cannyben

Take a look at an apple tree. There might be five hundred apples on the tree, each with ten seeds. That’s a lot of seeds ! We might ask, “Why would you need so many seeds to grow just a few more trees ?” Nature has something to teach us here. It is telling us : “Most seeds never grow. So if you really want to make something happen, you had better try more than once.” You’ll attend twenty interviews to get one job. You’ll interview forty people to find one good employee. You’ll talk to fifty people to see one house, car, vacuum cleaner, insurance policy, idea … And you might meet a hundred acquaintances to find one special friend. When we understand the “Law of the Seed,” we don’t get so disappointed. We stop feeling like victims. Laws of nature are not things to take personally. We just need to understand them – and work with them.

Here’s an interesting way to do a self-appraisal ! A little boy went into a grocery store, reached for a soda carton and pulled it over to the telephone. He climbed onto the carton so that he could reach the buttons on the phone and proceeded to punch in. The store owner listened in on the conversation that followed. The boy asked, “Ma’am, can you give me the job of cutting your lawn” ? The woman replied, “I already have someone to cut my lawn.” “Ma’am, I’ll cut your lawn for half the price of the person who is cutting your lawn now.” The woman responded that she was very satisfied with the person who was presently cutting her lawn. The little boy found more perseverance and offered, “Ma’am, I’ll even sweep your curb and your sidewalk, so on Sunday you will have the prettiest lawn in all of the town.” Again, the woman answered in the negative. With a smile on his face, the little boy replaced the receiver. The grocery store owner, who was listening to all this, walked over to the boy a...

When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn’t work at zero gravity (ink won’t flow down to the writing surface). It took them decade and $12 million to find a solution to this problem. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C. And what did the Russians do ? they used a pencil. One of the most memorable case studies of Japanese management was the case of the empty soap box, which happened in one of Japan’s biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty. Immediately , the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste,...

Are you a nervous student, chewing your nails off before the results ? Relax. Take a deep breath, and don’t press the panic button. FOR STUDENTS: If you’re anxious about your results, or guilty about not having studies hard enough, discuss your feelings with someone you trust. If you’re excessively anxious, visit a counselor. Your marks are no indication of either your intelligence or your capability. Don’t check your marks alone on the internet. Make sure you’re with someone you trust, like a parent or friend. Irrespective of how you fare, remember that there are plenty of career options available for you. FOR PARENTS: Remember that child’s life is more important than his/her marks. Ban the words “I told you so” from your vocabulary. As D-day approaches, don’t talk continuously about the results. Continue with your normal routine. Accompany your children to the exam. Centre or college to collect their scores. Don’t compare your child with his/her siblings, cousins or friends. Watch ou...