Smiling and Success

Smile away at your challenges. Thats the best way to overcome anguish. I realised that when you're faced with a seemingly irresolveable problem rather than getting bogged down and start cursing anyone and everyone, take a different approach by calming your nerves with a smile on your face. The mediocre thinking will yield mediocre results and will result in mediocre life. Striving for excellence is the need of the hour

The Shortcuts

The short cuts, the easy way to do the things, always sound good. We think of the time and energy they save....probably sometimes even money. Though intelligent leveraging of the time and money always helps in making you lot more efficient...I have learned that there are lots of pit falls. So beware!!!!!!!!!!!!! Consider the below points:
1. There are no short cuts to riches. Just consider this. How many people in whole world did get rich winning lottery and can you name a few people who are rich and famous winning lottery. The money easily won is easily lost as the person who dont know the ways of making money aint good enough keeping it.
2. There is no short cut to success. Consider this. How many people in the whole world are happy just focussing on making money. You have to work hard and have a better exit strategy to focus on the family. Other wise all the riches in the whole world cant help you escape sadness and getting true success (Happiness)
3. There is no short cut to love. It is sad that we need days like mothersday, fathersday, valentines day and other whatever days to make us remember our loved ones. Ourlives are so stuffedup by superficialness that we are looking at shortcuts to express love. The true love is always deep from heart.I believe in Love with passion and I express it daily in the form of my deeds (and sometimes words).
People in the present world are eternally doomed to dissatisfaction becoz of this obsession with shortcuts.
Try to do the work (Any work) properly with passion, commitment and true to heart. You will be very happy and satisfied with your contributions for the day. Live with high moral values always and you will develop lots of self esteem.
Hope these words will do some good. Though I wrote these ideas, Im eternally thankful to Skip Ross, Napolean HIll, Dale Carnegie, David Schwartz, Robert Kiyosaki, Stephen R Covey and many other authors of self development books for helping me improve as a person day by day.
Luv and Regards
Giridhar

If every one cares.....

If every one cares ...nobody cries is what Nickelback says...Ever felt the caring of a Mother to child? It is the most selfless form of love you ever get!! Love cures everything!! The malaise affecting the society...is only cured by spreading love..
Non-violence is the most powerful and the most affective tool to bring out the movement or a revolution or a positive change. Its proven by greatest man of 20th century Mahathma Gandhi himself. The role model of the effective leader, who has half a billion people standing by him in achieving independence from oppression. As always evident in couple of milleniums history-"Force is the weapon of the weak". Leadership is always effective and strong when its achieved through trust and through example and is weak when achieved through oppression or by using force.
As Napolean Hill says...There is a high deficit of proper leaders in almost everyfield of the present society.
The struggling world economy, society, raging wars, deterioration of environment, famines in third world countries, rise in the number of child criminals, decline in moral education standards in the school systems so obsessed by technology. Ironically there is widening rift between people in an era of communication revolution, which shows lack of direction. All the above factors calls for proper leadership in respective fields.
So guys stop and think. while most of us are aiming for skies we are forgetting the ground rules of Mother Earth!!

Daily thoughts...are they good??

Daily thoughts will govern where we are proceeding in our life. The idle brain could be a devils work shop or it can be divine shrine depending on your thoughts. In the first case you are miserable, depressed, tensed, unhappy, worried, nasty towards others, hate and feel jealous. In the later case you feel the bliss, you are bubbly, confident, chirpy and pleasant towards others, no worries and absolutely in love with your friends and colleagues and they love you back....So what are you thinking today?? As NAPOLEAN HILL says "CONQUER YOUR 'SELF' BEFORE IT CONQUER'S YOU"

Cruisin' virtual super fast express is actually on stand still...!!!

Have to know what you lookin' for in this world (Purpose)...other wise life is like sittin in a virtual superfast express....seems like you're cruisin' along but as you look back you are exactly where you started at a while ago...

Trust...???

Today I learnt an invaluable life lesson regarding trust and its limitations.
- With out trust there are no relationships and infact there is no humanity
- Any relationship builds on trust between or among individuals (From business to marriage to friendship)
- We should never break that trust (No ifs and buts). If you do break that trust, even if later you reconcile with that person, the relationships not the same or, in worst case, no relationship at all.
- Trustworthiness is the character that one earns by stridently following its principles and taking pride in that till the end.
- Forgiving the individual for the breach of trust is a generous act and often changes the individual who broke that trust but we shouldn't be that naive as to keep on believing the deceptive person. If you are, then you have yourself in the whole world to blame and have to bear the consequences.
- Dont get cofused here with compassion....it is forgiving the person...but trusting an untrust worthy person is entirely different. One shows your generosity and the other case show your lack of selfrespect.
So live on these principles and more often than not you wont get your self into a bog.

