Saturday, March 2

Major General Wingate–the friend

What a man!

Some excerpts:

Modern war is war of penetration in almost all its phases. This may be of two types. Tactical or strategic. Penetration is tactical where armed forces carrying it out are directly supported by the operations of the main armies. It is strategic when no such support is possible. That is when a penetration group is living and operating 100 miles or more in front of its own armies. Of the two types long range penetration pays by far the larger dividends on the forces employed. These forces operating with small columns are able, wherever a friendly population exists, to live and move under the enemies ribs and thus to deliver fatal blows at his military organisation by attacking vital objectives which he is unable to defend from such attacks. In the past such warfare has been impossible owing to the fact that control over such columns, indispensable both for their safety and their effectual use, was not possible until the age of the easily portable wireless set. Further the supply of certain indispensable materials such as ammunition, petrol, wireless sets and spare parts is impossible until the appearance of communications aircraft.

nice one, i like this and am going to use it in my sales organisation Smile I never get tired of telling people, be out there behind the client’s lines…

This leadership quote is brilliant as well

Quite a lesson there isn't there. Here is a man who says to his men, "I am going to do the best for you. I am going to make sure that everything that you want you get. I am going to make sure that you are battle hardened. I am going to make sure that you are fully equipped and trained to take on the Japanese, and then we are going to defeat them, and I am going to make sure that you do it because I am going to do it as well".

nice one, I only wish I can say that….

Friday, March 1

We Found Our Son in the Subway

What a touching story

The story of how Danny and I were married last July in a Manhattan courtroom, with our son, Kevin, beside us, began 12 years earlier, in a dark, damp subway station.

Danny called me that day, frantic. “I found a baby!” he shouted. “I called 911, but I don’t think they believed me. No one’s coming. I don’t want to leave the baby alone. Get down here and flag down a police car or something.” By nature Danny is a remarkably calm person, so when I felt his heart pounding through the phone line, I knew I had to run.

When I got to the A/C/E subway exit on Eighth Avenue, Danny was still there, waiting for help to arrive. The baby, who had been left on the ground in a corner behind the turnstiles, was light-brown skinned and quiet, probably about a day old, wrapped in an oversize black sweatshirt.

While having a bit of dust in my eyes, i started laughing as well as I remembered what Ma and Baba did to me.

I used to hate bathing when I was very young, they told me that they found me a bucket of shit on the wayside. And then Baba put a hanky over his nose and put it in the front of the scooter and drove it home. Then they cleaned me up but its difficult to get rid of the smell so they would keep on giving me a bath. (by this time, I am usually howling). And that’s why I need to shower/take a bath…so sniffling and howling, i would be dragged off to the bathroom and then my Ayah would scrub few millimetres of skin off my body. Parents are evil, I tell you.

I really believed that I was found in a bucket of shit for a very long period of time. Man o Man…im so stupid..

9 Rules for Success by British Novelist Amelia E. Barr, 1901

You cant argue against these century old rules…I specially liked the Cromwell’s note in #5

    1. Men and women succeed because they take pains to succeed. Industry and patience are almost genius; and successful people are often more distinguished for resolution and perseverance than for unusual gifts. They make determination and unity of purpose supply the place of ability.
    2. Success is the reward of those who “spurn delights and live laborious days.” We learn to do things by doing them. One of the great secrets of success is “pegging away.” No disappointment must discourage, and a run back must often be allowed, in order to take a longer leap forward.
    3. No opposition must be taken to heart. Our enemies often help us more than our friends. Besides, a head-wind is better than no wind. Who ever got anywhere in a dead calm?
    4. A fatal mistake is to imagine that success is some stroke of luck. This world is run with far too tight a rein for luck to interfere. Fortune sells her wares; she never gives them. In some form or other, we pay for her favors; or we go empty away.
    5. We have been told, for centuries, to watch for opportunities, and to strike while the iron is hot. Very good; but I think better of Oliver Cromwell’s amendment — “make the iron hot by striking it.”
    6. Everything good needs time. Don’t do work in a hurry. Go into details; it pays in every way. Time means power for your work. Mediocrity is always in a rush; but whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing with consideration. For genius is nothing more nor less than doing well what anyone can do badly.
    7. Be orderly. Slatternly work is never good work. It is either affectation, or there is some radical defect in the intellect. I would distrust even the spiritual life of one whose methods and work were dirty, untidy, and without clearness and order.
    8. Never be above your profession. I have had many letters from people who wanted all the emoluments and honors of literature, and who yet said, “Literature is the accident of my life; I am a lawyer, or a doctor, or a lady, or a gentleman.” Literature is no accident. She is a mistress who demands the whole heart, the whole intellect, and the whole time of a devotee.
    9. Don’t fail through defects of temper and over-sensitiveness at moments of trial. One of the great helps to success is to be cheerful; to go to work with a full sense of life; to be determined to put hindrances out of the way; to prevail over them and to get the mastery. Above all things else, be cheerful; there is no beatitude for the despairing.

Sunday, February 24

If this doesn't scare the crap out of you…nothing will

When I read this entire report, it really scared the bejesus out of me. It happens every year. Some highlights

1. 48% have never saved for retirement. Never. Ever!

2. 43% of respondents would be more likely to prioritise saving for a holiday over saving for retirement. WTF? who will then pay for your retirement? the government? hahahahaha, the non-existent children given the falling birth rate? or the children who will be too busy paying off your debt that you have increased like an idiot?

3. 56% say they are not preparing adequately or at all for a comfortable retirement. No shit sherlock…

4. 52% of people are not  regular savers. Holy moly…then? where do you think the money is going to come from?

5. 24% of their retirement income to come from the state. hahahahahahahahahah

sighs, this is so extraordinary and frightening that one cannot really think straight. This is such a wide spread issue..the survey was carried out globally in 15 countries with about 15000 people. HOLY COW!!!