went shopping: $.25
Taking out the garbage: $1.00
For getting a good report card: $5.00
For cleaning up and raking the yard: $2.00
Total owed: $14.75
Well, his mother looked at him standing there, and the boy could see the memories flashing through her mind. She picked up the pen, turned over the paper he'd written on, and this is what she wrote:
For the nine months I carried you while you were growing inside me:
No Charge
For all the nights that I've sat up with you, doctored and prayed for you:
No Charge
For all the trying times, and all the tears that you've caused through the years:
No Charge
For all the nights that were filled with dread, and for the worries I knew were ahead:
No Charge
For the toys, food, clothes, and even wiping your nose:
No Charge
Son, when you add it up, the cost of my love is:
No Charge.
When the boy finished reading what his mother had written, there were big tears in his eyes, and he looked straight at his mother and said, "Mom, I sure do love you." And then he took the pen and in great big letters he wrote: "PAID IN FULL".
The Power of Words
A Story with Wisdom
The Power of Words
A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead.
The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all of their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died.
The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out.
When he got out, the other frogs said, "Did you not hear us?" The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.
This story gives us thoughts to think about:
1. An encouraging word to someone who is down can encourage them to achieve their goal.
2. A destructive word to someone who is down can have negative effects. Be careful of what you say.
The quote below was sent to me by Master Mark Russell. His quote describes "words" very accurately:
"Words:
The Snow may look smooth and soft,
but the rocks underneath are sharp!"
One last point,
Are your words encouraging?
A Life Worth Saving
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
A Life Worth Saving
by Author Unknown, Submitted by Ann
A man risked his life by swimming through the treacherous riptide to save a youngster being swept out to sea.
After the child recovered from the harrowing experience, he said to the man, "Thank you for saving my life.
The man looked into the little boy's eyes and said, "That's okay, kid. Just make sure your life was worth saving."
More words of wisdom to inspire you to live your life to the fullest:
True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.
Albert Einstein
Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.
Kahlil Gibran
Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.
Horace
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.
Angela Monet
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Albert Einstein
Inspirational Words of Wisdom
Life And Things There Of
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Life And Things There Of
by Jackie A. Sagner
I learned a lot about myself and my life about 7 years ago. I am an only child and some would say somewhat babied throughout my life. Babied may not be a good word; maybe sheltered would be a better way to put it.
My father became very ill in 1995. I did not live in the same state so I would travel from my home in Florida to Tennessee to see him.
My mother was also ill at this time so she was not able to help a lot.
The illness progressed and he passed away a few months later. I felt so empty and alone after his passing. I had friends to lean on but still it was not the same I wondered how my life would continue.
My mother came to live with me but that was short lived, we just did not see eye to eye at the time (I was only 23). She and I had a strained relationship for many years and just could not seem to get along.
A lot has changed since that time. I am 30 years old now and I now live only four hours away from my mother making it possible to see each other more often, and we do see each other quite a bit as well as talking on the phone daily.
I am happily married, settled in my career and now finally have the relationship with my mom that is stronger than it has been in my life.
It is just proof that life does work out if you just have patience and see things through.
People sometimes have a hard time looking to the future when things look so very bleak but take it from me, things do work out in the end.
The Story Doesn't End Here…
A motivational story about teamwork and life filled with words of wisdom. The Story Doesn't End Here…
By Author Unknown, Submitted by Rajani
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 realized that he'd lost the race. The moral- "Slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with." THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE, there are few more interesting things.....it continues as follows......
The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realized 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 - " Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable." THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE
The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there's no way it can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. It 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 kilometres 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 - " First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency." 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 realized 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 - "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. 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.
To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise has much to say:
Chief among them 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; & finally, compete against the situation - not against a rival.
Inspirational Words of Wisdom
Much To My Surprise
An inspirational story with wisdom, Much To My Surprise, is a story that rienforces, a small change can make a big difference. We hope you enjoy the words in this message and that it reminds you that sometimes the smallest changes can make major differences in your life. A fact that we sometimes forget. - A few months ago I saw a book on the Internet, "The One Minute Millionaire". The authors of this book were Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen. I knew of Mark Victor Hansen because of his involvement with the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. I was curious about what type of book this would be with Mark Victor Hansen as one of the authors. So I ordered the book.
The weeks past and truly I had forgotten that I had ordered it. I arrived home from work and my husband said a package came for me. Upon opening the package I found the book, plus a CD. The book intrigued me. I started reading it and found it was unlike any book I had previously read. The book is actually two books in one. The left hand pages are theory and the right hand pages are a story. I started reading the book together, but the story got my attention.
The story is one where you think nothing else could go wrong, but it does!! Every free minute I had I found myself wanting to read the book. When I wasn't reading the book I found myself thinking about the story and wondering how it would turn out. Well this morning I finished reading the book, the story part of the book. I read a lot of books, and I can honestly say this book is one that inspired me to write about it.
The book not only teaches principles for becoming independent, it truly teaches good values for life. It uses real life situations and analogies that really do make you think.
One analogy I especially like is:
"The wind might cause a kite to rise, but what keeps it up there is the fact that somebody on the ground has a steady hand. You have to hold steady to your values - your integrity. It's your anchor. You let go of that…well, it isn't long before your kite comes crashing down."
The title of the book, "The One Minute Millionaire" is intriguing but after reading the book the second title, "The Enlightened Way to Wealth" now makes sense to me. Enlightened being the key word!
To sum it up I would say: It's not all about money, it's about helping yourself, helping others and giving back.
I should point out I paid very little for the book, and truly wondered about the quality of what I would receive. I am sure you have heard the quote, "you only get what you pay for!" Well, MUCH TO MY SURPRISE…..what I got was worth far more than I paid for it. I highly recommend this book!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. And better yet, I hope it sparks an idea or makes you look at how you live your life.
"A small change can make a big difference."
Did We Fail
Some may consider what we did a failure. Read our story and see if you agree with our thoughts. A Motivational Story with Wisdom -
Did We Fail?
by Catherine Pulsifer
With excitement and enthusiasm we started our small business. No longer did we have the security of a weekly paycheck. We now were on our own to generate an income to provide us with the money to live. I was a little anxious about our ability to do this. But, Byron believed in our products, and more so, believed in our ability to succeed.
So, we worked and produced a number of products to sell. We invested heavily in a market that provides local crafts for cruise ships coming into our area. The first ships arrived, and we barely made enough money to pay our expenses. We now had our money invested in the booth that we had rented for the summer and fall months. We had a lot of money tied up in materials. But, we did not have enough money to cover our monthly bills. We were discouraged, and the thoughts of failure ran through our heads.
As we discussed our options, I happened to read the quote by Mary Pickford:
"If you have made mistakes...
there is always another chance for you...
you may have a fresh start any moment you choose,
for this thing we call 'Failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down."
This quote reinforced my determination and Byron's belief that we could succeed. We did fall down, but we were determined not to stay down! So, we stepped back and refocused. We came up with new products using existing materials. We redesigned our booth set up. We reviewed our pricing structure. And, we started making enough money to pay our bills.
My point in sharing our story is that if we had done nothing, if we allowed ourselves to "stay down", then we would have failed. But, we made the choice to learn from our mistakes, and we moved forward with more determination. Mary Pickford's quote offers a much better perspective on failure - a chance for a fresh start! The most important point here is "choice" because you decide how you view your failure, you decide if you stay down.
There are many stories of people who chose not to stay down:
- The Beatles' first audition - the recording company rejected them.
