Happy 2009!

A very inspiring and motivational stuff I got from a colleague. This made me crave to spend 2009 with a bang! :)

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A young man asked Socrates the secret to 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 neck, Socrates took the young man by surprise and ducked him into the water. The boy struggled to get out but Socrates was strong and kept him there until the boy started turning blue. Socrates pulled his head out of the water and the first thing the young man did was to gasp and take a deep breath of air. Socrates asked, 'What did you want the most when you were there?" The boy replied, "Air." Socrates said, "That is the secret to success. When you want success as badly as you wanted the air, then you will get it." There is no other secret. A burning desire is the starting point of all accomplishment. Just like a small fire cannot give much heat, a weak desire cannot produce great results.

The motivation to succeed comes from the burning desire to achieve a purpose. Napoleon Hill wrote, "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe; the mind can achieve."

We need to learn below from nature.

* According to scientists, the bumblebee's body is too heavy and its wing span too small. Aerodynamically, the bumblebee cannot fly. But the bumblebee doesn't know that and it keeps flyingJ. When you don't know your limitations, you go out and surprise yourself. In hindsight, you wonder if you had any limitations. The only limitations a person has are those that are self-imposed ones.
* The duck keeps paddling relentlessly underneath but appears smooth and calm on top.
* Nature gives birds their food but does not put it in their nest. They have to work hard for it. Nothing comes easy.

Once when Fritz Kreisler, the great violinist, finished a concert, someone came up to the stage and said, "I'd give my life to play the way YOU do." Kreisler replied, "I did!" There is no magic wand for success. In the real world, success comes to doers, not silent observers. Without hard work there is no success.