Tuesday, October 31, 2017

2017-44 - The Green Man...

I was waiting at a traffic light to cross the road with Haruki, a Japanese friend. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon in a small town on the Tokyo outskirts and there was not a vehicle or soul in sight. So I turned to Haruki and said, "Hey, I know it's a red man but should we just cross?"

Haruki looked at me and shook his head. "No, we wait for the green man."

I was a bit perplexed - it did not seem to me that it would make any difference whether we waited or not. "There aren't any cars. Why do we need to wait?"

Haruki smiled, then asked me a question in return: "What if a child is watching?"

~ Author Unknown




"Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking."

~ H Jackson Brown Jr

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

2017-43 - The Thorn Birds...

There is a legend about a bird that sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth.

From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And, dying, it rises above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale.

One superlative song, existence the price.

But the whole world stills to listen. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain... Or so says the legend.

~ Colleen McCullough



"Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice,and is never the result of selfishness."

~ Napoleon Hill

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

2017-42 - Get Off The Scale...!

You are beautiful. Your beauty, just like your capacity for life, happiness, and success, is immeasurable.

I have yet to see a scale that can tell you how enchanting your eyes are. I have yet to see a scale that can show you how wonderful your hair looks when the sun shines its glorious rays on it. I have yet to see a scale that can thank you for your compassion, sense of humour, and contagious smile.

Get off the scale because I have yet to see one that can admire you for your perseverance when challenged in life.

It's true, the scale can only give you a numerical reflection of your relationship with gravity. That's it. It cannot measure beauty, talent, purpose, life force, possibility, strength, or love. Don't give the scale more power than it has earned. Take note of the number, then get off the scale and live your life. You are beautiful!

~ Steve Maraboli



Judging a woman by her appearance doesn't define her, it defines you.

~ Steve Maraboli

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

2017-41 - Good leadership rocks...

Years ago, a new boss arrived. He did not send flowery emails to his staff like his predecessors did, and did not produce a new mission statement, like every boss did before him. We were very surprised.

Then, our system administrator made a huge mistake and unplugged a wrong server from the network. A major outage resulted. The boss called him into his office. The Sys Admin expected the worst, he started saying "It is my fault..." but the boss interrupted him. "As your manager, I should have made sure that cables were clearly labelled so such a mistake would be difficult to make." Together the two of them labelled every cable and server in the data centre.

Then, he noticed that his tech support team was not handling trouble tickets well. He got the budget to send them to training. Never a reprimand, nor a patronizing comment from him.

When he finally spoke at all-hands, he never mentioned any of what he did, he only spoke of successes of his employees, calling them out by names. He made each one of us feel very special. He was fiercely loyal to his employees, often putting his own neck on the line.

What he got back was our utmost dedication. He never asked for it, he did not need to.

~ Jim P Dougherty




A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

~ John C. Maxwell


Tuesday, October 3, 2017

2017-40 - Be who you are…

He used to hide his true self because he feared people wouldn't like him, or would judge him for being too much this, and not enough that. He found himself acting like everyone else, even though his heart wanted to express itself in ways that felt different than much of what he was seeing in the world.

His heart grew louder, and he longed to taste a different kind of freedom, one his mind had worked hard to contain in order to keep him feeling safe. But that safety came with a price: his authenticity. Then it occurred to him, some people would judge him no matter who he was or what he did.

And that if he was going to be judged anyway, he may as well live his life as authentically as possible and at least be judged for his truth. He also knew some people would love him no matter who he was or what he did, and how much better it would feel to be loved for being real.

~ Scott Stabile



"Don't compromise yourself - you're all you have.”

~ John Grisham