Health Tips....
Sitting at a computer for long periods often causes neck and shoulder stiffness and occasionally lower back pain. Do these stretches every hour or so throughout the day, or whenever you feel stiff. Photocopy this and keep it in a drawer. Also, be sure to get up and walk around the office whenever you think of it. You'll feel better!
"Wishing You A Season Full Of Delight And Brilliant Happiness, Eid-ul-Adha Mubarrak"
There is a fascinating story that states the significance of Bakri Eid. Once, Allah challenged Prophet Ibrahim, the friend
of Allah and the father of Prophets. Ibrahim had to prove his faith in Allah. Allah asked him to sacrifice the dearest
and nearest one in his life. Ibrahim decided to take up the challenge and decided to sacrifice his son Ismail.
His love towards his son was as strong as his faith in Allah. Though his heart went numb, he put his son on the altar
at the mount of Mina near
slaying his own child but he could not deny the order of higher power.
He closed his eyes and raised the sharp sword. Reciting Allah's name he divided the head from the body. He opened
his eyes and could not believe on his senses. His son Ismail was standing healthy and hearty in front of his eyes. A
dead ram with his head apart was lying in the pool of blood. Ibrahim emerged as a winner as he accepted god's
challenge with complete faith.
Since then people ardently believe in the mercy of Allah and in the authenticity of Quran. They devotionally sacrifice
a ram on Eid-Ul-Zuha. On the holy occasion of Eid-Ul-Zuha, prayers are offered by Muslims and animals are sacrificed
to show faith and sincerity towards Islam. The festival also signifies the Ibrahim's belief in almighty.
This is empathy...
A boy went to the pet store to buy a puppy. Four of them were sitting together, priced at Rs. 5000 each. Then there was one sitting alone in a corner.
The boy asked if that was from the same litter, if it was for sale, and why it was sitting alone. The store owner replied that it was from the same litter, it was a deformed one, and not for sale. The boy asked what the deformity was.
The store owner replied that the puppy was born without a hip socket and had a leg missing. The boy asked, "What will you do with this one?" The reply was it would be put to sleep. The boy asked if he could play with that puppy.
The store owner said, "Sure." The boy picked the puppy up and the puppy licked him on the ear. Instantly the boy decided that was the puppy he wanted to buy. The store owner said "That is not for sale!" The boy insisted.
The store owner agreed.
The boy pulled out RS. 200 from his pocket and ran to get RS. 4800 from his mother. As he reached the door the store owner shouted after him, "I don't understand why you would pay full money for this one when you could buy a good one for the same price." The boy didn't say a word. He just lifted his left trouser leg and he was wearing a brace. The pet store owner said, "I understand. Go ahead, take this one."
Motivation...!!
A farmer discovered that he had lost his watch in the barn. It was no ordinary watch because it had sentimental value for him. After searching high and low among the hay for a long while, he gave up and enlisted the help of a group of children playing outside the barn.
He promised them that the person who found it would be rewarded. Hearing this, the children hurried inside the barn, went through and around the entire stack of hay but still could not find the watch.
Just when the farmer was about to give up looking for his watch, a little boy went up to him and asked to be given another chance.
The farmer looked at him and thought, "Why not? After all, this kid looks sincere enough."
Therefore, the farmer sent the little boy back in the barn. After a while, the little boy came out with the watch in his hand! The farmer was happy and surprised, So he asked the boy how he succeeded where the rest had failed.
The boy replied, "I did nothing but sit on the ground and listen. In the silence, I heard the ticking of the watch and just looked for it in that direction."
Moral:
Silence is a source of Great Strength. A peaceful mind can think better than a worked up mind. Allow a few minutes of silence to your mind every day, and see, how sharply it helps you to set your life the way you expect it to be...!
Music and silence combine strongly because music is done with silence, and silence is full of music. True silence brings answers to so many unanswered questions in life; Silence is golden. In the silence of the heart God speaks. We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.
Motivation....
One-day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.
Finally, he decided since the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway, it just was not worth it to retrieve the donkey. Therefore, the farmer invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed shovels, and began to shovel dirt into the well.
All the other farm animals were very upset about this, because the donkey was their friend. However, they discovered there was nothing they could do to help him. At first, when the donkey realized what was happening, he cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement, he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well, and was astonished at what he saw.
With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off, and take a step up on the dirt as it piled up. As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well, and trotted off!
MORAL:
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. However, each trouble can be a stepping-stone. What happens to you is not nearly as important as how you react to it. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not giving up!
Shake it off, and take a step up!
What is Bigger - Your Dreams or Your Excuses?
Raksha Bandhan (The bond of protection)
Raksha Bandhan, (The bond of protection) or Rakhi, is a festival primarily observed in
Historical occurrences and mentions:
Santoshi Ma,
Other festivals on this day: In southern & Central parts of India including Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Orissa, this day (i.e. Shravan Poornima day), is when the Brahmin community performs the rituals of Avani Avittam or Upakarma. Balarama Jayanti, Rakhi Purnima, Gamha Purnima, Narali Purnima, Jandhyam Poornima, Kajari Purnima, Pavitropana, Jhulan Purnima, Poonal/Jandhya Poornima/ Janyu,
River of Thoughts....
