Influencing People

These are five ways to win over others:-

1. Be empathetic. Having the perception to ascertain people's true feelings is at the heart of most successful relationships.

2. Listen. Listening is just as important - if not more - as talking in communication. To truly listen, you must derive meaning from what is said. Don't interrupt or finish other people's sentences - you may pull them in a direction that's detrimental to your cause.

3. Look approachable. Crossed arms and legs can make you appear closed.

4. Control your manner. The volume, tone and speed of your speech are all important. Use volume and inflection to your advantage - appear soft when appropriate but firm when establishing control.

5. Remember names. A name is the most important piece of information you can know about an individual. Make sure you attach a name to a face and engrain it into your mind.

Gain Back Time

These are tenets we seldom follow (but really should) to liberate ourselves and gain back the gift of time:-

1. Get in early and go home on time.

2. Assumptions kill.

3. Trust your gut.

4. Know what's being asked of you.

5. You can't please everyone.

6. Every conversation should have a purpose.

7. Recognize when it's all been said.

8. Don't be afraid to hire people your're going to lose.

9. Don't confuse activity with accomplishment.

10. Take back the weekend.

To Have? To Be?

Many people spend their lives trying to

HAVE money and things so that they can

DO what they want, so they can

BE happy...

when it should be the other way round:

BE, then you can

DO, so you can

HAVE whatever you want.

Be who you need to be to fulfill your ambitions.

Go within, find your purpose, know your strengths and use your gifts to the full.

Then you will have.

Learn To Be Extreme

I once read an article in the newspaper saying that great leaders are a peculiar group, almost like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when it comes to their leadership actions. Great leaders know the right time when to alternate between contrasting leadership traits.

Here are the Extreme Leadership Traits:-

A B

Humility Assertiveness

Visionary/Big Picture Detail Oriented

Using Influence Using Authority

Street Smart Academic Knowledge

Time For Self Time For Community

Discipline Creativity

Task Oriented People Oriented

Leveraging Strengths Developing Weaknesses

Showing Love Using Fear

Using Intuition Data-Based Decisions

Extrovert Introvert

Personal Reflection Social Interactions

Ensuring Perfection Ensuring Speed/Execution

Telling Stories Using Data

Listening Talking

Quitting Pursuing Excellence

Teaching Others Learning From Others

Doing It Yourself Delegating To Others

Learning From Mistakes Doing Things Successfully the First Time

Experimenting Adhering To Policy

Hence, you have to learn to be extreme if you want to be a leader!

Law of Seed

This is a good way to think if you want to be happy.

Take a look at an apple tree. There might be five hundred apples on the tree, each with ten seeds. That's a lot of seeds! We might ask: Why would you need so many seeds to grow just a few more trees?

Nature has something to teach us here. It's telling us: Most seeds never grow. So if you really want to make something happen, you had better try more than once.

This might mean:-
You'll attend twenty interviews to get one job.
You'll interview forty people to find one good employee.
You'll talk to fifty people to sell one house, car, ideas, etc.
And you might meet a hundred acquaintances to find one special friend.

When we understand the Law of Seed, we don't get so disappointed. We stop feeling like victims. Laws of nature are not things to take personally. We just need to understand them - and work with them.

IN A NUTSHELL
"Successful people fail more often. They plant more seeds."

For Every Girl... For Every Boy...

Your Unshakable Worth

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a 20 dollar note.

In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this 20 dollar note?"

Hands started going up.

He said, "I am going to give this to one of you but first, let me do this."

He proceeded to crumple up the 20 dollar note.

He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air.

Well, he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.

He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson.

No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth 20 bucks.

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.

We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value."

Sand & Stone

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, wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone. Why?"

The 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 blessings in stone.

Monkey Business : The World's Economy

Once upon a time in a village in India, a man announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10.

The villagers seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10, but, as the supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts.

The man further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.

The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50!

However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now act as buyer, on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: ‘Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50.'

The villagers squeezed together their savings and bought all the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

Hold My Hand

A little girl and her father were crossing a bridge.

The father was kind of scared so he asked his little daughter,

"Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don't fall into the river."

The little girl said, "No, Dad. You hold my hand."

"What's the difference?" Asked the puzzled father.

"There's a big difference," replied the little girl.

"If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go."


In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond. So hold the hand of the person who loves you rather than expecting them to hold yours.

Emperor & Horseman

A long time ago, there was an Emperor who told his horseman that if he could ride on his horse and cover as much land area as he likes, then the Emperor would give him the area of land he has covered.

Sure enough, the horseman quickly jumped onto his horse and rode as fast as possible to cover as much land area as he could. He kept on riding and riding, whipping the horse to go as fast as possible.

When he was hungry or tired, he did not stop because he wanted to cover as much area as possible. Came to a point when he had covered a substantial area and he was exhausted and was dying.

Then he asked himself, "Why did I push myself so hard to cover so much land area? Now I am dying and I only need a very small area to bury myself."


The above story is similar to the journey of our Life. We push very hard everyday to make more money, to gain power and recognition. We neglect our health, time with our family and to appreciate the surrounding beauty and the hobbies we love.

One day when we look back, we will realize that we don't really need that much, but then we cannot turn back time for what we have missed.


So, take it easy, do what you want to do and appreciate nature. Life is fragile, Life is short. Do not take Life for granted. Live a balanced lifestyle and enjoy Life!

When The Wind Blows

Years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands.

Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.

As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals.

Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer.

"Are you a good farm hand?" the farmer asked him.

"Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man.

Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him.

The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work.

Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters.

He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!"

The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No Sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."

Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm.

To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred.

The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down. Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.


When you're prepared, spiritually, mentally and physically, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life?