Who packs your parachute?

Charles Plumb, a US Navy Academy graduate, was a jet fighter pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile.

Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent the next six years in a Communist prison. He survived that ordeal and now lectures about lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when he and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Nam from the carrier, Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb."Oh, I was the one who packed your parachute," the man replied.Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude.

The man smiled and said, "Yep, I guess it worked!"

Plumb assured him, "It sure did work -- if your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about the man who has packed his parachute. Plumb kept wondering what the man might have looked like in a Navy uniform.

"I wondered how many times I might have passed him on the Kitty Hawk. I wondered how many times I might have seen him and not even said good morning, how are you or anything, because you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor."

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now Plumb asks his audiences, "Who's packing your chute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day.Plumb also points out that we all need many kinds of parachutes. We need mental, emotional and spiritual parachutes as well.While a prisoner of war, Plumb called on all of these supports before reaching safety.

His experience reminds us all to prepare ourselves to weather whatever storms lie ahead -- and to recognize and appreciate all of those people who pack our parachutes everyday, for they are the ones who truly deserve the credit for our survival.

25 qualities that will get you promoted

25 qualities that will get you promoted
By Ramon Padilla

1. Master written communication.


2. Master verbal communication.


3. Be a Self starter.


4. Perform quality work.


5. Develop good listening skills.


6. Don’t be a gossip.


7. Know how to behave.


8. Deliver on your promises.


9. Be honest in your dealings.


10. Be a willing collaborator.


11. Be knowledgeable.


12. Be a quick study.


13. Be prompt.


14. Don't disregard your image.


15. Get out of your cube.


16. Learn the business.


17. Be empathetic.


18. Don't be a drama queen.


19. Be a critical thinker.


20. Be yourself.


21. Take the next step.


22. Treat people kindly.


23. Remember that it’s a small world.


24. Be sincere.


25. Don’t be afraid to ask why.

Courtesy: TheHindubusinessline (Picture )

Wanna Borrow A Jack...

Good article to share
One day I went to a lawyer friend for advice.

"I'm in real trouble" I said. "My neighbors across the road are going on vacation for a month; and instead of boarding their dogs they are going to keep them locked up and a woman is coming to feed them, if she doesn't forget. Meanwhile they'll be lonely and bark all day and howl all night, and I won't be able to sleep. I'll either have to call the SPCA to haul them away or I'll go berserk and go over there and shoot them and then when my neighbors return, they'll go berserk and come over and shoot me.

My lawyer patted back a delicate yawn. "Let me tell you a story," he said. "And don't stop me if you've heard it because it will do you good to hear it again."

"A fellow was speeding down a country road late at night and BANG! went a tire. He got out and looked but he had no jack.

"Then he said to himself. 'Well, I'll just walk to the nearest farmhouse and borrow a jack.' He saw a light in the distance and said, 'Well, I'm in luck; the farmer's up. I'll just knock on the door and say I'm in trouble, would you please lend me a jack? And he'll say, why sure, neighbor, help yourself, but bring it back.'

"He walked on a little farther and the light went out so he said to himself, 'Now he's gone to bed, and he'll be annoyed because I'm bothering him so he'll probably want some money for his jack. And I'll say, all right, it isn't very neighborly but I'll give you a quarter.

And he'll say, do you think you can get me out of bed in the middle of the night and then offer me a quarter? Give me a dollar or get yourself a jack somewhere else.'

"By the time he got to the farmhouse the fellow had worked himself into a lather. He turned into the gate and muttered. 'A dollar! All right, I'll give you a dollar. But not a cent more! A poor devil has an accident and all he needs is a jack. You probably won't let me have one no matter what I give you. That's the kind of guy you are.'

"Which brought him to the door and he knocked angrily, loudly. The farmer stuck his head out the window above the door and hollered down, 'Who's there? What do you want?' The fellow stopped pounding on the door and yelled up, 'You and your stupid jack! You know what you can do with it!'"

When I stopped laughing, I started thinking, and I said, "Is that what I've been doing?"

"Right," he said, "and you'd be surprised how many people come to a lawyer for advice, and instead of calmly stating the facts, start building up a big imaginary fight; what he'll say to his partner, what she'll say to her husband, or how they'll tell the Old Man off about his will. So I tell them the story about the jack and they cool off.

