THE BOY AND HIS FATHER

There was a boy who came regularly to soccer practice but never made it to the starting team. While he was practicing, his father would sit at the far end of the field, waiting for him. The matches began and for four days, the boy didn't show up for practice or the quarter or semi-finals.

 He appeared for the final game, went to the coach and said, "Coach, you have always kept me in the reserves and never let me play in the games. But today, please let me play". 

The coach said "Son, I'm sorry, I can't let you. There are better players than you and besides, it is the finals; the reputation of the school is at stake and I cannot take a chance on you".

 The boy pleaded, "Coach, I promise I will not let you down. I beg of you, please let me play".

 The coach had never seen the boy plead like this before. He said, "Okay son, go play. But remember, I am going against my better judgment and the reputation of the school is at stake. Don't let me down".

  The game started and the boy played like a house on fire. Every time he got the ball, he shot a goal. Needless to say, he was the star of the game. His team had a spectacular win.

  When the game finished, the coach went up to him and said, "Son, how could I have been so wrong? I have never seen you play like this before. What happened? How did you play so well". 

 The boy replied, "Coach, my father is watching me today". The coach turned around and looked at the place where the boy's father used to sit. There was no one there. 

He said, "Son, your father used to sit there when you come for practice, but I don't see anyone there today". 

 The boy replied, "Coach, there is something I never told you. My father was blind. Just four days ago, he died. Today is the first day he is watching me from above".

WAITING OR WISHING?

A flood was threatening a small town and everyone was leaving for safe ground except for one man who said, "God will save me. I have faith". 

 As the water level rose a jeep came to rescue him, the man refused, saying, "God will save me. I have faith." 

 As the water level rose further, he went up to the second story of his house, and a boat came to help him. Again he refused to go saying, "God will save me. I have faith".

 The water kept rising and the man climbed on to the roof. A helicopter came to rescue him, but he said, "God will save me. I have faith." 

Well, finally he drowned. When he reached his Maker he angrily questioned, "I had complete faith in you. Why did you ignore my prayers and let me drown?"

 The Lord replied, "Who do you think sent you the jeep, the boat and the helicopter?"

The only way to overcome a fatalistic attitude is to accept responsibility and believe in the law of cause and effect rather than luck. It takes action, preparation and planning rather than waiting, wondering and wishing, to accomplish any goal in life.

EASY WAY AND TOUGH WAY

Once there was a lark singing in a forest. A farmer came by with a box full of worms. 

The lark stopped him and asked, "What do you have in the box, and where are you going?" 

The farmer replied that he had worms and that he was going to the market to trade them for some feathers.

 The lark said, "I have many feathers. I will pluck one and give it to you and that will save me looking for worms". 

The farmer gave the worms to the lark and the lark plucked a feather and gave it in return. The next day the same thing happened and the day after and on and on until a day came that the lark had no more feathers. Now it could no longer fly to go hunting for worms. It started looking ugly and stopped singing and very soon it died.

What the lark thought was an easy way to get food turned out to be the tougher way after all. The same thing is true in our lives: Many times we look for the easy way, which really ends up being the tougher way.

TOMMY EDISON

One day a partially deaf four-year old child came home with a note in his pocket from his teacher, "Your Tommy is too stupid to learn, get him out of school".

  His mother read the note and answered, "My Tommy is not too stupid to learn, I will teach him myself". And that Tommy grew up to be the great Thomas Edison.

 Thomas Edison had only three months of formal schooling.

FAILURE OR SUCCESS?

In 1913, Lee De Forest, inventor of the triode tube, was charged by the district attorney for using fraudulent means to mislead the public into buying stocks in his company by claiming that he could transmit the human voice across the Atlantic. He was publicly humiliated. Can you imagine where we would be today without this invention?

A New York Times editorial on December 10, 1903 questioned the wisdom of the Wright Brothers who were trying to invent a machine, heavier than air, that would fly. One week later, at Kitty Hawk, the Wright Brothers took their famous flight.

Colonel Sanders, at age 65, had assets of a beat-up car and a $100 check from Social Security. He realized he had to do something to improve his situation. He remembered his mother's fried chicken recipe and went out selling.

 How many doors

did he have to knock on before he got his first order? It is estimated that he had knocked on more than a thousand doors before he got his first order.

 How many of us quit after three tries, a hundred tries, and then we say we tried as hard as we could?

As a young cartoonist, Walt Disney faced many rejections from newspaper editors who said he had no talent. One day a minister at a church hired him to draw some cartoons. Disney was working out of a small rodent-infested shed near the church. Seeing a small mouse inspired him to draw a new cartoon. That was the start of Mickey Mouse.

All success stories are stories of great failures. The only difference is that every time they failed, they bounced back.

NEGATIVE INFLUENCES

An eagle's egg was placed in the nest of a prairie chicken. The egg hatched and the little eagle grew up thinking it was a prairie chicken.

 The eagle did what the prairie chickens did. It scratched in the dirt for seeds. It clucked and cackled. It never flew more than a few feet because that is what the prairie chickens did.