Debtology;-)

Everyone's know about debt...most of us hate it..we try to avoid it, we try to get rid of it and .....some naughty people try to evade it as well;-). But very few people have the knowledge of how to use it as a leverage (In Robert Kiyosaki's own terms) to achieve financial freedom.
The most primary thing in debt that one need to be aware of is: "Is it a bad debt"?? or "Is it a good debt"??
Lets get the examples of Bad Debt:
Using credit card to purchase luxuries: Direct debits for the instalments on Mobiles, Cars and other big ticketed items like furniture, white goods and other electronic items.
Purchases on credit card like clothes, consumables and entertainment purposes.
Why are they bad debts?? Because we are using the leverage provided by the credit card to buy luxuries that we can't afford!! and spending our lifetime paying off bills.
Now let us consider side effects:
1.) Going back to work after retirement
2.) Doing two jobs or working seven days a week to cope up with financial pressures
3.) Bad marriages/Divorces
4.) Child delinquencies because of lack of proper parental care
5.) Heart attack and other stress related illnesses
6.)Suicides.
Considering all these side effects why do we still get into this bad debt?? Thats called temptation or lack of impulse control or false pride.
How to avoid this? By following the principle of Delayed Gratification!!!
What is delayed gratification?? It is temperorily giving up our present luxuries to end up having better luxuries in future with our own money.
So now what is GOOD DEBT??
I am not a financial planner or financial advisor or even a investor to give you the advice.
BUT what I know is this. If I can use banks money (ie Credit cards or Personal loans or other loans) to invest (Real estate or shares or a business) and make it work hard 24/7 to get a positive cash flow after covering the interest and monthly instalment then it becomes a good debt.
How do we do that?? By spending our spare time in acquiring knowledge in financial products and services as well as improve our accounting skills (ability to read numbers and understand them), reading self help books in investing and attending seminars. Its boring but essential if you wanna get out of life's grind in average life.
So its upto us either we chose to work hard for money or make money work hard for us (As Robert Kiyosaki says)

Individual intelligence Vs Collective intelligence

Henry Ford, it is said, is not a very educated man. One of the journalists want to prove it and had him in front of audience and asked him some difficult general knowledge questions. Henry Ford's response to those questions was "I have no idea". At last Henry Ford could take no more and asked this journalist: "Why do I want to know the answers to those questions for which I can find the answers from a $2 almanac"? "May be I am not the smartest man but I know people who are and I know how to put those people together"! He had got a rousing applause from the audience.
Why do I tell this? As much as we think that we are intelligent and we can work thing out on our own, we are mistaken. Even Edison needed best business minds of his time to be around him to become successful with his discoveries.
Individual intelligence and brilliance is important but what is more important and which pave way for the success is ability to put a team together and work towards a common goal. WHY??? Because collective intelligence will work wonders.
Just consider this: What happens if you had lots of brilliant ideas in your head but you find no one to share those with!! The ideas die in your head and you lose the zeal and get frustrated.
Imagine this: You had a goal and you know a lot of people who had similar goals. You call for a meeting and ask them to come up with ideas and write them up in a paper. You all sit in a silent room and go crazy with writing up different ideas about what you could do to achieve that goal. Believe you will have in your possession all the brilliant ideas, which would otherwise should have died in one's mind. You discuss them, doctor them, consider pros and cons, engineer them and at last action them.....The result, I believe, will be staggering.
Though these are my thoughts, these are inspired by Napolean Hill's chapter on collective intelligence in his book "Think and Grow Rich". The brilliant author who has "Been there! Done that"!!
Regards
Giridhar

To know and not to do is not to know!

I was listening to Skip Ross's Dynamic Living audio series and was quite disillusioned on what can go wrong in my life. "To know and not to do is not to know"....I, sometimes, think that I know about everything! Just like many of us. It is the most hindering attitude one can have in life. You can never learn to be better unless you humble your self and seek knowledge.
-- How many of us say "I know about that quote" "Isn't it socrates who said it" Oh yeah I read it in a book by Dale Carnegie" "I know about E=MC2 equation, I took that course in my seventh standard!!!"
-- Most of the motivational book and quotes from the greats aint giving us any new information...they are all age old principles or have been developed by some one great by constantly putting into practice of what he knows!
-- They put into practice these age old principles in their lives and achieved significant successes in their live and they remind us of what we are not applying in our lives to get better. They dont care if we know the principles or not...its whether we apply them in our lives or not that makes difference.
So remember "To know and not to do is not to know"

What are my fears??

