The Chinese Bamboo Tree

You take a little bamboo seed, plant it, water it, and fertilize it for a while...and nothing happens.

In the second year, you water it, fertilize it...and nothing happens.

In the third year, you water it, fertilize it...and nothing happens.

How discouraging can it become.

In the fourth year, you water it, fertilize it...and still nothing happens. This is very frustrating.

In the fifth year, you continue to water and fertilize the seed.....and then sometimes during the fifth year, the Chinese bamboo tree begins to sprout.

In the Far East, there is a tree called the Chinese bamboo tree. This remarkable tree is different from most trees in that it doesn’t grow in the usual fashion. While most trees grow steadily over a period of years, the Chinese bamboo tree doesn’t break through the ground for the first four years. Then, in the fifth year, an amazing thing happens – the tree begins to grow at an astonishing rate. In fact, in a period of just five weeks, a Chinese bamboo tree can grow to a height of 90 feet. It’s almost as if you can actually see the tree growing before your very eyes.

Life often works in a similar way. You can work for weeks, months and even years on your dream with no visible signs of progress and then, all of the sudden, things take off.

Keep watering your bamboo tree !!!

Ana Fidelia Quirot – a real story

The Barcelona Olympic 800 metres bronze medalist suffered horrendous burns in 1993 while washing clothes in a kerosene driven washer. The kerosene spilled on to her body and then ignited. So badly burned and so close to death was she, that the doctors induced her labour in an attempt to at least save the baby she was carrying.

Her partner at the time was world record high jumper, Javier Sotomayor. Unfortunately, the baby did not survive.

Running for her life the small woman lay in the hospital in Havana. Terrible burns covered her body. She could not move and she could not see. She could hear a voice close to her bed. “If Ana lives,” the doctor said, “she will never run again.” But Ana Quirot, the famous international runner, could not accept these words.

After a month in intensive care Quirot herself beat the odds and slowly recovered.



She returned to running as just part of her mental and physical recovery. Her once beautiful body and face was now horribly scarred and it became a stark reminder to what she had overcome every time she stepped onto the track.

In 1995 one of the greatest comebacks in history was completed. Quirot won the 800 metres world title in Gothenburg. The tears that flooded down her face when she received the Olympic silver in Atlanta behind Russian Svetlana Masterkova, spoke volumes of the pain she had endured.

But she was not finished yet. Quirot defended her world title in 1997 in Athens defeating the great rival Maria Mutola.

"Sports made me start training again,” Quirot said. “It would have been impossible for me to come back without sports. If I had not run again, I believe I would have died, And when I started training again, that gave me life."

Tiger in the Toilet

Once a stranded tiger entered a washroom in a corporate office and hid in a dark corner. Since there were people outside the washroom through the day, the tiger was afraid to come out. Many people frequented the washroom, but the frightened tiger didn't touch anyone. However, after four days it couldn't bear hunger anymore, so it caught a man who had come in and ate him. This man happened to be an Assistant General manager in the organization, but nobody noticed his disappearance.

Since nothing untoward happened, the tiger became bold and after two days caught another man and tae him. This man was the General Manager of the organization. Still nobody worried over the disappearance.

Next day, the tiger caught the Vice President who was a terror in the organization. Again nothing happened. The tiger was very happy and decided that this was the perfect place for him to live.

The very next day the happy tiger caught a man who had entered the washroom while balancing a tray of teacups in one hand. The frightened man fell unconscious. Within fifteen minutes, a huge hue and cry ensued, and everyone in the office started looking for the man. he search team reached the washroom, flushed out the tiger and saved the unconscious man.

He was the tea supplier in the office.

Think Out of the Box

Many hundreds of years ago in a small town, a merchant had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to the moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the merchant's beautiful daughter so he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the merchant's debt if he could marry the daughter. Both the merchant and his daughter were horrified by the proposal.

The moneylender told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty bag. The girl would then have to pick one pebble from the bag. If she picked the black pebble, she would become the moneylender's wife and her father's debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the merchant's garden. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick her pebble from the bag.

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

"Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked." Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an advantageous one.

Steve Jobs...

While I doubt there is anyone under the age of 60 who does not know who Steve Jobs was, there are many things about the man you may not know. Although he wore his private life close to the vest, there are some aspects of it you may find quite interesting.

• Steve was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. Although Steve’s biological mom wanted her son to be adopted by college graduates and Paul and Clara were not. They promised Steve would go to college when he grew up.
• Steve dropped out of college after one semester to save his parent’s money. He did drop-in though for 18 months.
• While dropping in on classes, he slept on the floors of his friends’ places, turned in coke bottles for 5 cents to use the money to eat with, and hiked 7 miles across town once a week to get a decent meal at the Hare Krishna temple in town.
• Steve’s original aspiration was to become a Buddhist Monk. After traveling to India with one of his best friends from Reed College. Upon his return with shaved head, he became a Buddhist.
• He worked with Steve Wozniak for Atari game systems before Apple Computers. They reportedly were paid $5,000 for their work of which he shared $375 with Wozniak.
• We all probably know that Steve Jobs began Apple Computers, Inc., in 1976 with Steve Wozniak in his parents’ garage. But there was a third member, Ronald Wayne. After two weeks Ronald left for a one time payment of $800 for his share of Apple stock. Reportedly this stock would be worth $22 billion today.
• Steve lured John Sculley from Pepsi-Cola to become Apple’s CEO in 2003. Coincidentally it was John Sculley who then fired Jobs in 2005. Steven would later comment on it saying “the heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”
• He was dyslexic

The Fence

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily, gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said “you have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.” You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there. Make sure you control your temper the next time you are tempted to say something you will regret later.

The great fire and the little water

Among the Aztec people of Mexico, it is said that a long time ago there was a great fire in the forests that covered our Earth. People and animals started to run, trying to escape from the fire. Our brother owl, Tecolotl, was running away also when he noticed a small bird hurrying back and forth between the nearest river and the fire. He headed towards this small bird.

He noticed that it was our brother the Quetzal bird, Quetzaltototl, running to the river, picking up small drops of water in his beak, then returning to the fire to throw that tiny bit of water on the flame. Owl approached Quetsal bird and yelled at him: "What are you doing brother? Are you stupid? You are not going to achieve anything by doing this. What are you trying to do? You must run for your life!"

Quetzal bird stopped for a moment and looked at owl, and then answered: "I am doing the best I can with what I have."

It is remembered by our Grandparents that a long time ago the forests that covered our Earth were saved from a great fire by a small Quetzal bird, an owl, and many other animals and people who got together to put out the fire.