My Love Affair with Japan

These are incredible times. My mother tells me

 she never heard about an earthquake that read 

'9' on the Richter scale. My mind races to this 

photograph I saw in the newspaper; of a young 

woman standing besides the remains of what 

might have been her house sometime back. I do 

not know her; not even her name; we have 

never met before and the chances are good that 

we never will. But we are no longer strangers; 

the moment I looked at her photograph a 

spiritual connection established itself and 

suddenly she is in my prayers now. It is as if I 

am in love with her; I think about her everyday; 

I cannot get that photo of her out of my mind. I 

never thought I would ever be in a relationship 

with a Japanese but I think now I am; like every 

other non- Japanese on this earth; in a 

relationship with every one of my fellow human 

being living in that once beautiful island nation 

of theirs. No one deserves this; neither did you.

The pessimists are happy; it is Christmas coming 

early for the people who think that the world is 

going to end in 2012. I stand by my 

interpretation of the Mayan’s prophecy as a 

satire on the mortality of humans, as a warning 

for our race which strayed from its path long 

ago. The high and the mighty will be the first to 

be down and dusted.

Having said that I have to admit that air is not 

what is used to be and nor is the water and as 

for the human race, well; it is the greatest 

problem for this world and at the same time; 

earth’s best hope.

To my brothers and sisters, who are not having 

the best of times.

Love and Hugs,

Ishaan Kumbkarni

Pure Humility; Nothing Else.

To start off; i shall quote some lines quoted long back.

"Look, we've grown because the industry grew. We were lucky enough to be sitting on the nose when the rocket took off. We don't deserve a damn bit of credit."

After a moment of silence which followed this statement; someone else spoke.

"Well, Bill, at least we did not louse it up completely."

Now you may ask who said these lines.

Well, the first set of words was quoted by Bill Hewlett and the second set by David Packard.

Do these set of names sound familiar? I am sure they do. These are the names of the two co-founders of the Hewlett- Packard Company which is a very house hold name across the globe.

These statements of remarkable personal humility were made in an executive counsel meeting after HP was an established billion(s) dollar enterprise.

Jim Collins in his book Good To Great writes, "Shortly before his death I had the opportunity to meet Dave Packard. Despite being one of Silicon Valley's first self made billionaires, he lived in a small house that he and his wife built for themselves in 1957, overlooking a simple orchard. The tiny kitchen, with its dated linoleum, and the simply furnished living room bespoke a man who needed no material symbols to proclaim I'm a billionaire. I'm important. I'm successful. Packard bequeathed his $5.6 billion estate to a charitable foundation and, upon his death, his family created a eulogy pamphlet, with a photo of him sitting on a tractor in farming clothes. The caption made no reference of his stature as one of the great industrialists of the twentieth century. It simply read: David Packard, 1912 - 1996, Rancher, etc."

Well what do we learn from this small peek into Mr. David's wonderfully lived life?

For starters, his alarming humility enthralls me, befuddles me to the extent that i close the door of my room, turn off the lights and ask myself a question ~ How in the name of Jesus could he have 5.6 billion dollars and live the way he did? Think the way he thought? and be humble to the extent he was?

And after much deliberation i get the answer.

These people here (David and Packard) were legends.

Money was not their core value; they were humble as there good sense had not been clouded by their achievements.

They were rich because they followed their passions not instincts.

They were what they were because they were driven by what made them happy; not what made them profits.

Love, Regards and Hugs,

Ishaan Kumbkarni,

Learning from the Legends Programme,

The Success Corporation

P.S. Did you like this message? Did this message help you in any way? Was it useful? If it was please do leave a message for me. Your encouragement keeps me going with The Success Corporation; its the fuel to the fire within me.

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Flexible Honesty

Most of you must have heard this sentence;

“Honesty is the best policy”

I totally vouch for it.

But let’s dig a li’l bit deeper.

Are we all honest?

What if someone asks you; “How are you?”