I was watching Apocalypto and there is one wise saying in that from the head tribes man. He says to his son "Fear- it clouds your judgement and sucks away your happines". "I did not raise you to live with fear".
I was 12 year old when I went with my father to our fields to guard the produce. We have to sleep in the little thatch in the centre of the field with huge sulos of rice all around us. That was the first time out in the field for me. I remember the feeling of dread. My primary fear was ghosts, my friends were talking about. I was harrassing my dad with questions like what if this comes around and what if the ghost eat me alive and stuff like that. My dad finally said " Ok boy. Are you afraid living things"? I said sheepishly...."No". "Then when you see the ghost next time ask it"- "Now, I am not afraid of living thnigs and you are the dead one, so why should I fear you?? I thought about it then and it made sense why should I fear dead ones when I am not afraid of living beings?? Just like that my fear was gone.
Like wise there are many misconceptions, beliefs, experiences during childhood and fake facts in our mind make us fear certain things in life. It may range from fear of water (I am affected by it) to fear of meeting new people to range of other things.
Obviously action cures fear. But I know that it is easily said than done. So I am following skipross's way of dealing with it. First i am recognising the fact that it exists and then writing a firm statement that I am getting rid of it by so and so continuous action on a daily basis.
Hope everyone will have peace and happiness in their hearts enroute to being free spirited individuals- free of False Evidence Appearing Real

Let Love Rule!!

It fills the world, It drives the world, It provides challenges, It gives the strength, It provides eternal bliss, It shoves you to nethers of despair and pain.
Now here's the challenge!! If only every one let it choose its own path rather than meddling or destroying or confining or suppressing it! coz by doin' so they are leaving the trail of havoc that tarnishes its image and leave the world love lorn!!
As Lenny Kravitz says "Let love rule"!!

Will you keep your promise to yourself???

We talk a lot about integrity and keeping your promises to friends, family and employers and who ever. How about Ourselves?? Are we keeping the promises we make to ourselves?? Some we get so muddled in other peoples affairs or even in our own daily routine that we miss the plot completely. "Lost in detail".
How many times we say to ourselves that we will do certain things by certain date and then completey ignore it!!?? It could start with as small a task as getting up at certain time to completing a large scale projects or tasks that we set ourselves.
Probably its time to review our lives and start with honouring our small tasks that we set our selves and then go on to bigger things as we get into a habit of 'HONOURABLE MAN'! Its time to get started as life is too short to dawdle and we can't afford to deceive ourselves for too long!!

World....Hold on

World....Hold on!! says Bob Sinclaire....we are goin too fast not caring about our environment and destroyin every thing that we cherished so far...no time for love and warmth towards eachother...rage, intolerance and impatience have become common place. Wait a minute!! Think!!.....is it all that we are created for??? What a waste of life we're living...ever thought of serene and innocent faces of kids??...what are we giving them??...a crumbling environment and society?? Ever given a thought about that??

Dream is Everything

Remember the dreams when we are kids...there is no limit to our creativity and somewhere between our schooling and uni we lost much of our creative power and ability to dream by living out our mundane lives....folks its time to invoke those creative powers and live out our life trying to pursue those dreams...our reality is what we think it is...we can change that...."Dare to dream and try your heart out to achieve"....

Call of Duty

There is more duty for us than we think. We should increase our horizons of thinking. We always think that what we are earning is enough for us and our family to be happy and that we dont need more. In other words we get too comfortable with what we are doin at the moment. But this thinking doesn't get us anywhere. So guys we are at the right age to take up the challenge to make difference. Increase your financial intelligence and act and earn smart and be in a stage to make difference. The above tragic photo might give you an idea of what you can prevent from happening.

Culture Combinations

World, especially G8 and other arrogant nations, should realise that by aggression (War) on a nation or a religion they cannot achieve harmony. In their desperate attempts to protect themselves, by bombing nations, they are igniting more souls to embrace terrorism. The simple formula that hate results in hate is forgotten. Each innocent family or a person who dies in this "war against terror" will result in ten terrorists, which further festers the problem.
More and more independent peace emissaries should be sent to the affected nations who should try to allay the fear of the civilians and stop them from embracing violence. Every one should be made to understand that its a big vicious cycle, which only increases in volume, if this ludicrous but tragic "War on terror" does not end. US of A should stop acting like a bully correcting other nations with out correcting itself. First thing- it should stop pounding nations with it's military might and next thing- their international policy should change to that of pre world war II era, not involving in other nation's affairs, which, I think, will solve many problems.
Hope the world sheds its xenophobia and there are culture combinations. That way the chances are more that we live as a single family and rescue each other from the evils such as tsunami quakes, famines in africa and dealing with orphans and HIV victims, with out any sefishness. It is a tragedy that a human hates the fellow human. As a foot note i would like to add this: "We all belong to one religion, that is humanity. If your religion preaches 'hate', stop following it because we cant afford to hate each other. Life is too precious to live in pain of hating each other. Follow the universal religion- HUMANITY, the greatest of all religions".
Giridhar Vemulapalli