Sitting on your talent

There was a man played piano in a bar. He was a good piano player. People came out just to hear him play. But one night, a patron told him he didn't want to hear him just play anymore. He wanted him to sing a song.
The man said, "I don't sing."
But the customer was persistent. He told the bartender, "I'm tired of listening to the piano. I want that guy to sing!"
The bartender shouted across the room, "Hey buddy! If you want to get paid, sing a song. The patrons are asking you to sing!"
So he did. He sang a song. A piano player who had never sung in public did so for the very first time. And nobody had ever heard the song Mona, Mona Lisa sung the way it was sung that night by Nat King Cole!
He had talent he was sitting on! He may have lived the rest of his life as a no-name piano player in a no-name bar, but because he had to sing, he went on to become one of the best-known entertainers in America.
You, too, have skills and abilities. You may not feel as if your "talent" is particularly great, but it may be better than you think! And with persistence, most skills can be improved. Besides, you may as well have no ability at all if you sit on whatever talent you possess! The better question is not "What ability do I have that is useful?" It is rather "How will I use whatever ability I have?"

Life is Like a Cafetaria

A friend's grandfather came to America from India. After being processed at Ellis Island, he went into a cafetaria in lower Manhattan to get something to eat. He sat down at an empty table and waited for someone to take his order. Of course nobody did.
Finally, a woman with a tray full of food sat down opposite him and informed him how a cafetaria worked.
"Start out at that end," she said. "Just go along the line and pick out what you want. At the other end they'll tell you how much you have to pay."
"I soon learned that's how everything works in America," the grandfather told a friend. "Life's a cafetaria here. You can get anything you want as long as you are willing to pay the price. You can even get success, but you'll never get it if you wait for someone to bring it to you. You have to get up and get it yourself."

Cocoon And importance of Struggle

A man found the cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress.It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly.He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened!In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. And we could never fly. So have a nice day...and struggle a little!-------------------------
I asked for strength and God gave me difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for wisdom and God gave me problems to solve.
I asked for prosperity and God gave me a brain and brawn to work.
I asked for courage and God gave me danger to overcome.
I asked for love and God gave me troubled people to help.
I asked for favors and God gave me opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted and I received everything I needed

MISER Concept And Time Management

In his book 'Be a Winner Everytime' Mr. Promod Batra has mentioned about this MISER concept. This can be very successfully used in TIME MANAGEMENT. How it works? Let us see:
M => Stands for 'Merge'. Can I merge it with some other activity? Meaning there by doing more than one task at a time reduces the time taken to complete the tasks separately.
I => Stands for 'Improving'. Can I improve it? And most of the time we can, if we have a working attitude of 5 to 9 instead of 9 to 5.
S => Stands for 'Simplify'! Any action or activity can be simplified.
E => Stands for 'Eliminating'. Many things we do. We do not need to do them in the first place.
R => Stands for 'Reducing' the activity. This is where your experience, exposure and wisdom will help you.

How you would like to be remembered?

Are you startled by this question?
Have you ever given this a little thought ?
If you haven't, I would be serious when I suggest that you should give this a hard good look and cast this statement in your mind.
"When I am gone I would like people to remember me as….."

About a 100+ years ago, a man looked at the morning newspaper and to his dismay and horror, he read his name in the front page …"Dynamite King Dies.." This was cast in a square grey tinted box with a thick black line on the borders."His first response was awesomely shocking. "Am I there or here? When he regained his composure after a while, his next thought was to actually find out what people said of him, what people thought of him.

The obituary news read as follows:"He was the merchant of death. This man was the inventor of the dynamite. One most cruel invention that could kill people while it was being made, and even many more when it was used. A substance of mass killing, and a deadly weapon in the hands of those who wishes to create terror and rule the scene…. The story continued with several curses added to it.

He asked himself, "Is this how people view me? Is this the way they will think of me? Is this the way they will remember me?He decided then and there that he would change the situation made a firm resolve to clear the stigma that was being associated with his name.

From that day on he started working towards peace, and sure enough he left an indelible mark on this planet. He is remembered even this day as Alfred Noble. He gave his entire earnings to establish a foundation that would work for peace in the world, and today too it awards prizes for achievers all over the world for their unique contributions to the welfare of mankind. He lives on even today through this mission and the Noble prizes are awarded in his honour.

Just as Alfred Noble redefined his values, I believe all of us should step back and do the same taking a leaf out of this man's true story.What will be your legacy?How would you like to be remembered?Will you be spoken off well?Will you be remembered with love and respect?Will you be missed?