Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 28,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 10 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Cannibals Story

A big corporation hired several cannibals. “You are all part of our team now,” said the HR manager during the welcome briefing. “You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don’t eat any of the other employees.” The cannibals promised they would not.

A few weeks later the cannibals’ boss remarked, “You’re all working very hard, and I’m satisfied with you. However, one of our secretaries has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to her?” The cannibals all shook their heads, “No,” they said.

After the boss left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others angrily, “Right, which one of you idiots ate the secretary?”

A hand rose hesitantly in admission. “You fool!” said the leader, “For weeks we’ve been eating managers and no one noticed anything, but nooo, you had to go and eat someone important!…” 

Lolz

After having a good 6 hours sleep, the first thing I was looking for on my bed was my cell phone as always, worrying about being late from Office, 7:00 am – Thanks God , so I did not miss alarm set at 7:30 am. Here I was having half hour, nothing to do but to press my clothes and getting ready for office. Thanks to cell phone’s SMS preview option, the Facebook status of a  friend caught my eye. it says “What!? Steve Jobs ?”. I felt good… felt like I am loaded with energies, It was as good as you see an emerging beam of light after decades of darkness….I mean it was so good to read the name…“Steve Jobs”.

Surrounded with the bright light, some random thoughts also stuck my head…

“Did Steve criticize the launch of IPhone 4S , in spite of IPhone 5?”

or

“ Has he taken back his resignation and is appointed as CEO Apple once again?” 

well whatever… I was happy to read his name and that’s it…

On the way to office, nothing else but “Steve Jobs” was on my mind…His Commencement address at Stanford University (2005) ,The Company he founded, was fired from and to whom he returned as CEO and turned it into world’s leading tech giant…

& His famous quote

“You know, I’ve got a plan that could rescue Apple. I can’t say any more than that it’s the perfect product and the perfect strategy for Apple. But nobody there will listen to me.”(1995)

& The words of John Sculley ( the guy who fired Steve from Apple)

“I haven’t spoken to Steve in 20-odd years, even though he still doesn’t speak to me, and I expect he never will, I have tremendous admiration for him.”

& his response when  fired from Apple:

“I didn’t see it then but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again,less sure about everything.It freed me to enter one of the most creative period of my life.”

Reached office, heard a sad Assalam o Allaikum (Hello) from colleague sitting next to my cabin, the Steve’s thought gone for a second and I was thinking about the Sad greeting that used to be a very warm one everyday...”Wa elekum Salam” , I replied…and the next lines of him amazed me.. “Did you hear about Steve Jobs..The apple CEO” (No one says Former CEO)…oh my God..! Something big has happened that relates to Steve…My sixth sense whispered..“No …!What happened” I was too keen to know…“He died……………!” was the reply...”Are u kidding me..?” is what i was going to ask, but could not …“He died few hours ago..what a nice person he was..Man with power of Leadership…believe and optimisim…” He continued..

My goodness…I was speechless…

The 7 am time check, the Facebook status of Tauseef….the refreshing light i felt within myself…18 Km traveled distance with thougts of Steve Jobs…everything was running like a video in my mind…I was still not ready to accept it..rather my heart wasn’t…

And finally I have to believe it ….as I logged into BBC News…Yahoo News…He was everywhere….on news, search engines, social networks…He was everywhere too, when Apple launched first PC, IPhones.. IPads…and probabaly sum other products as well…He was everywhere when Apples shares were down by almost US $ 80 when he went on sick leave…When he resigned as a CEO and now when………..he is no more with us…that was shocking….

Every guy entering office was talking about his death…and with words of praise…to my amazement most of them never used any Apple product…yet the words of praise were remarkable…

I,myself have never used any Apple product…probably never liked any as well…but I admired the Founder..who gave the world a reason for self belief…motivation and understanding the value of creativity..Who taught us not to live with the fear of Failure…Who was a great Leader, Mentor and Teacher.He showed us to live each day at its best…

The last post of this blog was written on the day…He resigned..was not expecting to write another one…on this occasion…

Today I & the world lost the most inspiring person of the Era….Rest in Peace…We will Miss you…

Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

I almost gave in. I almost lost.
This day almost got to me.
Into the air my hands I tossed.

