Inspiration 365

Outrun You

2005-07-23T18:29:00.000+08:00

Tom and Jerry were traveling through the jungle when they heard a bear roaring not far behind them. Tom started running immediately while Jerry quickly knelt down to change into his jogging shoes.

Tom shouted to Jerry, "Why change your shoes? You're wasting precious time to outrun the bear!"

"I don't need to outrun the bear," Jerry spoke calmly. "I just need to outrun you."

Success doesn't mean outrunning everyone. Outrun your competitors even by a single step, and you have won the race.

New Work Pants

2005-07-22T16:00:00.000+08:00

A farmer was fixing the fences with his newly hired hand early in the morning. Suddenly, the farmer dropped a plank of wood he was holding into a patch of mud. Up came the mud splashing over both the farmer and the hired hand, dirtying their clothings.

The farmer's wife was in the kitchen and saw the incident. She couldn't help but felt her husband dropped the plank on purpose. Quietly, she asked her husband about it during lunch.

"I didn't want to do it," out came the farmer. "But didn't you see our young boy wearing a pair of new work pants this morning? He was paying more attention to keeping his pants clean than the work at hand when we started. Have you noticed how much faster we got the fences fixed after he had dirtied his pants?

Put your pride aside and get down to the work. You'll find yourself more flexible, your world widen, and your door being knocked more often by opportunities. If you're not willing to get your hands dirty, you won't be making much progress at all.

The Coach

2005-07-21T00:59:00.000+08:00

A manager was very upset over the sales results from the exhibition.

"You're professional salesmen. How can you give me such sales figures? A bunch of young kids can do better than you. You all ought to be fired!"

All the salesmen kept quiet. The manager, looking for someone to agree with him, picked the young ex-American footballer who just joined the sales team.

"Tim, they'll fire all the players if the football team loses, don't your agree? That's the way it works, isn't it?"

"Yes, if a player doesn't perform, they replace the footballer." Tim then hesitated, "Eh... If the whole team doesn't perform, they just replace the coach."

The next time your children, subordinates, etc. fail to perform, don't be so quick to fire them.

Maybe the person who needs firing is yourself?

Locking Up the Kangaroo

2005-07-20T01:22:00.000+08:00

The new kangaroo arrived at the zoo and the zookeeper kept it in the grass field with 1 meter high fences specially prepared for it.

The next morning, the kangaroo was found hopping merrily around outside the fences. Quickly, the zookeeper incresed the fences to 2 meters high and drove the kangaroo back behind the fences.

On the 3rd morning, the zookeeper saw the kangaroo outside of the fences again. He hurried the kangaroo into the grass field once more and went on to build the fences up to 3 meters.

The giraffe in the next cage asked the kangaroo, "Well, what do you think? How high must the fence be to keep you in?"

"I don't know," the kangaroo replied. "Maybe 5 meters, maybe 10 meters, or even 100 meters - as long as the zookeeper keeps forgeting to lock the gate at night."

A wrong action leads to a failed result.

No matter how much effort you put in, you cannot rectify the result if you cannot analyze the cause of the failure correctly.

Two Dream Interpreters

2005-07-19T23:15:00.000+08:00

A king dreamt that all his teeth fell off and woke up with a sweat. Immediately he summoned a dream interpreter to find out its meaning.

"My Lord," the dream interpreter said grimly, "I'm afraid that the fall of each tooth signifies the loss of a relative of yours."

"What?" The king was furious. "How dare you curse my relatives? Drag him out and spank him!"

Unsettled, the king summoned another dream interpreter into the palace.

After listening attentively to the king on the dream, the dream interpreter spoke with a smile, "Congratulation, My Lord. This is an auspicious sign. It means that you shall live a very long life, much longer than any of your relatives."

The king was very pleased, "Your reading is brilliant. You're a great dream interpreter." The king then threw a feast for the dream interpreter and awarded him with 50 gold coins.

Upon accompanying the dream interpreter out of the palace, the royal guard asked quietly, "I beg your pardon, doesn't your explanation mean the same as that of the first interpreter? I honestly don't see how your interpretation skill is more superb."

"You're right, my friend. I'm no better in my interpretation skills than the first dream interpreter," the dream interpreter smiled shrewdly.

"I just master the art of conversation better and present my ideas better. The delivery counts too rather than the content alone."

After which, he went home happily with his gold coins.

If may be easy to just speak your mind, but to put it across accurately and yet positively is not an easy task. It is an EQ skill requiring patience, thoughtfulness, consideration, and experience.

The art of conversation takes a lifetime to master.

Monkeys and Bananas

2005-07-18T11:01:00.000+08:00

A scientist caged 5 monkeys and attached a bunch of bananas to a sensor. The sensor was designed to spray cold water into the cage if the monkeys attempted to pluck the bananas.

Seeing the bunch of bananas, a monkey happily leaped to pluck itself one. Immediately, all the monkeys were showered wet with cold water. Another monkey tried to pluck the bananas. Straight away a burst of cold water sent them all running around the cage.

All 5 monkeys made a few tries, and each time they were greeted with cold shower. Eventually, they sat down quietly and showed no more interest in the bananas.

The scientist deactivated the sensor. He then replaced one of the 5 with a new monkey.

The first reaction of the new monkey was to go pluck a banana. Afraid of another cold shower, the other 4 monkeys forced it to stop without hesitated. After a few attempts to pluck the banana resulted in the same beating, the new monkey learnt to not touch the banana.

The scientist put in another new monkey to replace the original 4.

When the 2nd new monkey wanted to eat the banana, the 1st new monkey led the pack to attack the 2nd new monkey. Soon, the 2nd new monkey dared not touch the bananas too.

The scientist kept on replacing the monkeys one by one. The batch of 5 original monkeys was gone, then the 1st batch of new monkeys was also replaced. He ended up with a totally new batch of 5 monkeys in the cage.

None of these monkey dared go near the bananas. They knew they must beat up whoever went near the bananas but none knew why.

Circumstances change. The cause for the customs or tradition may not exist anymore. Just like the sensor was long deactivated in the story.

Don't fall into the trap of following the customs and tradition without thinking. Just because it has always been done this way doesn't mean it must be done this way.

Changes are necessary to progress.

Bird Cage

2005-07-17T10:15:00.000+08:00

George became pal with a psychologist.

One day, the psychologist betted with George, "If I give you an empty bird cage to hang in your room, you'll soon get a bird."

The bet was on, so the psychologist bought one big exquisite bird cage for George. Amused, George hung the cage besides a desk in his living room.

Everyone coming into his living room just went, "Hey, George, when did the bird die?"

"I've never own a bird," George would reply immediately.

"Huh? Then why the cage?"

George always felt short for a good answer.

Day in day out, the same question was asked about the empty bird cage whenever visitors came.

George got moodier with each day passing. From an irritation the question became unbearable, George finally went out to get himself a parrot.

It was so much more simpler to own a bird than to explain about the empty cage.

Be careful about unnecessary empty bird cages in your mind. They won't remain empty for long. Eventually you'll fill them up with birds of thoughts and value.

If you can't avoid the cages, then at least be picky about what birds you put in them.