- Lucille Ball, the actress, was told to try another profession.
- Authors who have received numerous rejection slips, but they kept going until they were published.
Remember, how you view "failure" is entirely up to you.
Sam's Custom Bookmark
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Sam had many bookmarks that he has collected over the years. He had just celebrated his 75th birthday, and a surprise birthday party was held for him.
Needless to say, trying to figure out what to buy Sam was a challenge as he desired very little, and he needed nothing. He loved to read, and had a huge collection of books. But, to buy him a book seemed impossible, as I did not know which books he had. So, when I found a custom bookmark made by a local craftsperson, I thought it was perfect.
The custom bookmark had the following saying written on it:
"For to live is to function. That is all there is in living." Sam opened my present and smiled. "Where did you get this?" he asked. I told him about the craftsperson that made bookmarks.
He went on to tell me that this saying was written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.. He told me that it was part of the words spoken by Mr. Holmes when he turned ninety. He then went and got a newspaper clipping that had Mr. Holmes words written at ninety:
The riders in a race do not stop short when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill. There is time to hear the kind voice of friends and to say to one's self: 'The work is done" But just as one says that, the answer comes: "The race is over, but the work never is done while the power to work remains"' "The canter that brings you to a standstill need not be only coming to rest. It cannot be, while you still live. For to live is to function. That is all there is in living.
I was amazed at Sam. At 75 years old he immediately recognized the author of the saying on the bookmark. And further more, I was amazed that he had a newspaper clipping with the words of Mr Holmes. Sam then told me he reads these words by Mr. Holmes every year on his birthday. He said the words reminded him that no mater how old you are, there is a reason you are here. And, you need to have goals no matter what your age.
Smiling, as I left Sam's party, I thought how true those words are. I thought of some people who were much younger than Sam but who accomplish so little. Here was Sam at 75 and still setting his goals, still aiming to improve himself and to help others!
Inspirational Words of Wisdom
A Little Bit of Kindness
. Wisdom in Stories
A Little Bit of Kindness
There are times in our life when we don't take action because we feel the action is too little, that it wouldn't make a difference. However, sometimes the smallest gesture can make a huge impact on someone's life. There are many different ways we can show kindness to others, and it doesn't have to be in a big way.
The simplest of things may make the difference. A smile, a door being held open, a handwritten note, a kind word, the list can go on and on.
I was recently reading some of Aesop's fables and came across the story of The Lion and The Mouse. While this story has been around for a long time, it still has wisdom in its words. Below is the story:
One day a Lion was asleep when a little Mouse began running up and down his back; this soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon him, and opened his big jaws to swallow him.
"Please don't," cried the little Mouse: "forgive me this time, I shall never forget it: who knows but what I may be able to do you a turn some of these days?"
The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him that he lifted up his paw and let him go.
Some time after the Lion was caught in a trap, he pulled with all his might, but the ropes were too strong. Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight, in which the Lion was, went up to him, and with his sharp little teeth gnawed away the ropes, setting the Lion free.
"You once laughed at me," said the mouse. You thought I was too little to do you a good turn. But see, you owe your life to a poor little mouse."
While you may think the story is far fetched, the point I found in reading the story is not the size of the action that is important, but the difference that a small action made.
Achievement of Goals
A true story of setting our goals, facing challenges, and finally, the achievement of our goals. Enjoy this inspirational story with wisdom, Achievement of Goals, written by Catherine Pulsifer - For 26 years, I worked for a major corporation in Toronto, Ontario. While I had a wonderful career working with some great people, for the last five years of that career I found myself wanting a change. However, my financial circumstances did not allow me to leave my job. But, I had my goals - to own our own small business, to live in the country, basically to change our lifestyle. But, of course, I faced challenges in achieving these goals. I can't tell you how many times I felt frustrated. I felt like I was going further away from my goals rather than moving towards them. Our original goal to change our lifestyle was based on a two-year plan. Without going into the detail of the setbacks, that two-year plan turned into a reality taking five years. So how did we survive those three years of setbacks? We never lost focus on our goals. Even though the time frame changed, we kept taking the actions shown in our plan.
- In my case, on my desk in my office, a place that I did not want to be, I kept a quote that I would read every day - "Enjoy where you are at, while you are waiting to get to where you want to be!"- That quote reminded me to stay positive, not to become depressed about my situation. My goals, even with the setbacks, gave me hope and determination.
- I would often visualize what it would be like if I was living my goals rather than working towards them. With every positive mental picture, it reinforced that my goals could be a reality.
Finally, five years later, our goal became a reality. We quit our jobs in Toronto, we bought a house in the country, and we moved to Clairville, NB. And, we started our small business. I no longer needed to keep looking at the saying, "Enjoy where you are at, while you are waiting to get to where you want to be!"
We were where we wanted to be - in the country, running our own small business. There was just one problem. Our small business was not generating enough income to support us. The first year in business, our small business cost us more money than it made. With our savings dwindling, we knew we had two choices:
1. go back to work for someone else, or,
2. make our small business profitable.
With 26 years of working for a large corporation, we did not want to go back to work for someone else. We were determined to make our small business profitable.
There was one day in particular, I will always remember, I was feeling a bit down, almost defeated. I was updating the website and came across a quote. As I read the quote, I realized I could do it. The quote, that pulled me out of my slump, goes like this:
"PERSISTENCE - "persistence prevails when all else fails."
We remember reflecting back on our previous two-year goal that ended up being a five-year goal. We were persistent then, we just need to be persistent now. So we took a step back, we reassessed what and how we were running our small business. We changed, we worked hard and long, but we are happy to say that our small business is now generating an income for us. Our work is now displayed at many stores across Atlantic Canada, at the cruise ship booth located at the Port of Saint John.
My point in sharing our story with you is that no matter what your goals are, no matter what setbacks you face, never lose your focus on your goals. Your goals can become your reality. It may take some changes, and it will take some work, but if you stick with them, taking action, if you are persistent, you can achieve them. We are living proof.
Moms Wisdom
.
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Mom's Wisdom
My Mom is in her seventies, and has seen a lot in her lifetime. She faced challenges that we all face one way or the other. She has seen successes and many happy times throughout her life.
Recently, we were talking and I asked her if she could give me just three pieces of advice to live my life what would they be. After some thought, she said she would have to think about it. It surprised me that she wanted time to think about it. She always was free with her advice sometimes even when I didn't want to hear it.
I arrived at her house the next day where she handed me a piece of paper with her three pieces of wisdom written out. She explained to me that if she was only able to give me three, that these three were the most important.
As I read them, I realized the importance of what she was telling me. She wasn't telling me to save my money, nor was she telling me to work hard. Her 3 most important things to live a happy life were truly pieces of wisdom.
What were they? Here is the wisdom my Mom shared with me:
1. Make each new day count by helping someone or just making someone smile.
2. Don't dwell on life's troubles, think of the good times.
3. Don't worry about things you can't do anything about.
This was an interesting thing to do. Perhaps, like me, you have someone in your life that has been there for you, no matter what. My Mom has always been one of my biggest supporters and the wisdom she has given me over the years has helped shaped the person I am today.
Ask that person in your life to give you three pieces of advice to live a good life. You may be pleasantly surprised by the answers you get.
Don't We All
An Inspirational Story with Wisdom
Don't We All
One evening I was parked in front of the mall wiping off my car. I had just come from the car wash and was waiting for my wife to finish work. Coming my way from across the parking lot was what society would consider a bum. From the looks of him he had no car, no home, no clean clothes and no money.
