Nothing Fails like Success

SHARED THOUGHTS………….19.05.2012.

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 As told by Robin Sharma.

Richard Carrion, the CEO of  Puerto Rico's top Bank, once shared a line with me that I'll never forget : " Robin, Nothing Fails like Success."

 Powerful Thought. You, as well as your organization, are most vulnerable when you are most successful. Success actually breeds complacency, inefficiency and - worst of all - arrogance.  When people and businesses get really successful, they often fall in love with themselves. They stop innovating, working hard, taking risks and begin to rest on their laurels. They go on the defensive, spending their energy protecting their success rather than staying true to the very things that got them to the top.

 Whenever I share this point with a roomful of CEOs, every single one of them nods in agreement. Please let me give you a real world example from my own life.

This past weekend, I took my kids to our favorite Italian restaurant. The food is incredible there. The best bresaola outside of Italy. Heavenly Pasta. Super foamy lattes that make me want to give up my job and become a barista. But the service at this place is bad. Bad, Bad, Bad ( like it is at most places ). why? Because this place is always full. And because they are doing so well, they

have taken the lines out front for granted. And guess what? It's the beginning of their end.

I love taking pictures. My dad taught me to record the journey of my life with photos. So I generally carry a little camcorder around with me. I asked our server if she would snap a picture of my children and me as we dug into our spaghetti.

"I don't have time " was the curt reply. Unbelievable. Too busy to take five seconds to keep a customer happy. Too busy to help out a little. Too busy to show some humanity.

 "Nothing fails like success "  Richard Carrion gets it. So does David Neelemen, the CEO of Jetblue, who observed : " When you're making money and good margins, you tend to get sloppy." 

Many CEOs don't.  The more successful you and your organization become, the more humble and devoted to your customers you need to be. The more committed to efficiency you need to be and relentless improvement you need to look for.

The Faster you need to play, the more value you need to add. Because the moment you stop doing the very things that got you to the top of the mountain, is the very moment you begin to slide down to the valley.

                                                                              

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if the above needs a down to earth illustration -

A Shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand new BMW drives up in a cloud of dust. The driver, a young man in a Armani suit, Gucci shoes, Rayban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out of the window and asks the shepherd " If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one ?"

The shepherd looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answers : " sure, why not ?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular cell phone, surfs to a NASA page on the internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in a ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility at hamburg, germany. Within seconds he receives an email on his Palm pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses and MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas.

He uploads all of this data via an email on his black berry and after a few minutes receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full- colour, 150 - page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP lasejet printer and finally turns to the shepherd and says : " You have exactly 1586 sheep ".

" That's right. Well , I guess you can take one of my sheep. " says the shepherd. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the shepherd says to the young man : " Hey, if I can tell you exactly

what your business is, will you give me back my sheep? "

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says : " Okay, why not ?"

" You're a Consultant. " says the shepherd.

" Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie,"but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required", replied the shepherd. " You showed up here even though nobody called you: you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked, and you don't know crap about my business. Now give me back my DOG "

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My little grand-daughter & nephew, forever love watching Chotta Bheem in the Pogo channel. By and by, I also got hooked on to watching the bunch of kids, always in the thick of adventure, fighting evil and coming out triumphant. There are some Life lessons from these cartoon characters, worth pondering over.

I received the below on one such character, like Chotta Bheem. He is another never-say-die cartoon character Spongebob

Life lessons from Spongebob square-pants and other cartoon heroes.

(author unknown)

Spongebob Square-pants is my hero. The kids and I were having breakfast  this morning when Bianca, my nine-year old daughter, brought up the subject of this crazy little cartoon character. "Daddy, is Spongebob a real person ?"

Made me laugh. Then it made me think. If Spongbob were a human being, this world would be a better place. Seriously.

Here are four lessons Spongebob can teach us to get more joy from life :

BE THE ETERNAL OPTIMIST :  The guy ( or sponge, i should say ) always sees the best in any situation. Your thinking really does shape your reality. And because Spongebob looks for the best, he finds it.

VALUE  PEOPLE :   Spongebob knows what friendship mean. He loves his pals in Bikini Bottom, even Squidword, "who is always cranky," to borrow my son's words. Spongebob knows that respect and putting people first are two of the most important elements for strong relationships.

BE AN ORIGINAL :  Spongebob is one of a kind. Too many among us are afraid to be ourselves.  So we give up our dreams to follow the crowd. Tragic.

"To thine own self be true," wrote Shakespeare.

Have the courage to be your true--- and greatest-----YOU.

Warren buffet, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, once said, " There can't be two yous."

