HEAVEN AND HELL

A man died and St. Peter asked him if he would like to go to heaven or hell. The man asked if he could see both before deciding. St. Peter took him to hell first. There the man saw a big hall containing a long table, laden with many kinds of food. He also saw rows of people with pale, sad faces. They looked pale and there was no laughter. And he observed one more thing: Their hands were tied to four-foot forks and knives and they were trying to get the food from the center of the table to put in their mouths. But they couldn't.


Then, St. Peter took him to see heaven. There he saw a big hall with a long table, with lots of food. He noticed rows of people on both sides of the table with their hands tied to four-foot forks and knives also. But here people were laughing and were well fed and healthy-looking. The people were feeding one another across the table. The result was happiness, prosperity, enjoyment and gratification because they were not thinking of themselves alone; they were thinking win-win. 


The same is true of our lives. When we serve our customers, our families, our employers and employees, we automatically win.

GOODNESS COMES BACK

Many years ago two boys were working their way through Stanford University. Their funds got desperately low, and the idea came to them to engage Ignacy Paderewski for a recital. They would use the funds to help pay their board and tuition.

  The great pianist's manger asked for a guarantee of $2,000. The guarantee was a lot of money in those days, but the boys agreed and proceeded to promote the concert. They worked hard, only to find that they grossed only $1,600. After the concert the two boys told the great artist the bad news. They gave him the entire $1,600, along with a promissory note for $400, explaining that they would earn the amount at the earliest possible moment and send the money to him.

 It looked like the end of their college careers.

  "No, boys," replied Paderewski, "that won't do." Then, tearing the note in two, he returned the money to them as well.

 "Now," he told them, "take out of this $1,600 all of your expenses and keep for each of you 10 percent of the balance for your work. Let me have the rest."  

The years rolled back. World War 1 came and went. Paderewski, now Premier of Poland, was striving to feed thousands of starving people in his native land. The only person in the world who could help him was Herbert Hoover, who was in charge of the US Food and Relief Bureau. Hoover responded and soon thousands of tons of food were sent to Poland. After the starving people were fed, Paderewski journeyed to Paris to thank Hoover for the relief sent to him.

  "That's all right, Mr Paderewski," was Hoover's reply. "Besides, you don't remember it, but you helped me once when I was a student at college and I was in trouble".

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson.

CRIMINAL PARENTS

A judge, when sentencing a man for robbery, asked if he had anything to say.

 The man replied,"Yes your honor. Please sentence my parents to jail also".

  The judge asked, "Why?".

 The prisoner answered, "When I was a little boy, I stole a pencil from school. My parents knew about it but never said a word. Then I stole a pen. They knowingly ignored it. I continued to steal many other things from school and the neighborhood until it became an obsession. They knew about, yet they never said a word. If any one belongs in jail with me. they do".

Giving choices to children is important, but choices without direction result in disaster. Complete mental and physical preparation is the result of sacrifice and discipline.