There are times when you feel generous, but there are times that you just don't want to be bothered. This was one of the "Don't want to be bothered" times! "Hope he doesn't ask me for money," I thought. He didn't. He came and sat on the curb in front of the bus stop and he didn't look like he could have enough money to even ride the bus.
After a few minutes he spoke. "That's a very nice car," he said. He was ragged, but had an air of dignity around him. I said "Thanks," and continued wiping off my car. He sat there quietly as I worked. The expected plea for money never came. As the silence between us widened, something inside said, "Ask him if he needs any help." I was sure that he would say yes, but I held true to the inner voice.
"Do you need any help?" I asked. He answered in three simple but profound words that I shall never forget. We often look for wisdom in great accomplishments. I expect it from those of higher learning and accomplishments. I expected nothing but an outstretched grimy hand. He spoke three words that shook me, "Don't we all?" he said. I needed help. Maybe not for bus fare or a place to sleep, but I needed help. I reached in my wallet and gave him not only enough for bus fare but enough to get a warm meal and shelter for the day.
Those three little words still ring true. No matter how much you have, no matter how much you have accomplished, you need help too. No matter how little you have, no matter how loaded you are with problems, even without money or a place to sleep, you can give help. Even if it's just a compliment, you can give that!
You never know when you may see someone that appears to have it all. They are waiting on you to give them what they don't have. A different perspective on life, a glimpse of something beautiful, a respite from daily chaos, that only you, through a torn world can see.
Maybe the man was just a homeless stranger wandering the streets. Maybe he was more than that. Maybe he was sent by a power that is great and wise to minister to a soul too comfortable in himself. Maybe God looked down, called an Angel, dressed him like a bum and then said, "Go minister to that man cleaning the car, that man needs help."
How Broken Is White-Collar Justice?
It seems bad when you first consider what's going on in Tyco, Enron, and other big cases. A closer look finds a system that works
So what are reasonable people to make of this? One jury sends Martha Stewart to jail -- basically for misrepresenting what she did and when she did it after a friend illegally gave her a stock tip, while a jury can't reach a decision after 11 days of deliberations and a mistrial is declared in the case of whether Tyco's (TYC ) Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz, who maintain their innocence, might have illegally plundered their company of some $600 million. Former CEO Kenneth L. Lay of failed energy giant Enron roams freely around Houston, while mid-level Dynegy (DYN ) manager Jamie Olis is sentenced by a judge in that same city to 24 years in prison for a relatively minor act of fraud.
It's easy to reach the conclusion on Apr. 2, in the aftermath of the Tyco mistrial, that the white-collar criminal-justice system is somewhat random. It seems the people who allegedly did the worst things are the hardest to prosecute, while comparative peccadillos are punished harshly.
HEADING FOR JAIL? Yet that rush to judgment on the legal system may not be fair or accurate. Despite the seemingly incongruous results of some recent high-profile cases, the justice systems looks better the longer and harder you look.
Consider some of these other data points. In October, former Rite Aid (RAD ) Vice-Chairman Franklin C. Brown was convicted of fraud, conspiracy, lying to the Securities & Exchange Commission, and several other counts. Former CEO Martin Grass and CFO Frank Bergonzi avoided trials by pleading guilty to fraud. All three top executives in this important, but less widely publicized, corporate meltdown are likely to endure long jail sentences.
The mutual-fund mess has also yielded several guilty pleas. Nicole McDermott, a senior executive at Security Trust, pleaded guilty to securities fraud for late trading in December. A former vice-chairman at Fred Alger Management, James P. Connelly Jr., is facing the prospect of jail time for disrupting New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's investigation in the after-hours trading scandal. Connelly made a guilty plea in October.
STILL PENDING. Despite the fact that Lay (who says he's innocent of all wrongdoing) hasn't been indicted, the Justice Dept.'s Enron Task Force has been a success. In textbook fashion, prosecutors have attacked the case from the bottom up, squeezing lower-level wrongdoers and pressuring them to "flip" and provide testimony against their supervisors. Guilty pleas have already been secured from several key execs, including former CFO Andrew Fastow, ex-Enron Energy Services CEO David Delainey, and Ben Glisan, who once served as the company's treasurer.
Of course, several critical cases are still pending in coming months, including the ones against former Enron CEO Jeffrey K. Skilling, ex-WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers, and the ongoing case against Adelphia founder John Rigas. What's more, a retrial is coming in the obstruction-of-justice case against former Credit Suisse First Boston (CSR ) investment banker Frank Quattrone -- and the Tyco duo is likely to face a retrial as well.
So, while it may be tempting now to dismiss the whole criminal-justice system as distorted in favor of the richest and most powerful, remember one thing: The verdict still isn't in, and in complicated financial trials, it can take longer than passions insist to see justice served.
The Cult of the Charismatic CEO
In 1997, one of the blue-chip icons of corporate America, AT&T, was in trouble and seeking a new leader. The company was operating in a deregulated industry and facing declining profit margins in its core business—long-distance telephone service. After a three-month search, the board of directors passed over a well-regarded insider, John Zeglis, who was intimately familiar with the complexities of the deregulated business environment, and instead hired C. Michael Armstrong as CEO. After a 31-year career with IBM, Armstrong had headed Hughes Electronics, a defense contractor with interests in satellite television, with great success for four years. Business magazines showed him astride his Harley Davidson motorcycle, a knight on an iron steed riding in to save the telecommunications giant.
"The selection of a celebrity CEO can drive up the market value of a company’s stock," says assistant professor of business administration Rakesh Khurana, Ph.D. ’98, whose new book, Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs (Princeton University Press) explores the messianic mania surrounding such hires. Indeed, the day Armstrong was selected, the market value of AT&T stock went up $4 billion. The AT&T board also lavished money on Armstrong; in 2000, his compensation was reportedly $21.8 million, and perks included a $10-million guaranteed price on a block of his restricted stock.
Armstrong embarked on an aggressive program of acquisitions—cable TV, cellular telephony, and Internet delivery systems—as part of his vision of remaking AT&T into an omni-Internet corporation. That strategy has tanked, and AT&T is now selling off those acquisitions at huge losses. The stock, which peaked at about $64 per share in 1999, is currently priced at around $10. "The company today looks very much like it did when Mike Armstrong walked in—a formerly regulated company with declining margins in its core long-distance telephone business," says Khurana. "Except this: four years ago AT&T had $6.7 billion in debt; today its indebtedness is $67 billion. Its balance sheet, which had been one of the healthiest in the country, is now one of the worst." (On July 17, AT&T announced that Armstrong is leaving to become chairman of the corporation formed when Comcast Corporation bought AT&T’s cable-television business; AT&T took a $13-billion charge for the sale.)
Yet AT&T is far from the worst case. The unravelings of Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom have raised searching questions about corporate leadership and even shaken investors’ faith in corporate America. These debacles have revealed incompetent, unethical, and massively self-serving individuals atop corporations. Is this a group of bad apples who all went rotten at once, or—more worrisome—do these executives typify leaders at Fortune 1000 companies? Khurana, who earned his doctorate in organizational behavior, studying under a joint program of the sociology department and Harvard Business School, suggests that a corporate trend toward hiring "charismatic" CEOs, rather than competent executives with relevant skills, may help explain the anguish that now afflicts so many firms.