And what if you have just finished an awful day at your work/school/office?

Would you say;

Well you know my boss yelled at me today; so I am really pissed off and then the janitor did not clean my office so I yelled at him for almost half an hour and to top it all my donuts were stale! So I am not feeling anywhere near good! Thank you.

Or would you smile and say I am fine thank you!

I know no people who would chose the first one; and I know you are not one of them either.

So are you being deceitful or dishonest; when you are saying that you are fine?

No you are not! You are being flexible with your honesty; which also happens to be your greatest asset as a leader! Flexible Honesty!

To be more clear take this example;

What if your subordinate is working day in and day out to complete the project you gave him but at the end of the deadline he isn’t able to complete it.

What would be your reaction?

Mr. A ~ “You could not complete on small project in spite of working your ass out on it; you are incapable as hell! I am giving this project to Mr. X.

Mr. B ~ “I really appreciate the amount of hard work you have put into this project but I am afraid to say that as of yet it is not that impressive but I am sure with a little more time and some help from Mr. X you would be able to finish it just fine.”

What is the difference between the two reactions?

Was it just some re- arrangement of words?

None of the above statements is deceitful or dishonest both are perfectly correct and true.

What is so impressive about the second statement?

It’s the flexibility; it’s the manner of speaking; it’s revealing of the truth in a concealed way.

It’s flexible honesty.

A small rearrangement of words has made all the difference in the world.

It has won the person B the respect of the subordinate.

Person B has stamped his authority as a leader.

Person B is going to get his work done; without losing his subordinate.

And as I said it has made all the difference in the world.

Copyright © 2010 Ishaan Kumbkarni for The Success Corporation.

The E - factor

What does it take; what does it really take to be successful.

Does it take belief?

Or does it take persistence?

Or is it hard work?

Let me tell you something; I recently stumbled upon.

Something which left my eyes freaking open.

Do you know that how many people have the belief, the courage, the ability to persist, the ability to work hard and all other tools to be successful?

The count is very high.

But do all these people really get to live a successful life?

The answer is a big no.

Why is it that; two similarly able people succeed to different degrees?

Why does this happen?

Because there is something; something that the successful people realise and the unsuccessful ones don’t.

What is that something?

I will tell you what it is.

I totally believe this piece of information could change your life in some way.

I call it the E- factor.

How much you expose yourself.

You could be doing all the things right; but they won’t click unless you are at the right place. Believe me.

You may have all the talents in the world; but what use are they if you are not showing them to the right person.

Get out there. Get out of your house and put yourself at different places. Get outside and expose yourself!

Really there is someone out there who is waiting for you to present yourself.

I have heard people with voices so melodious that I remember their songs for years.

Voices you just can’t take out of your head.

But they remained that- unrecognised, ordinary voices.

Why?

Because they were singing in front of the wrong person.

THE HOUR BEFORE LIGHT

The darkest hour is just before the dawn

And by that time you will be dead and gone

Coz’ it’s an old people saying

That person will lay his own tombstone brick

The one who will not dream crazy and think big

For that person will be nothing but a dirty fat pig

The being who thinks what others conceive as ridiculous

Ends up being successful and fabulous

The being who thinks everything that is no-nonsense

Does not excite the Gods with his presence

And lastly the being who thinks he has it all

Will someday have a big fat fall

Which will be seen and laughed at by all

And then I talk about the person who does not have a vision

I pity them & think about whatever happened to his imagination

If he wants to be what they call the ‘cream’

He first has to sit and dream

For whatever in this world that was, is and will be

Was because of someone who dreamt of a world that was free

There is this thick fellow down the street

All he has are dreams; without a treat

Whenever I go for a walk, he sits by the pavement

His eyes transfixed, as if in amusement

He finds happiness in dreams through his imagination

But resists with them, his confrontation

Because he has a lazy ass, what to do

He does not want to get up, even to go to the loo.