A kindergarten teacher has decided to let her class play a game.
The teacher told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag containing a few potatoes.
Each potato will be given a name of a person that the child hates,
So the number of potatoes that a child will put in his/her plastic bag will depend on the number of people he/she hates.
So when the day came, every child brought some potatoes with the name of the people he/she hated. Some had 2 potatoes; some 3 while some up to 5 potatoes. The teacher then told the children to carry with them the potatoes in the plastic bag wherever they go (even to the toilet) for 1 week.
Days after days passed by, and the children started to complain due to the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten potatoes. Besides, those having 5 potatoes also had to carry heavier bags. After 1 week, the children were relieved because the game had finally ended....
The teacher asked: "How did you feel while carrying the potatoes with you for 1 week?". The children let out their frustrations and started complaining of the trouble that they had to go through having to carry the heavy and smelly potatoes wherever they go.
Then the teacher told them the hidden meaning behind the game. The teacher said: "This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The stench of hatred will contaminate your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot tolerate the smell of rotten potatoes for just 1 week, can you imagine what is it like to have the stench of hatred in your heart for your lifetime???"
7 Ways to Make Yourself Irreplaceable in the Office
In order to protect yourself from the next round of layoffs, you need to convince your employers that you're valuable and that your existence alone benefits the company.
"Today's business environment doesn't allow for satisfaction with the status quo. It requires constant growth and change," writes Mark Samuel in his book Making Yourself Indispensable: The Power of Personal Accountability.
"Being indispensable means that you are adaptable, learning and growing with your organization as it changes and evolves...at the end of the day, you are either working to make yourself indispensable or working to make yourself obsolete."
Here are the seven tips to help you become the most valuable person to your employers:
1. Never take the shortcut. Have you known many highly-successful people to be lazy? In order to be truly irreplaceable, you have to work hard. You can't take shortcuts and still expect tremendous respect.
2. Be adaptable, not rigid. It’s been said that being rigid is the fastest way to losing your job. In an age where technology, workplace environment and strategy techniques are constantly changing, the most pernicious thing you can do for your career is to cling on to something from the past and refuse to change.
"The good news about rigidity is that it gives you a sense of control — it is predictable. You understand it, know it, can explain it, and can even teach it to others," he says. "The bad news is that the sense of control is often a false one or temporary at best."
"You can always tell when someone isn't adaptable to change. They demonstrate their paralysis through resistance, advocating for the old way, talking about the "good old days," or undermining current change efforts through their lack of cooperation and cynicism."
3. Being a perfectionist will be your downfall. Most people think that being a perfectionist is what they need for success, but, in actuality, it prevents it.
"Perfectionism fosters inaction — waiting until we can guarantee success before we take action. And this negates accountability and prevents success. We wait for the perfect plan, the perfect decision, and the perfect action that won't fail."
4. Be of service to others without expecting anything in return. Most of us only do things for other people if we get something in return, but a truly irreplaceable employee is someone who makes decisions and solves problems for the good of their team and other departments in the organization.
The more you become "we-centered" rather than "me-centered" the more indispensable you become.
"Trust grows when our motives are straightforward and based on mutual benefits — in other words, when we genuinely care not only for ourselves, but also for the people we interact with, lead, or serve."
5. Be purpose-driven, not goal-driven. At work, you will have goals to achieve, but these goals are often "established without a clear sense of purpose." And since most people are often too busy to go above and beyond their daily tasks, they're not making an effort to produce actual changes.
"Substantial evidence demonstrates that in addition to motivating constructive effort, goal setting can induce some unethical behavior."
So don’t stresses out about finishing every single step you've written down on your checklist or it'll become a never-ending cycle.
6. Be assertive. Life is a game, so play big or go home. Take charge, stand apart and don't be afraid to speak up during meetings for fear of sounding unintelligent or being wrong.
7. Forgive others quickly. "The measure of accountability is based more on how you handle mistakes, mishaps, and breakdowns than on getting everything right all the time," Samuel says. "It's about how fast you can pick yourself up when you fall; how quickly you correct a mistake that you made; that little or no harm comes to your customer, family member, or friend."
Ticket to ride on India's buses
The redBus website started with three co-founders and grew into a team of 50 within 9 months. It currently employs more than 4000 people all over
What makes an entrepreneur? The BBC's Parul Agrawal and Tom Santorelli spoke to Charan Padmaraju about how he and his friends set up India's first organised bus ticket booking service after one of them struggled to secure a ticket home for the festival of Diwali.
In 2005 Phanindra Sama was frantically running around
Despite calling travel agents and weaving through the city's notorious traffic, he failed to secure a ride and, admitting defeat, sloped back to his flat.