Almost walked away. Almost Cried.
Almost threw caution into the wind.
Happiness for myself, I almost denied.

Almost… Then…
I felt a brush of love against my face.
Wings wrapped around me in a warm embrace.
I heard a whisper into my ear…

“Don’t you ever give up, I’m right here.”

Courtesy : TEDx Karachi

Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day, he went for a trip to some distant areas of his country.

When he was back to his palace, he complained that his feet were very painful, because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road of the entire country with leather. Definitely, this would need thousands of cows’ skin, and would cost a huge amount of money.

Then one of his wise servant dared himself to tell the king, “Why do you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money ? Why don’t you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet?”

The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make a “shoe” for himself.

There is actually a valuable lesson of life in this story: “To make this world a happy place to live, you better change yourself – your heart; and not the world.”

We give of ourselves when we give gifts of the heart:

love, kindness, joy, understanding,sympathy, tolerance, forgiveness.

We give of ourselves when we give gifts of the mind:

ideas, dreams, purposes, ideals,principles, plans, inventions, projects, poetry.

We give of ourselves when we give gifts of the spirit:

prayer, vision, beauty, aspiration,peace, faith.

We give of ourselves when we give the gift of words:

encouragement, inspiration, guidance.

Emerson said it well:
“Rings and jewels are not gifts,but apologies for gifts.The only true gift isa portion of thyself.”

FROM THE ART OF LIVING BY WILFERD A. PETERSON

A dog teaches us a lot of things, but we never seem to take notice. These are some of the lessons we might learn…

• When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
• Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
• Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
• When it’s in your best interest, practice obedience.
• Let others know when they’ve invaded your territory.
• Take naps and stretch before rising.
• Run romp and play daily.
• Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
• Avoid biting, when a simple growl will do.
• On warm days stop to lie on your back on the grass. On hot days drink lots of water and lay under a shady tree.
• When you’re happy dance around and wag your entire body.
• No matter how often you’re scolded don’t buy into the guilt thing and pout. Run right back and make friends.
• Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
• Eat with gusto and enthusiasm, stop when you have had enough.
• Be loyal.
• Never pretend to be something you’re not.
• If what you want lies buried dig until you find it.
• When someone is having a bad day be silent, sit close by… and nuzzle them gently

There is an old Chinese tale about a woman whose only son died.

In her grief, she went to the holy man and said, “What prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life?”

Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, “Fetch me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow. We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life.”

The woman went off at once in search of that magical mustard seed. She came first to a splendid mansion, knocked at the door, and said, “I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this a place? It is very important to me.”

They told her, “You’ve certainly come to the wrong place,” and began to describe all the tragic things that recently had befallen them. The woman said to herself, “Who is better able to help these poor, unfortunate people that I, who have had misfortune of my own?”

She stayed to comfort them, and then went on in search of a home that had never known sorrow. But wherever she turned, in hovels and in other places, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune.

She became so involved in ministering to other people’s grief that ultimately she forgot about her quest for the magical mustard seed, never realizing that it had, in fact, driven the sorrow out of her life.

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him.

After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?”

The other friend replied “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

Answer: Three!

Why? The frog only DECIDED to jump! It didn’t!

Dreaming of a personal accomplishment, most people make the mistake of waiting…

- Waiting until they’ve been trained

- Waiting till someone say’s they are ready

- Waiting till they have the proper tools

- Waiting till they’re better

- Waiting till they’re hired

- Waiting till they’ve been given the assignment

Ponder over this, my friends. Are you not unlike the frog; who decides to do this, decides to do that, but ended up not doing any?

In life, we have to make many decisions. Some easy; some hard. Most mistakes are not made by wrong decisions; Most mistakes are made due to our inability to take a right decision at the right time.

We have to live with the consequences of our decisions. And that is RISK

with thanks to Pravs J