Life, as I see it

He dropped out of 5th grade. But before that, he had already organized a peace rally, ran a marathon, and started his own bakery selling natural baked foods, door-to-door. Ocean Robbins, son of legendary John Robbins, was barely a teenager when he met Mrs. Gorbachev, numerous ambassadors and US senators, wrote for national magazines (and wrote a book), and became a voice for environmental concerns. At 16, in the mid 80s, Ocean took off in his car to reach out to the youth. Instead of 'just say no', he was urging youth to just say 'yes' -- yes to living with meaning, purpose, integrity and commitment. ' YES! ‘quickly became an organization. One school assembly after another, he would get people fired up about service and engaged in local community work. To date, his efforts have touched more than 625,000 students across the country, brought together leaders of tomorrow through their international youth jams , and inspired formation of more than 400 nonprofits! Sti...

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By Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream---and not make dreams your master; If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same:. If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings, And never breathe a word about your loss: If you can force your heart and nerve and ...

"ei dil tu fikr mat kar, tera bhi khuda hai, mushquil padi to kya hua, mushquil kada bhi hai" -- Dont remember Great Man It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man tumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust, sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the trimph of high achievements and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while doing greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls, who know neither victory nor defeat. -- Theodore Roosevelt Let go of your attachment to being right, and suddenly your mind is more open. You're able to benefit from the unique viewpoints of others, without being crippled by your own judgment. -...

Source : Anonymous And they call some of these people "retarded?"... A few years ago, at the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash. At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run the race to the finish and win. All, that is, except one little boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry. The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed down and looked back. Then they all turned around and went back. Every one of them. One girl with Down's Syndrome bent down and kissed him and said: "This will make it better." Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line. Everyone in the stadium stood, and the cheering went on for several minutes. People who were there are still telling the story. Why? Because deep down we know this one ...

Source Anonymous One of my friends, let's call him Jose, is one of those guys who doesn't even need to say anything and people will just feel comfortable in his presence. He is an amazingly compassionate guy, who will flat out tell you that his purpose in life is to bring more beauty on this planet. No, if's, and's, but's ... clear and simple, unwavering in his life mission. He doesn't need to convince anyone and he can't be swayed from it by anyone else. It's a funny story about how he learned his initial lesson of compassion. In high school, he was madly in love with his sweet heart for many years. He would do anything for her and she was the important thing for him. Until ... she left him oneday (perhaps she cheated on him before that). It hit him like a bucket of cold water. Never before had he encountered such a loss and he didn't know what to do. Roaming aimlessly through life, doing his...

By Vivek Paul, CEO, Wipro Technologies As I think about the essence of leadership, the first thing that comes to mind is that different circumstances sometimes throw up leaders that are right for that time and situation. Even in the same situation, a leader at one particular time may be wholly inappropriate at another time. But if you hold aside the situational leader, there are many threads in common for those that lead through all seasons, and I'll share a few through some quotes. "All progress owes itself to the demands of the unreasonable man". To be reasonable is to accept the status quo, to accept small gains. You must be unreasonable -- have a vision, a change agenda, something that most people would not see or be willing to push. Every great city, every wonder of the world, every giant corporation was built by some individual who kept pushing against the mountain and was, to the amazement of all, able to move it. When you start to put that shoulder ...

Address by Subroto Bagchi, Chief Operating Officer, MindTree Consulting to the Class of 2006 at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore on defining success. (Bagchi co-founded MindTree in August 1999. Prior to MindTree, he headed Wipro's global R&D division as chief executive, overseeing its growth from an 80-person cost center to a 600 person-strong international "lab-on-hire" that designed technology solutions for Fortune 500 technology companies. Other assignments included setting up Wipro's six Sigma initiatives as corporate vice president, mission quality. He is also credited with setting up Wipro's U.S. operations in Silicon Valley, where he lived between 1990 and 1993.) I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primar...