LAUGH AND HAVE FUN :  There's  no point in being successful but sad. Makes no sense. Yes, reach for the mountaintop. But enjoy the climb as well. Life isn't meant to be an ordeal. It is meant to be a celebration. So have big-time fun as you chase ---- and catch your most cherished dreams.

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Have a good week ahead.

Mohandas KP.

Answered Prayers & Relationships

SHARED THOUGHTS………….05.05.2012.

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It is not my will, but His will that will ultimately prevail… or so, it goes.

When things turn out, not in the way we want, we are disappointed and strive to put things in another order, exactly as we want it to be.

We find it difficult to accept God’s ways and even though our prayers are answered we do not realize it, but keep wishing for our prayers to be answered in exactly the manner in which we want it to be.

Surprisingly, not just ordinary persons, but even high profile adults are sometimes caught up in the conflict of not knowing when our prayers are answered.

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HERE IS A THREE - TREES - PARABLE:

Once there were three trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said, 'Someday I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems. I could be decorated with intricate carving and everyone would see the beauty.'

Then the second tree said, 'Someday I will be a mighty ship. I will take Kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of the world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull.'

Finally the third tree said, 'I want to grow to be the tallest and straightest Tree in the forest. People will see me on top of the hill and look up to my branches, and think of the heavens and God and how close to them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all time and people will always remember me.'

After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees. When one came to the first tree he said, 'This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter, 'and he began cutting it down. The tree was happy, because he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest.

At the second tree the woodsman said, 'This looks like a strong tree. I should be able to sell it to the shipyard.' The second tree was happy Because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship.

When the woodsmen came upon the third tree, the tree was frightened because he knew that if they cut him down his dreams would not come true. One of the woodsmen said, 'I don't need anything special from my tree, I'll take this one,' and he cut it down.

When the first tree arrived at the carpenters, he was made into a feed box for animals. He was then placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for.

The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing boat. His dreams of being a mighty ship and carrying kings had come to an end.

The third tree was cut into large pieces, and left alone in the dark.

The years went by, and the trees forgot about their dreams.

Then one day, a man and woman came to the barn. She gave birth and they placed the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made from the first tree. The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby, but this manger would have to do. The tree could feel the importance of this event and knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time.

Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from the second tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose and the tree didn't think it was strong enough to keep the men safe. The men woke the sleeping man, and He stood and said 'Peace' and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had carried the King of Kings in its boat.

Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the streets as the people mocked the man who was carrying it. When they came to a stop, the man was nailed to the tree and raised in the air to die at the top of a hill. When Sunday came, the tree came to realize that it was strong enough to stand at the top of the hill and be as close to God as was possible, because Jesus had been crucified on it.

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The moral of this story is that when things don't seem to be going your way, always know that God has a plan for you. If you place your trust in Him, God will give you great gifts.

Each of the trees got what they wanted, just not in the way they had imagined.

We don't always know what God's plans are for us. We just know that His Ways are not our ways, but His ways are always best.

We human beings don't really pray to have our needs met; we have needs in order that we pray. This is how we remind ourselves that God exists; this is how we build a relationship with Him…

Personally for me and my family, we have come to believe that Accepting His ways is the only option we have and this is the first step towards happiness.

May your day be blessed, may God cradle you in the palm of His hand.

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Often when we lose hope and think this is the end, GOD smiles from above and says, "Relax, it's just a bend, not the end!

 When GOD solves your problems, you have faith in HIS abilities; when GOD doesn't solve your problems HE has faith in your abilities.

 A blind person asked God "Can there be anything worse than losing eye sight?" He replied: "Yes, losing your vision."

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Talking of ‘relationship’, look at this simple poignant event,

Give Value To Relationships

A man stopped at a flower shop for ordering some flowers to be sent as a gift to his mother who lived two hundred miles away. 

As he got out of his car he noticed a young girl sitting on the curb sobbing. He asked her what was wrong and she replied, “I wanted to buy a red rose for my mother. But I only have seventy-five cents, and a rose costs two dollars.” 

The man smiled and said, “Come on in with me. I’ll buy you a rose.” He bought the little girl her rose and ordered his own mother’s flowers. 

As they were leaving he offered the girl a ride home. She said, “Yes, please! You can take me to my mother.” She directed him to a cemetery, where she placed the rose on a freshly dug grave.

The man returned to the flower shop, canceled the gifting order, picked up a bouquet and drove the two hundred miles to his mother’s house.

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At times we take many such relationships with our family and friends for granted. Learn to value relationship.. it is a pleasure to be living within the confines of uninhibited genuineness in nurturing good happy relationships.. whether it be between parents & children, between friends, between business partners; even  between individuals, a pure and simple relationship with no ulterior motives is a matter of joy.

How beautiful are these words….

The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.
Anthony Robbins

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