What a Life !!!

An American businessman was standing at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.

"How long did it take you to catch them?" the American asked.

"Only a little while" the Mexican replied.

"Why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" the American then asked.

"I have enough to support my family's immediate needs" the Mexican said.

"But" the American then asked, "What do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman said: "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor."

The American scoffed: "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds you could buy a bigger boat and, with the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own can factory. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked: "But senor, how long will this all take?"

To which the American replied: "15-20 years."

"But what then, senor?"

The American laughed and said: "That's the best part. When the time is right, you would announce an IPO - an Initial Public Offering - and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions."

"Millions, senor? Then what?"

The American said slowly: "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos..."

The Story of Florence Chadwick

When she looked ahead, Florence Chadwick saw nothing but a solid wall of fog. Her body was numb. She had been swimming for nearly sixteen hours. Already she was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. Now, at age 34, her goal was to become the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast.



On that Fourth of July morning in 1952, the sea was like an ice bath and the fog was so dense she could hardly see her support boats. Sharks cruised toward her lone figure, only to be driven away by rifle shots. Against the frigid grip of the sea, she struggled on - hour after hour - while millions watched on national television. Alongside Florence in one of the boats, her mother and her trainer offered encouragement. They told her it wasn't much farther. But all she could see was fog. They urged her not to quit. She never had . . . until then. With only a half mile to go, she asked to be pulled out. Still thawing her chilled body several hours later, she told a reporter, "Look, I'm not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I might have made it."

It was not fatigue or even the cold water that defeated her. It was the fog. She was unable to see her goal. Two months later, she tried again. This time, despite the same dense fog, she swam with her faith intact and her goal clearly pictured in her mind. She knew that somewhere behind that fog were land and this time she made it! Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, eclipsing the men's record by two hours!

Peace of Mind

Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers. This was in the initial days. While they were travelling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake there.”

The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that some people were washing clothes in the water and, right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!” So he came back and told Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink.”

After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake. This time he found that the lake had absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha.

Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be ... and the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water... Your mind is also like that. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.”

Simple...My Dear Watson

A driving truck gets caught under the bridge because the truck is couple of inches higher than the normal minimal bridge height in USA (13 feet 6 inches).

The structural engineers and Mechanical engineers are at the scene wondering how to fix the problem. Some suggest lifting the bridge (immense cost and time) while other suggest taking apart the truck piece by piece.

In a nearby car kid is watching this and asked his mother what are they doing? She explains the dilemma and says it will hours to fix the problem.

The kid simply says. “Mom why don’t they just take the air out of the tires?

The story of Muggsy Bogues

When Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues was growing up, no one expected him to be an NBA star. At only 5' 3", Muggsy was short, putting him at a serious disadvantage in a league where the average height is 6' 7". But he ignored the naysayers, and went on to have a successful basketball career despite the odds stacked against him.

During his 16-year career in the NBA, Muggsy became a fan favorite - a symbol of hard work, drive, and determination. "I always believed in myself," he told Hank Hersch of Sports Illustrated. "That's the type of attitude I always took out on the floor, knowing that I belonged; that with my talents, my abilities, there's a place for me out there."



In his engaging autobiography "In the Land of Giants: My Life in Basketball", he reveals that his mother was only 4-foot-11, his father 5-foot-6: "I knew I had no chance of ever getting out of the five-foot range, no matter how hard I wished and dreamed about getting taller."

Muggsy never did get taller, but he certainly got better. As a member of the Charlotte Hornets, he's one of the more accomplished point guards in the NBA and, one of the five most enjoyable players to watch. How can you not love a player who will challenge anybody, will steal the ball from players a foot and a half taller, or drive on a 7-footer? He's a player who works hard, knows the game, and plays with enthusiasm.

When asked about the contemporaries like Magic Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal, the hoopster said they had a specific role to play for their teams while I had my own duties to accomplish. "If you think too much about your height then... I never feared the taller opponents, if they were good at shooting, I was good at stealing and dribbling around. If I would have feared at any point of time I would not have been here in front of you talking about the game," insists Muggsy.

Muggsy is forthcoming about such matters as the birth of his daughter to a girlfriend when he was a senior at Dunbar. "I had no money, and I was just seventeen," he writes. "I knew I didn't want to marry her mother. I had to grow up quickly."

Then there was the matter of his father, Richard, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for armed robbery when Muggsy was 12.

"I understand now that when he wasn't at home, he was out hustling for whatever money he could make, doing whatever it took to make sure his family had enough to eat," Muggsy writes. "He got into some things he shouldn't have. He was selling drugs. He was committing stickups and robberies."

But this is where character comes in. The young Muggsy stayed in touch with his father, concluding, "I refused to let his being in prison affect my relationship with him in a negative way. . . . We still had our conflicts, like most fathers and sons, but he was my dad first, last, and always."

Muggsy's storied career demonstrates that with hard work and determination, you can beat the odds and accomplish your goals. As he once said, "You can't dwell on what people think you can't do."

The Secret of Success

A young man asked Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher, the secret of Success. Socrates told the young man to meet him near the river the next morning. They met.

Socrates asked the young man to walk with him toward the river.

When the water got up to their necks, Socrates took the young man by surprise and ducked him into the water. The man struggled to get out but Socrates was strong and kept him under water until he started turning blue.

The young man struggled hard and finally managed to get up. The first thing he did was to gasp and take a deep breath.

Socrates asked, “What did you want the most when you were under the water?”

The man replied “Air”.

Socrates said: “That’s the most secret to success. When you want success as badly as you want air, you will get it. There is no other secret”.