Drawing on interviews with CEOs, board members, and executive search consultants, plus extensive data on the country’s 850 largest public corporations, Khurana—who was himself a manager with Cambridge Technology Partners for four years—asserts that the CEO labor market "is not really a market. A genuine market means many people transacting anonymously and efficiently, with the guiding factor that no single actor has enough power to set the terms of the exchange. But CEO jobs are a small-numbers market: there are only a few positions, and only a small number of candidates perceived to have the skills needed to run a large corporation." In a typical year, 90 to 140 CEO positions open up in the largest 850 companies, the vast majority due to normal retirements. One-third of new CEOs hired are outsiders.
But the path to the top has changed. In the past, management controlled the succession process: the new top dog was almost always promoted from within the kennel, typically hand-picked by the outgoing CEO with a rubber stamp from the board of directors. (In fact, the CEO often chose the membership of the board, which became a highly self-replicating group.)
Then, gradually, the structure of corporate ownership changed, as stock became increasingly concentrated in the hands of institutional investors. In 1950, less than 10 percent of U.S. equities were owned by institutions (such as mutual funds and pension funds), but today, institutions control about 60 percent of corporate stock. In the 1980s, dismayed by declining profitability, these big investors sought to dislodge entrenched management corps, which were seen as an insular, self-satisfied, underperforming group. These major stockholders financed leveraged buyouts by private equity firms like Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and threw out previous management. When states passed anti-takeover laws, the investors shifted their focus to boards of directors.
Using the business media, investors pressured boards to monitor CEO performance more diligently. They publicized lists of the "Ten Worst Corporate Boards" and took out full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal criticizing specific boards and companies. "The message was: ‘We will shame you,’" says Khurana. "The hot and searing kind of shame that makes people at the country club look at you askance." Investors worked together to elect their own directors, and at places like Kodak, General Motors, and Westinghouse, boards began firing CEOs with a vengeance. At the largest 200 to 300 companies, up to 50 percent of CEOs were discharged.
The trend toward charisma may have started when "the idea took root that if a firm was doing poorly or well, it was because of the CEO," Khurana explains. "Previously, CEOs were about as well-known as their chauffeurs. But something happened when Lee Iacocca was credited with single-handedly saving an American icon. Most people forgot about the $2-billion federally guaranteed loan to bail out Chrysler, or the United Auto Workers’ givebacks. Iacocca made other CEOs look bland—there was even talk of drafting him for president. The image of a CEO changed from being a capable administrator to a leader—a motivating, flamboyant leader with a new task. In the late 1980s and early ’90s, business tried to redefine itself; it was no longer about the profane task of making money, but concerned with vision, values, mission—essentially religious terms."
This meant "importing the sacred into the profane," explains Khurana, who uses the German sociologist Max Weber’s works on charisma as a touchstone. Charismatic leadership, which grows from a personal magnetism that inspires devotion, reaches its apotheosis in religious cults. Its ascendance in corporate life is "a throwback to an earlier form of authority that proved to be very unstable," says Khurana. "Weber said that charisma and rationality cannot coexist. The progress of Western civilization has been a movement away from charismatic leadership toward rational authority invested in laws and institutions. After Hitler and Mussolini, Americans were rightly skeptical of charismatic leaders. Separating the individual from the office is one of the great victories of Western society."
Yet in corporate America, the personalities of CEOs have been conflated with the success or failure of the companies where they work. "The only explanation needed for General Electric’s performance is Jack Welch," says Khurana, noting that GE’s 300,000 employees in hundreds of divisions within many subsidiary companies are omitted from the equation. "Under Jack Welch, GE had a stunning run of profit growth—almost 80 straight quarters," he continues. "Given the complexity of business, it is extremely unlikely for that to happen without taking accounting liberties. But to raise that as an issue was
almost sacrilege at GE—because it would call into question charismatic authority."
Khurana’s research does question such authority; he finds no evidence for a stable "CEO effect." It turns out that the person at the top matters less than the relevant business conditions. Technological change, for example, has pushed Kodak and Polaroid (now in bankruptcy) into the digital-photography market, where profit margins are only one-tenth those in their older business of chemical photography. As Warren Buffett said, "When you put a good manager into a bad business, it’s usually the reputation of the business that remains intact."
Though not always. In December 2000, after a year when AT&T cut its dividend for the first time in its history and saw its stock price nose-dive from $60 per share to $18, the company’s board asked CEO Mike Armstrong to wait outside the room as they conducted his annual performance review. Business Week reported that when he returned an hour later, the board "exploded with a standing ovation."
Yes, charisma can be bulletproof—by definition, it is impervious to rationality. Even so, charismatic authority is a precarious, profoundly vulnerable thing, as history has repeatedly proved. And, as Khurana asserts, allegiance to charismatic leaders is in fact antithetical to an open society. The atavistic corporate quest for charismatic CEOs, with its deference to the personality and vision of a particular individual, comes bundled with risks of abuse, misconduct, and incompetence. The results are now spread before us, and their name is not Legion, but Enron.
Workers in Trouble with God?
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. –Colossians 3:23-24
In last week’s devotion, we talked about signs that might indicate a company was not honoring God. Those signs are important to note if you’re in a position to effect change in that firm. However, we heard from many workers who felt powerless to alter the policies of their companies even though they recognized the trouble signs themselves. Others wrote us to point out that not all businesses care if they’re honoring God.
Both points are valid, but that shouldn’t stop us from challenging companies that do want to honor God in their efforts, or to challenge leaders who are followers of Christ to see their authority as a tool for doing God’s work in tending His Creation responsibly.
In this, the second of a four-part series, we’re going to examine signs that we as workers might not be honoring God.
As a working follower of Jesus Christ, you might be in trouble with God if:
• You spend a considerable amount of time envious of the pay, perks, and attention others are getting.
• You say things about your employer you wouldn’t say if your boss were present.
• You’re working so much you’ve delegated teaching your kids about God to your spouse or their Sunday School teacher.
• You’re working so much you don’t have time or energy for reading the Bible regularly.
• You give less than your best effort because you think you’re not getting paid enough.
• You are regularly less-than-courteous to customers and coworkers.
• You secretly make fun of coworkers who aren’t doing their jobs well.
• You withhold information that will help another worker because it moves you up higher in the pecking order.
• You complain about your boss to other workers.
• You shun a coworker because you’re afraid you’ll be tainted by your association with them.
• You flatter the boss to gain an advantage.
• You tell your employer you’re going to return after your maternity leave when you know you are definitely not going to do so. (Usually you do this for economic advantage.)
• You’re secretly happy to see a coworker fail.
• You call in sick when you’re not sick.
• You pick a job purely on the basis of compensation.
• You resent the successes of others.
• You haven’t given much thought to how you serve God, other people or His creation by the work you do.
• You haven’t prayed for your coworkers, suppliers and customers.
• You “bend the rules” on expense accounts or reporting hours worked.
• You take credit for somebody else’s work or ideas.
• You lie to keep yourself or others out of trouble.
While no list is complete, and Christians need to avoid legalism or the idea that faith is merely about doing the right thing, we must always remember that we are ambassadors for Christ (II Cor. 5:20) and everything we do reflects on our relationship with Him in the eyes of
Businesses in Trouble with God?
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. –Colossians 3:23-24
Christians don't have a monopoly on ethics or morality. People of other faiths, even people of no faith, are often as ethical and moral as followers of Jesus Christ. Christians, however, when they surrender their lives to Christ, surrender their business practices to Him as well. The whole of Scripture now comes into play, and the standard by which we must measure ourselves, indeed the standard by which God measures us, is governed not by societal norms or even “best practices”, but by what God teaches us through Scripture. This means if we aren’t reading Scripture regularly, we aren’t measuring our work or our company by the same yardstick God does.