And then there is this smart, handsome guy

Who lives in a mansion and wears a damn expensive tie

He once dreamt of a life at the top

Abundance and tranquillity were the things he sought

Now it’s been two years

And all we can do for him; is to give him three big cheers

It’s all because he knew his might

And he fought the hour before light

Will Smith's Wisdom

Success mantras – the power of dreams.

Your dreams are excerpts from the book, your soul is writing about you.

-Anonymous

Average human life span is about 70 – 80 years. These 70 odd years we can choose to live the way we want to; we can do whatever pleases us, we can choose to live in whatever way we feel like.

Now this is an important statement. Take particular note of the word choose. We can choose and live our stipulated 70 years as an ambler, as a mediocre or we can choose and live a life of abundance and fulfilment or we can choose and live our life in abject poverty.

Yeah, this is actually this simple. Bill Gates (founder of the Microsoft corp.), Steve Jobs (founder of Apple corp.), Mark Zuckerberg (the creator of facebook); all these people had one thing in common. They made choices, they took decisions and you know what is even better? They made the right choices, they chose the right options. They chose to live their life in abundance and fulfilment and they succeeded in doing so.

And they had one more thing in common.

All of them were dreamers.

Most of us our so busy in our daily lives that we fail to recognise the power of dreams. Let me discuss how an average person spends his life in our country. An average person today finishes school by the age of around 17 years of age, he probably finishes his graduation by around 22, A post graduation takes another 2 to 3 years and then the person is ready to marry, he takes up responsibilities, gets a job, looks after his family, This goes on till he is around 50- 60 years of age, then he retires, spends all his life’s savings into his children’s marriage or in his retirement support or something like that, he spends his old age laughing out loud in gardens with his fellow oldies in the morning, eating and sleeping whole day and listening to politicians on TV over dinner. He does this for another 15- 20 years until his death. This is a life, perfectly lived for someone from middle class in our nation.

Now think over it, we got this life, this treasured human life only to spend it in monotony? Only to do the same things what about million other people do. Wont it be a little better if you could play golf in an expensive club every once in a while, wont your life have a little bit of that extra charm if you could have those Versace shades or your children could study in the best public school? Won’t your days be a little brighter if your balcony faced a lake instead of the municipal garbage dump? Off course these things are not exactly important, and we can live without them, I totally agree to that but tell me one thing, would you say no to them?

A Versace on your eyes instead of a Chinese make is definitely a better feeling ;)
You know what a ‘perfect’ average person fails to do during his life span? He fails to dream. And frankly he does not care, because he is satisfied, with what he has got. And his satisfaction is due to the fact that he does not realise how beautiful and fulfilling human life can get. He chooses to live the way he does.

Come on guys you can’t do this to yourself. This is a big big world and there are thousands of opportunities for each and every inhabitant of this earth. Go out there; dream big, dream huge, and be proud of your dreams.

Have humongous ambitions for yourself.

Don’t get inspired, be the inspiration.

Don’t be a follower be the leader.

 Don’t stand in the Q, be the person the Q is there for.

Make decisions in life and stand by them, be stubborn.

I read this line somewhere and it never fails to impress me. It says that dreams are the blueprint of your life and believe me they are.
Your dreams will take you as high as they are. So dream big.

I will suggest you an exercise that will go a long way in helping you achieve what you really want.

Think about things you really would want in life. Now after having thought about them, collect some photos that can depict those things; for example if you dreamt of a BMW, get its cutting from a magazine. In this way collect good quality, evident pictures of all the things you dream of. Now take a white sheet of paper and paste all those pictures on that sheet. Now put up that sheet somewhere on a wall where you could read it every day.
I found this exercise very useful. It got me the phone I wanted, it got me my PC, my iPod, and I think my dream car is on its way. Believe me it true.

I can today totally guarantee you that you can, and will get to live the life you dreamt of if you want it very badly and dream about it frequently enough and you have the belief and the obstinacy to stick to your dreams.

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars and change the world.
–Harriet Tubman