 One day he saw an eagle flying gracefully and majestically in the open sky.

 He asked the prairie chickens: "What is that beautiful bird?" 

 The chickens replied, "That is an eagle. He is an outstanding bird, but you cannot fly like him because you are just a prairie chicken".


So the eagle never gave it a second thought, believing that to be the truth. He lived the life of and died a prairie chicken, depriving himself of his heritage because of his lack of vision. What a waste! He was born to win, but conditioned to lose.


Don't let negative people drag you down. Remember that a person's character is not only judged by the company they keep but also by the company they avoid.

WHAT DO YOU WISH FOR?

A man was washing his new car when his neighbor asked him, "When did you get the car?"

  He replied "My brother gave it to me".

 The neighbor said, "I wish I had a car like that".

  The man replied, "You should wish to have a brother like that".

 The neighbor's wife was listening to the conversation and she interrupted, "I wish I was a brother like that".

 What a positive way to think!

SHARPEN YOUR AXE

John, a woodcutter, worked for a company for five years but never got a raise.

 The company hired Bill and within a year he got a raise. Then John resented Bill's getting a raise after only a year and went to his boss to talk about it.

 The boss said, "You are still cutting the same number of trees you were cutting five years ago. We are a result-oriented company and would be happy to give you a raise if your productivity goes up"

 John went back, started hitting harder and putting in longer hours but he still wasn't able to cut more trees. He went back to his boss and told him his dilemma. 

The boss told him to go talk to Bill. "Maybe there's something Bill knows that you and I don't". John asked Bill how he managed to cut more trees.

 Bill answered, "After every tree I cut, I take a break for two minutes and sharpen my axe. When was the last time you sharpen your axe?"

When was the last time you sharpened your axe? Past glory and education don't count for much. We have to continuously sharpen the axe.

BROAD BASED EDUCATION?

Some animals in a forest decided to start a school. The students included a bird, a squirrel, a fish, a dog, a rabbit and a mentally retarded eel. A board was formed to determine the curriculum and it was decided that flying, tree climbing, swimming, and burrowing would give a broad-based education. All animals were required to take all subjects.


The bird was excellent at flying and was getting A's but when it came to burrowing, it kept breaking it's wings and beak and started failing. 

Pretty soon, it started making C's in flying and, of course, in tree climbing and swimming it was getting F'S. 

The squirrel was great at tree climbing, but was failing in swimming. 

The fish was the best swimmer but couldn't get out of the water and thus got F's in everything else. 

The dog didn't join the school, stopped paying taxes, and kept fighting with the administration to include barking as part of the curriculum.

 The rabbit got A's in burrowing but three climbing was a real problem. It kept falling and landing on it's head, suffered brain damage, and soon couldn't even burrow properly and got C's in that too.


The mentally retarded eel, who did everything half as well, became the valedictorian of the class. The board was happy because everybody was getting a "broad-based" education.

LESSON: A true broad-based education prepares students for life without losing their areas of specialization and competence.

SELECTIVE LISTENING

There was a medical doctor who was invited as a guest speaker to address a group of alcoholics. He wanted to make a demonstration that would be powerful enough to make people realize that alcohol was injurious to their health.

 He had two containers, one with pure distilled water, and one with pure alcohol.

He put an earthworm into the distilled water and it swam beautifully and came up to the top. He put another earthworm into the alcohol and it disintegrated in front of everyone's eyes.


He wanted prove that this was what alcohol did to the insides of our body.

 He asked the group what the moral of the story was and one person from behind said, "If you drink alcohol you won't have worms in your stomach."

  Was this the message? Of course not. This is a perfect example of selective listening.


People always like to see what they want to see, and to hear what they want to hear.

THE UNUSUAL DOG

There was a hunter who bought an amazing bird dog. This one-of-a-kind dog could walk on water. The hunter was looking forward to showing off his new acquisition to his friends.

 He invited a friend to go duck hunting. After sometime, they shot a few ducks and the man ordered his dog to fetch the birds.

 All day long, whenever there were birds to be fetched, the dog ran on water to retrieve the birds. The owner was expecting his friend to comment or compliment him about this amazing dog, but never got one.

As they were returning home, he asked his friend if he had noticed anything unusual about his dog. 

The friend replied, "Yes, in fact, I did notice something unusual. Your dog can't swim".


Some people cannot help but look at the negative sides to every thing and every situation.

ANDREW CARNEGIE

Andrew Carnegie came to America from Scotland as a young boy. He started out by doing odd jobs and ended up as one of the largest steel manufacturers in the United States.

 At one time, he had 43 millionaires working for him. A million dollars is a lot of money today, but in the 1920's it was worth much more.

Someone once asked Mr Carnegie how he dealt with people.

 Andrew Carnegie replied, "Dealing with people is a lot like digging for gold: When you go digging for an ounce of gold you have to move tons of dirt. But when you digging, you don't go looking for the dirt, you go looking for gold".

Andrew Carnegie's reply has a very important message. Though sometimes it may not be apparent there is something positive in every person and every situation. We have to dig deep to look for the positive.