In fact, studies tell us that the more educated a person is in American culture, the less likely they are to be reading the Bible; and that the more successful a person is, the less likely they are to be reading the Bible. This means that even well-meaning followers of Christ lack the tools to assess how God views the work of their hands. Next week we’ll examine signs that a Christian worker might be in trouble with God for how they do their jobs. This week, though, we invite you to consider some signs your company might be in trouble with God.
You as a leader, or your company might be in trouble with God if:
• Your sales strategies target weaknesses in vulnerable people.
• Your employee manual has a phrase that says…”employees may be terminated with or without cause”.
• You have a high turnover rate.
• You have pay discrepancies between people in the same job which is not explained by tenure or superior performance.
• You want to “crush your competition.”
• Your product or service damages the environment.
• Your employees are afraid of you, or of your managers.
• You have high profit margins and low wages.
• You have high wages and lose money.
• You offer bonuses, but not to all levels of workers in the company.
• You treat one level of worker with more respect and dignity than other levels.
• You hire part-time workers as a strategy to avoid paying benefits to workers, instead of as a means to handle variable workloads.
• Your advertising is “technically correct” but couldn’t stand the “sniff test”. (“4 out of 5 dentists surveyed say our toothbrush is best” when you picked the dentists to survey.)
• You lay off a large number of workers and they didn’t know it was coming, but you did.
• Your business is struggling and you hide it from employees interviewing for jobs.
• You favor Christians over non-Christians in human resource matters.
• You exploit weaknesses and disadvantageous circumstances in suppliers or prospective employees in order to get their products, services or labors for unreasonably low dollars.
• Your employment practices pit workers against each other in ways that exceed healthy competition. “The bottom two workers in each department are gone…”
• You use pricing as a way to destroy a competitor’s business.
• You have economic models for pay scales at the lower end of the organization, but no models to determine true economic value of the senior management of your company.
• You make workers endure the “walk of shame” (having them personally escorted off the property) after a layoff or dismissal that isn’t due to performance issues on the part of the employee.
Would you like to respond to this list? Do you have other warning signs you think should be added? We invite you to write us at reactmni@aol.com. **
--Randy Kilgore
The corporations strike back
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For a time, the business page became the front page of newspapers around the country. A series of scandals from Enron to the $107.5 billion bankruptcy of WorldCom - the largest in history - shook Wall Street the way 9/11 had shaken the confidence of the rest of America. On a single day, July 8, 2002, stock values lost $1.4 trillion in value. Investors learned the hard way that some corporate books were cooked to a mush.
The congressional response? The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, often labeled SOX, which aimed to make corporate bosses and their boards face up to their responsibility for keeping honest books - or else. Federal sentencing guidelines were later revised, toughening penalties for white-collar crimes.
Now SOX is making the news again. Some business leaders are pressing for a partial rollback of the law's regulations, saying its corporate financial-reporting requirements are too onerous. Some ethics experts say SOX should be left alone. The battle picks up some momentum this week, when business and government officials meet in Washington, D.C. to discuss the law.
Congress itself isn't likely to revisit SOX. It would be too embarrassing with the continuing parade of corporate misdeeds - such as mutual funds letting favorite customers buy or sell their shares after trading hours and insurance companies, in effect, giving undisclosed kickbacks to agents selling their products.
But there is a drive by major business organizations to soften some SOX regulations overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Three high-profile groups - the US Chamber of Commerce (with 3 million member firms), the Business Roundtable (chief executives of about 160 major American companies are members), and the Financial Services Roundtable (representing CEOs of 100 of the nation's largest banks and other financial firms) - reckon compliance with SOX is too expensive and time-consuming.
"Small companies are particularly hard-hit," says David Chavern, director of the chamber's corporate governance initiative.
In a letter sent to the SEC in April, Mr. Chavern complained about Section 404 of SOX, which deals with a requirement for internal controls over financial auditing. The section "has been implemented in such a manner as to damage the long-term competitiveness of US companies and the US capital markets and to create burdens on these companies and their management well beyond what Congress intended and what is needed to remedy acknowledged abuses," he wrote.
Section 404 could fit in a page. It basically says management must establish and maintain adequate internal controls and procedures for financial reporting, and assess their effectiveness each year. The company's auditor must attest to that assessment. But the regulation implementing it, Audit Standard No. 2, runs more than 200 pages.
Controversy over that standard has prompted the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board - a government agency created by SOX to draft standards - to schedule a meeting Wednesday in Washington of an advisory group to discuss the standard and hear panel discussions by representatives from public companies, accounting firms, and small business. Chavern and other players in this regulatory battle plan to attend.
Only a tiny minority of corporations engaged in the kind of fraud that triggered SOX, he argues. Yet survey estimates suggest that the nation's big companies spend an average $4.3 million for added internal costs and extra fees for auditors and other consultants and software in connection with Section 404.
But not everyone believes that SOX should be watered down because some corporate executives are complaining.
"They have short memories," says Elliot Schwartz, research director of the Council of Institutional Investors. Congress acted to prevent some future corporate fraud and restore faith in the capitalist system and its markets. Since then, "I have not heard an investor complain that too much money is being spent." The 140 members of his council, mostly major pension funds, manage about $3 trillion in assets.
To Mr. Schwartz, SOX has brought some progress in cleaning up the books of companies and reinstilling investor confidence. "Our valuation is that the benefits [of SOX] greatly exceed the costs," he says.
SOX wasn't crafted by Congress as tightly as it ought to have been, says Rushworth Kidder, president of the Institute for Global Ethics in Camden, Maine. It was done in a legislative rush.
Further, he adds, trying to bolster business ethics with regulation doesn't always work. Regulation becomes merely law, and some business people skate as close to the legal line as possible whether they meet a broader sense of real integrity or not.
"The public wants people they can trust, not just people checking off the [regulatory] boxes," Mr. Kidder says.
What case for the business case?
A conference panel tried this week to take on the ‘business case’ for corporate responsibility debate
For an area of debate traditionally familiar with the ‘risk versus opportunity’ jargon, the business case argument has been at the heart of the corporate responsibility movement.
This is because it evidently helps companies calculate the cost of addressing or not addressing their social and environmental impacts.
In recent times, the corporate responsibility agenda has acquired wider recognition by businesses as being crucial to their overall operations. The ‘business’ case for engaging with the community and with employees has played a central role in this.
The Right Thing
Complaining Is a Duty, Not Just a Right
IN March, my wife and I took our 4-year-old grandson to Disney World. It was a wonderful vacation for all of us, except for the end. The van service that Disney recommended didn't show up on time at our hotel on the day of our departure. After waiting 40 minutes, in which we made several calls to the van service's dispatcher and heard promises of imminent arrival, we saw a representative of the van service on site who was working with conference groups at the hotel. She managed to find a nearby van to take us to the airport.
By the time the van arrived, we were anxious about making our flight and disappointed that we could have had an extra hour at the pool with our grandson. It was an annoying finish to an otherwise delightful break from a brutal New England winter.
The experience was a minor inconvenience, but it started me thinking about a larger question: Do companies have an ethical responsibility for the behavior of the independent companies they use to do their bidding? Am I justified as a customer to hold Disney just as responsible for the late van as the van company itself?