He wondered why there was no centralised booking system for bus tickets in
The redBus website covers over 4500 routes across
It sounded obvious to him.
He talked to his friends from the BITS Pilani engineering college, Sudhakar Pasupunuri and Charan Padamraju, and they brainstormed an idea.
Their website, redBus.in, would be a way of providing consumers the convenience of booking a bus ticket over the internet without having to leave the confines of their own homes.
The team of three all resigned from their well-paid and secure jobs and by August 2006 the website was up and running.
Two of the site's co-founders, Charan Padmaraju and Phanindra Sama
Internet penetration was spreading in urban areas and inroads were being made in rural
With hundreds of bus operators of various degrees of computerisation and automation, the challenge was to integrate their schedules into one centralised system. Charan started writing the code: "We created software for the bus drivers so they can log in and create their schedules and make it available for distribution", he says.
Next the co-founders had to change the mindset of a public used to traditional bricks and mortars travel agents. They distributed pamphlets for redBus at busy traffic intersections and bus stations. Slowly but surely word of mouth grew and traffic to the site started to increase.
Customers can chose from a range of travel options, even down to where they want to sit
What started as a team of three grew into a team of 50 within 9 months and currently they have more than 4000 employees all over
Customers can chose from an option of over 4500 routes across
Even though the co-founders are keen to adopt the latest technological developments such as cloud -computing, they understand that not everyone in India has access to the internet - and some people feel uncomfortable making financial transactions online: "We have other sales channels, one is cash on delivery, where any customer can call a given number and we book a ticket and deliver it to his home and collect cash on delivery."
Co-founder Phanindra Sama thinks
Other online bus ticketing sites have sprung up in redBus's wake, like Ticketvala and Travel Yaari, but Charan is proud that his company was the first to come up with the idea five years ago: "Five years is a long time. We never know where we'll be in the next five years. But we would definitely want to take our services deeper into the country, cover the complete geography - and also look at similar markets internationally where we can add value and create new markets."
Source of Inspiration...
Reid Hoffman
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman,
LinkedIn (Since 2003)
“Build a compact piece of work with the right leverage, and you can solve a very big problem”
“When you write a scholarly work, it tends to be understood by very few people, and has one publication point over time,” he said. “But when you build a service, you can touch millions, to hundreds of millions of people directly”
“Data will be foundational in the next wave of mass applications that go to hundreds of millions of people”
Reid Hoffman is a leading modern pioneering entrepreneur of 21st century and an angel investor (he has invested in some 114 tech startups since 1995, including juggernauts like Facebook, Flickr, Groupon and Zynga, both on his own and as a partner in the venture firm Greylock Partners). He is a creator of strategic products and organizations that would help the society to explore and adapt themselves to the changes in the future business arena. He had deeper insights of global financial structures and models, latest technology and a sharp acute vision to achieve synchronization between them. He became the major voice and navigator for the entrepreneurship, after he co-founded and took up the responsibility as Executive Chairman of LinkedIn, the most popular and the world’s largest professional networking site in the year 2003.
| Reid Hoffman strongly believes that knowledge sharing through professional networks is one of the best ways of learning. This belief resulted in starting of LinkedIn. Under the strong leadership and vision of Hoffman, the company spread its wings and is serving more than 100 million users (44 million from U.S and 56 million from outside U.S), with the help of 1,700 employees, across 200 countries around the world, with a market capitalization of about 7.9 billion dollars as of now. The revenue comes from diversified areas of operations such as subscriptions, advertising, and software licensing. The company went public 8 months ago and the stock price of the company nearly doubled. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| By the flop of Social Net, Reid was a bit frustrated. However, soon he realized that a product or a service should have a potential to touch millions of people. With the lesson learnt, Reid left Social Net in 1999 and joined Mr.Thiel at PayPal. Thiel was also co-student and his friend at Stanford. At that point of time, PayPal was struggling through many challenges regarding Visa and Master Cards. Reid Hoffman took up the responsibility of Executive Vice President of PayPal and turned around the company. His key role was to manage external relations of the company. He was jam packed with meetings to manage all business relationships such as business development, corporate development, international, government relations, and banking/payments infrastructure etc. He managed to convince and persuade credit card companies and regulators. He evolved as a strong and higher order strategist and a great connector at PayPal. PayPal survived and went public in 2002, making Reid and many of his colleagues multimillionaires. During his stance at PayPal, Hoffman was instrumental in acquisition by eBay and was responsible partnerships with Intuit, Visa, MasterCard and Wells Fargo. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Things took different turns, Kvamme and Reid had some debate of thoughts and relationships got disturbed. Reid was a person who was least bothered about corporate spending and margins and viewed the world in a broader perspective. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Young Reid with his Father | |||||||||||||||||||
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| The great American entrepreneur and venture capitalist was born in | ||||||||||||||||||
| Awards and Honors | |||||||||||||||||||
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