"Ethics is really being accountable for the far-reaching implications of your decisions," said Laura P. Hartman, a professor of business ethics at DePaul University in Chicago. "If they've made a decision to use a vendor, supplier or service provider to represent them, I believe we have matured in our society to hold businesses responsible for that as well."
But at a time when some chief executives seem to have trouble comprehending the impact of even their own company's actions on a customer's perception, is it reasonable to assume that they'll take responsibility? (Consider comments this month from the chief executive of Morgan Stanley that played down the firm's role in the Wall Street research scandal.)
It's not only reasonable, but should be demanded. "The ethical basis for all this," said Rushworth Kidder, president of the Institute for Global Ethics in Camden, Me., "is that just as we are responsible for the things we create, produce and sell ourselves — that's obvious — we're also responsible for the things we encourage others to buy."
Nowhere is this clearer than when global companies are caught using independent manufacturers in foreign countries that have inhumane working conditions.
"The question begs to be asked why would somebody consider it O.K." not to take responsibility for workers' welfare, said Gregg Nebel, head of social and environmental affairs for the Americas at Adidas. Using a team of 30 people worldwide, Mr. Nebel said, Adidas makes 800 to 1,000 visits a year to audit the roughly 800 companies that make its athletic shoes. If there's a problem, he said, "we will clearly state what the issues are, what needs to be done and request some action."
He added, "Termination is a last resort." If Adidas ends a relationship with a factory, "basically we've lost any leverage we have to influence change there." Mr. Nebel said Adidas would immediately terminate a relationship if a company was found to be using forced labor or if there were life-threatening health and safety issues in the factory. In 2000, according to its annual report, Adidas terminated 32 business relationships with suppliers in China, Taiwan, Thailand, Honduras, Mexico, Turkey and Bulgaria.
"A company is a steward of the way things are run," said Robert P. Lawry, director of the Center for Professional Ethics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, "and they have responsibility to ensure that they are run properly, even if they do not exert day-to-day control."
O consumers, too, have a responsibility for holding businesses accountable for both their own actions and those of the company they keep. Just as Adidas's only leverage over a wayward supplier is the threat to sever ties if it fails to behave acceptably, our only leverage as consumers is to let companies know that we will take our business elsewhere if they don't measure up.
Ultimately, after a volley of phone calls and e-mail messages, the van company reimbursed us $76 for three round-trip shuttle tickets from Disney World to the airport and sent a letter of apology. Now the Walt Disney Company knows about the incident, too. The true test will come later: Will our experience be any different the next time around?
A Board's Top Job: Watching the CEO
On May 1, federal prosecutors unsealed indictments against more Enron execs, including Lea Fastow, the wife of former Chief Financial Officer Andrew S. Fastow. We asked Steve Baum, chairman, president, and CEO of Sempra Energy (SRE ), a San Diego-based natural gas and energy supplier with 2002 revenues of $6 billion, what his company has done to improve corporate governance post-Enron. Sempra Energy is in the energy-trading business, like Enron. Here are edited excerpts from his detailed replies to five questions:
Q: How do you define what successful corporate governance is?
A: Success in corporate governance comes from the board and management having a clear understanding of their roles in creating and sustaining shareholder value. The major issue that corporations must address is that there [should be] enough expertise on the board to address complex financial issues with a high degree of financial sophistication and experience. As a corporation, Sempra Energy looks for active and former CEOs [to serve on the board], who generally have a higher level of business and financial acumen.
The real measure of corporate-governance programs' success is how well the board discharges its responsibilities supervising the CEO. There are processes in place to determine and monitor the CEO's pay. There are criteria to consistently determine the CEO's performance. The audit committee has independent access, plus the financial literacy required, to objectively determine the integrity of financial statements.
Q: What are the top five most important elements for strong and effective corporate governance?
A: a. Successful boards of directors [should be] independent from the executive management team and composed of highly qualified directors with diverse backgrounds.
b. The CEO must encourage board involvement for the review of major management and financial decisions.
c. Transparency -- easily understandable, simple, and straightforward presentation of financial information for shareholders.
d. Incentive-based compensation plans that offer rewards to management for performance that creates increased shareholder value.
e. A strong and independent audit function.
Q: How do you know you have successfully addressed governance issues?
A: Corporate governance is a dynamic process that evolves and responds to ever-changing business challenges. Corporate leaders shouldn't look at governance strictly in terms of solving a problem. A strong corporate-governance framework will help companies to successfully adjust continually to a changing competitive landscape. On this basis there are several examples of what we believe constitutes a strong corporate-governance framework:
Financial disclosure and reporting.
Because of the emphasis on CEO certification, we have developed a procedure resulting in what we call a "cascade of disclosure." Each business-group head does their own certification with respect to quarterly and annual financial statements for their respective group. This certification process by business group percolates up to the CEO and CFO for final certification. Any issues uncovered as part of this certification process are discussed with our external auditors, Deloitte & Touche.
Their findings are then reviewed with the board of directors' Audit Committee. The certification process is separate from the audit process. But the structure must allow for the Audit Committee to be the final arbiter of any surprises that come up in either case as auditing covers a variety of issues not considered during the certification process. As an energy company in a heavily regulated environment, we live in more of a fishbowl than other corporations in other industries do, especially in regard to our financial disclosures.
Executive compensation.
To properly scope executive pay, Sempra Energy has hired an outside consultant, Hewitt & Associates. The consultant is responsible for conducting market studies to determine the appropriate compensation levels for the CEO and other executive-level staff. This consultant works directly for the Board of Directors' Compensation Committee. All reports are given directly to the committee and not to the CEO. The consultant meets with the Compensation Committee without the presence of the CEO or other senior management of the company.
This committee sets the compensation for the CEO and for all of the top officers of the corporation and performs an annual review of the penumbra of benefits offered to executive staff. An internal auditor reviews expense reports and other non-expense-related cost centers for the CEO and top executives and reports these findings to the Compensation Committee.
Board of directors.
• Ethics guidelines for all members.
• Any committee of the board of directors can meet without the CEO being present.
• The CEO is the only member of the senior-management team serving on the board of directors.
• We have two executive sessions -- one session with the CEO and the board together and a second held exclusively by independent members of the board of directors without the CEO being present. The head of the board's Compensation Committee manages this second meeting.
• Six meetings of the board of directors are held each year. In addition, there are four separate meetings of the Audit Committee. Members of the board are expected to attend at least 75% of all board meetings.
• No loans are allowed of any kind to corporate officers or members of the board of directors.
• Evaluations are made for each member of the board standing for election at the next annual meeting of shareholders, which occurs every spring. Separately there's an annual review of the board's overall effectiveness performed by the chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee.
• We've developed a set of principles for effective board service.
• A mandatory course in finance and accounting for all board members.
• A hotline has been established for anonymous reporting of all complaints and allegations related to potential violations of company ethics and policies. All reports or complaints are subject to an internal audit where findings, made by the internal auditor, are reported directly to the Audit Committee of the board of directors.
Q: What failings have you seen in ways that other CEOs or companies have addressed corporate-governance issues?
A: I don't feel qualified to comment on others' governance issues, although I have to say that it does make me very angry that a few CEOs and corporate officers engaged in criminal wrongdoing have given a black eye to honorable managers. The few have, if nothing else, caused people to make jokes and be suspicious.
In the merchant-energy sector, the faults of Enron and other companies have spilled over onto good companies like Sempra Energy and depressed stock prices. The actions of the few make for a more difficult and time-consuming effort with analysts to defend why we're different from Enron and their like. Better corporate governance benefits all companies.
Q: What's the most important consideration for another CEO who has to address this problem?
A: The first place to start is to look at the system of internal controls right away. How robust is it? How well can you monitor and test the functionality of internal control structures?
Then, you have to determine the competency and training of your internal auditors. Do they follow up on issues raised? Does the corporation have a structured response process for issues raised by audit staff? Is there an accountability structure to ensure certification under Section 404 and other requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act?
You must assess if the board has the structural independence to govern properly and to act on all information obtained from internal control structures. After an analysis process, you must give a letter from management to the outside auditors to certify whether material weaknesses have been found in the system of internal controls and recommendations for corrections.
Spirituality In The Workplace
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Spirituality In The Work Place Information and Resources
A spirituality of the workplace offers everyone (Christian, non-Christian, atheist) a way to integrate the many facets of often times very fragmented lives through work. It is not about thumping the Bible, but trying to reach the underlying concepts that promote integration. A work place spirituality respects the religious dimension of everyone involved and is truly ecumenical, while at the same time economical. It fosters the kind of fundamental dialogue or conversation where any religious tradition can find expression and work to integrate human life.
We serve such a spirituality by introducing the basic vocabulary of faith, hope and love in the work place. Simply put this spirituality starts by asking three simple questions of ourselves and one another. In what do we believe? What are our dreams? And do we truly love?
Here you will find information and books about Spirituality in the work place, women's spirituality in today's places of work, information on business and work ethics for people involved in improving spirituality in the work place, and business professionals committed to encouraging spirituality in the work place.
Spirituality in the work place enables employers, employees, clients and families to acknowledge the relationship between their own spiritual beliefs and handle cultural diversity and social justice issues at work.
Spirituality In The Workplace Information
Spirituality in the workplace suggests that there be more to work than just survival.
The fear is about losing our job and having to do more with less. And the emergence of spirituality in the work place points to the desire that there be more to work than just survival. We yearn for work to be a place in which we both experience and express our deep soul and spirit.
How do we bring spirituality into a work place where aggression is so valued, admired and rewarded?
While no one likes to feel marginalized, unfortunately people often are by gender, race, sexual preference and other areas commonly addressed in social discourse. It is time to come together around the common theme of spirituality, the spirit of the employee, the spirit of the work place, and the spirit which transcends it all to give meaning to it.
Does your business place have a policy on vacations or sick leaves? Or does it have clearly established hours of opening and closing? Does your employer offer you health benefits? These questions, and others like them, seem very consistent with the work place, but if I ask Does your business place have a spirituality? you might find the question odd. How can a place of work have a spirituality? Well this is exactly the question I plan to address.
Spirituality
I think that the word spirituality has stumped the vast majority of people. For many, they have viewed it with suspicion, as though it bordered on the occult. This is an unfortunate fact. I believe that spirituality provides a vocabulary that has been missing from the work place.
Such a lack, not having some way to express aspects of one's whole life, actually diminishes both human productivity and personal satisfaction. Such alienation Karl Marx perceived and commented on quite differently than I will today. For Marx, alienation was of the worker from the object of work.
The very process of production, as Marx saw, was reduced to the parts of the process, and lacking the sense of satisfaction found in the artisan's or craftsman's previously completing the entire cycle of work. While alienation may have come about for economic reasons, it is the spiritual side of the problem I wish to address.
Spirituality, simply put, can be considered as the integrating principle of a person's life. Given this definition, we can talk about a variety of spiritualities. For some golf or running becomes the integrating principle, or for some power might be the integrating principle, or even a sense of social justice might provide an integrating principle.
However, it is through the integration of truly religious principles that a proper spirituality may be found. For as much as some things can integrate, the religious principles clearly offer us the most satisfying means for human integration. Having said that, I need to explain.
The kind of alienation that plagues our modern post-industrial information society is the tendency toward fragmentation of life. For the sake of managing our lives we tend to compartmentalize even our life itself. No longer an alienation of the means of production but we now face an alienation in our means of living, a self-alienation.
We compartmentalize our lives into fragments: work, play, rest, home, kids, school, church, social and personal blocks. Unfortunately, the end result is a fragmented life. Spirituality provides a way of bring about a kind of completion or wholeness in one's life that is lacking due to this pervasive alienation.
In the work place, spirituality pertains to the ways in which the work place environment lends itself to the kind of integration needed, not only in the work place, but for all of life as well. It takes the chaos and confusion not only of work, but of the many desperate bits of people's lives, transforming them into a mosaic of meaning.
By way of illustration, it is not unlike the holographic posters popular a few years back. Their meaningless bits and dots fell into place not by focusing but by un-focusing so that the image could be seen.
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The Value of Spirituality in the Work Place
Spiritual tradition offers many insights which can serve a variety of religious traditions. In a true sense, the work place is ecumenical not secular, people of many faiths and of no faiths share the nine to five world. Consequently, the question is not about proselytizing, that is trying to win converts, but about dialogue, trying to make conversation. In this context the work place benefits from a dialogue or conversation that is timeless. The value of this conversation is seen in the way people move from alienation to integration which benefits the personal as well as the professional aspects of work.
The value of spirituality, at least what I hope to offer, is that it provides a base-language which focuses us on the real issues of integration. It recognizes that full human flourishing longs to be satisfied at a depth level of meaning and it challenges all impostors and pretenders, especially those of our own making. Spirituality in the work place enables employers, employees, clients and suppliers to bring together the shards of their fragmented life. This is done not by invoking a confessional language, preaching at people, but by exploring a professional language, being with people. Many of us are all too aware of work places which lack even the means necessary to pursue a meaningful life. Often such environments lose out on the fullest contribution of its employees because they will bracket out their job from the rest of who they are.
Not only does a spirituality of the work place foster the meaningfulness of an integrated life, it can also safeguard against the dysfunctionality often present in the work place. Two dysfunctional realities in particular, work-aholism and impersonalism, seem to rob everyone involved, both employer and employee. The first, work-aholism, occurs when a person tries to cope with the fragmentation of his or her life by fixating on just the one facet of life, namely work. Such drive can be rationalized and even socially sanctioned, but in the end it is self-destructive. The second, impersonalism, is equally dysfunctional. It happens when our sense of alienation extends beyond the things in the work place to the very people with whom we work. Impersonalism reduces employer, employee, co-worker to the status of mere object. It seems to me a safe bet that in some form or another, work-aholism and impersonalism account for most absences, illnesses and resignations in the work place.
Work place spirituality.
Now that I have defined spirituality and touched on its value, I would like to offer a kind of workplace spirituality built on the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. I say built on these virtues because like any good foundation they are out of site yet they support the more apparent structures.
As we saw in the previous talk, the cardinal virtues provide moral strength of character in the workplace but just being ethical isn't enough. We find that the theological virtues enable us to move beyond the ethical to an almost sacred sense of rightness. This added capacity, St. Thomas said, is a gratuitous but necessary gift from God. And while it isn't an essential class taught in the business or management schools, it is an essential piece to achieving the purpose for which we were created in God's image.
Spirituality in the workplace enhances human nature and enables us to excel in our journey to God.
If this is true, and I have no doubt that it is, the concepts of faith, hope and love can provide the missing element in what we might consider a perfectly ethical business or a completely moral life. I stress the concepts of these virtues because in the work place we need to address the underlying reality common to all people suggested by these religious terms. In other words, Jews, or Muslims, or Buddhist, or Christian may not share the terminology but certainly share the concepts of faith, hope and love.
Faith
Faith, for Thomas, pertains to God and the things related to God. In fact the real object of faith is simplicity, but the human mind lacks the ability to grasp simplicity as simplicity so it must rely on a variety of concepts to hint at the true object of faith. Our concepts about the object of faith are born of the human encounter with God and are understood as revelation. Belief in these revelations, gathered together by the community of faith into propositions called articles, this enables a person to begin to grasp his or her encounter. However, the act of faith is to believe and this capacity to believe is a vital part of any spirituality, Christian or non-Christian.
Faith is related to the gifts of understanding and knowledge, and by extension I would say that a workplace spirituality needs to be open to the kind of belief that leads to understanding and knowledge. Perhaps a better phrase is the notion of meaning. If our places of work are open to faith, believing not only in the mystery of God, but in that God present and active in the arena of human history, then the meaning of one's life falls into place. Understanding and knowledge as gifts of the Holy Spirit help to integrate a life of faith.
For many "jobs," technical knowledge is needed, but such knowledge is vastly different from the knowledge and understanding spoken of as gifts. The more we are able to interject a language of believing into the work place the sooner the concept of faith begins to shape meaning.
Do you believe in this project? Do you believe in some overarching plan beyond your control? Do you believe in yourself and the gifts that are yours? Such questions give rise to the larger question DO YOU BELIEVE? This becomes part of an unspoken workplace spirituality. The workplace becomes a place where the questions of faith find a home. In what or in whom do you believe?
Hope
The next concept is that of hope. For Thomas the proper object of hope is eternal happiness or ultimately God. The object of hope, Thomas says, is a future good, arduous but possible to obtain. His placement of hope between faith and love is particularly instructive. It is faith that leads us to believe that such an object as God is our future good and it is from this perspective or order of generation that hope comes before love or charity. Hope looks to a future, but acknowledges the present struggle as well as the possibilities.
A work place spirituality requires the language of hope that looks to the future. It is very important that people dream dreams. Hope enables an employee to dream into one seamless garment the many strands of one's life, or it sets before an employer or owner the realities of struggles and hardships in light of a future goal. Hope-talk can be introduced into any work place with the question of dreams: What good things would you like to see happen? Where would you like to be in another 5 or 10 years? Am I willing to strive for my dreams? Do my dreams exceed the possible? Are they attainable?
But hope is not only about dreams. Surprisingly Thomas explains that hope's gift is fear. Not fear of God but fear of losing God. Such pure fear leads to wisdom in relating to God. So this gift of pure fear makes us desire all the more the object of our hope. Unfortunately the contrary vices of despair and presumption work against hope. Both of these are telling for a work place spirituality. While the theological notions of despair and presumption are born of despising divine mercy with one and Divine justice with the other, for our work place spirituality they are instructive.
Life, with all its component parts possesses a desirability. Our work place spirituality is not only about dreams but the desire to hold fast to the most cherished gifts. The language of hope casts light into the darkness of despair and presumption. For example, if our employees find their situation at home or work hopeless they will despair of the situation and very likely undermine operations. Hope is crucial to integrating worlds, and the work place is an ideal place to confront the unspoken despair that plagues modern life and the human presumption of inflated egos. For Thomas, such hope leads to love.
Love
Love, or charity, as a virtue in Thomas is about benevolently loving someone for their good and not for your own. This most properly is what real friendship means, and aptly captures the kind of charity that Thomas intends. The object of such charity is not only God but must be our neighbor as well. I find it interesting that Thomas stresses actively loving as proper to charity. He writes A...it is clear that to love is more proper to charity than to be loved.... In an age preoccupied with being loved it is challenging to realize that the key to love is actively to love.
This is a lengthy tract in the Summa covering 23 questions so I will briefly focus on the effects of this love. Internally, love begets joy, peace and mercy while externally it manifests itself in beneficence, almsgiving and loving correction. As you might imagine Aquinas thoroughly treats the opposite vices involved which I will discuss momentarily.
In a work place spirituality we can foster the language of love by moving people from a societal preoccupation with being loved. Love is active not passive and many of us find unhappiness in our looking to be loved. Love is an active benevolence, a willing of the good, and it demands that we ask questions of the inner person: Where do you find joy? Are you a person of peace? Do you have a compassionate heart for others? But love is not only about the inner person, since love must be manifest, a selfless giving: Do I or we do good for one another? Do I or we give something to the needy out of compassion and for God's sake? Do I or we offer correction born of love? These kinds of questions reach to the summit of a work place spirituality for they manifest the noblest aspects of human integration.
Hatred is contrary to love and some of the vices that alienate us from love are: envy, discord, contention, and quarrelling. There are others but these seem a good selection which apply to the work place. When you notice these vices - envy, discord, contention, quarrelling - chances are your place of work is in need of a spirituality for the work place.
A spirituality of the workplace offers everyone (Christian, non-Christian, atheist) a way to integrate the many facets of often times very fragmented lives through work. It is not about thumping the Bible, but trying to reach the underlying concepts that promote integration. A work place spirituality respects the religious dimension of everyone involved and is truly ecumenical, while at the same time economical. It fosters the kind of fundamental dialogue or conversation where any religious tradition can find expression and work to integrate human life. We serve such a spirituality by introducing the basic vocabulary of faith, hope and love in the work place. Simply put this spirituality starts by asking three simple questions of ourselves and one another. In what do we believe? What are our dreams? And do we truly love?
Spirituality for the Business Place
M. Demkovich, O.P.
copyright© 2000 Dominican Ecclesial Institute
Spirituality involves living core holistic values of your soul
Spirituality in the work place means that you translate your basic beliefs into your daily work life. All human beings are the loving children of the same God. There ought to be a common linkage of love among them all. Kindness, patience, honesty and generosity are basic spiritual qualities and are the essence of all human beings. Making every effort to practice these qualities of spirituality in the work place IS spirituality. You treat people with kindness and respect. You try to be patient with irregularities and when necessary punish people from an attitude of love and understanding. Be as generous as possible with your time, money, ideas and love.
Work offers a perfect environment for practice of spirituality. Opportunities to practice patience, kindness, forgiveness and integrity are plenty. You can think loving thoughts, smile, practice gratitude and accept others as they are. An office boy will not be what he is now if he had education, skills, common sense and intelligence like his boss. You can practice being a good listener and empathetic. You can be compassionate, particularly with difficult or rude people. You can practice spirituality in virtually everything that you do, whether you greet people or deal with conflict. You can exhibit it in the way you sell a product or service – or the way you balance ethics with profit. It's literally everywhere.
Spiritual means not selling yourself for money and being proud that you are the person who can be trusted. Feeling good about oneself is an angle of spirituality.
Spirituality reminds you of a higher purpose of living. It helps you to put your problems and concerns into a broader context. It helps you to learn from your difficult experiences rather than become overwhelmed by them. Even if you have to do something terribly difficult such as punishing someone one can do so from your spiritual consciousness. On the other hand if you are confronted with a hardship or even a calamity there is a part of you that is willing to understand the reason. Having this faith helps you get through difficult times. It gives you confidence in a bigger picture. It doesn't mean that difficulties be eased but situations become a little more manageable.
One of the nicest things that happen to people who are spiritual is that the small things do not continue to trouble and drive them crazy. They are able to take things in their stride, move forward and stay focused. Becoming more spiritual at work can help you to become more successful and fulfilling.
Below you will find a variety of Spirituality in the work place Information
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