Reflection:

Exaggeration is to paint a snake and add legs.Thinking over practical ways would help us most in life.

Dealing With Difficult People at Work

Rise Above the Fray: Options for Dealing With Difficult People at Work
From Susan M. Heathfield

Difficult people come in every variety and no workplace is without them. How difficult a person is for you to deal with depends on your self-esteem, your self-confidence and your professional courage. Dealing with difficult people is easier when the person is just generally obnoxious or when the behavior affects more than one person. Dealing with difficult people is much tougher when they are attacking you or undermining your professional contribution.

Difficult people come in every conceivable variety. Some talk constantly and never listen. Others must always have the last word. Some coworkers fail to keep commitments. Others criticize anything that they did not create. Difficult coworkers compete with you for power, privilege and the spotlight; some go way too far in courting the boss’s positive opinion – to your diminishment.Some coworkers attempt to undermine you and you constantly feel as if you need to watch your back.

Five Tips for Dealing With Difficult People

• Start out by examining yourself - Always start with self-examination to determine that the object of your attention really is a difficult person’s actions.
• Explore what you are experiencing with a trusted friend or colleague.
• Approach the person with whom you are having the problem for a private discussion - Be pleasant and agreeable as you talk with the other person. They may not be aware of the impact of their words or actions on you. They may be learning about their impact on you for the first time. Or, they may have to consider and confront a pattern in their own interaction with people.
• Follow up after the initial discussion. Has the behavior changed? Gotten better? Or worse?
• You can confront your difficult coworker’s behavior publicly- Deal with the person with gentle humor or slight sarcasm. Or, make an exaggerated physical gesture – no, not serious wounding.

To read more on the article click here

Positive Attitude....

One day a father, of a very wealthy family, took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people can be. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from the trip, the father asked his son,"How was the trip?" "It was great Dad!"

"Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked. "Oh yeah," said the son.

"So what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father. The son answered,

" I saw we have one dog and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."

With this the boy's father was speechless.
Then his son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."

Reflection:

"Two men look out through the same bars; One sees the mud, and one sees the stars".Its all in the way we look at things as every act has its pros and cons in life.

Growing Good Corn...

There was a farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon.

One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. "How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.

"Why sir," said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."
He is very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves.

Reflection:
Those who choose to be at peace must help their neighbors to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.

Vital Few than Trivial many....

I was preparing for a quality training and evaluation when I came across the famous 80-20 rule.Thought of sharing some thoughts on it here......

What Exactly Is The 80/20 Rule?

By the numbers it means that 80 percent of your outcomes come from 20 percent of your inputs. As Pareto demonstrated with his research this rule holds true, in a very rough sense, to an 80/20 ratio, however in many cases the ratio can be a lot higher - 99/1 may be closer to reality.It really doesn’t matter what numbers you apply, the important thing to understand is that in your life there are certain activities you do (your 20 percent) that account for the majority (your 80 percent) of your happiness and outputs.

To say that 20 percent of your activities produce 80 percent of your financial rewards, and that is true, there are probably a handful of activities you do each week that produce your income. You can definitely apply the 80/20 Rule to most aspects of your business or working life, however I believe your overall happiness and satisfaction are much better variables to focus on.

Actual 80-20 rule's origin:

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes. Business management thinker Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy went to 20% of the population. It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., "80% of your sales comes from 20% of your clients."

80/20 Examples:

There are many economic conditions, for example the distribution of wealth and resources on planet earth, where a small percentage of the population controls the biggest chunk, which clearly demonstrate the 80/20 Rule. There are business examples such as 20 percent of employees are responsible for 80 percent of a company’s output or 20 percent of customers are responsible for 80 percent of the revenues (or usually even more disparate ratios). These are not hard rules, not every company will be like this and the ratio won’t be exactly 80/20, but chances are if you look at many key metrics in a business there is definitely a minority creating a majority.

How You Can Live An 80/20 Lifestyle:
When you start to analyze and breakdown your life into elements it’s very easy to see 80/20 ratios all over the place. The trick, once your key happiness determinants have been identified, is to make everything work in harmony and avoid wasting time on those 80 percent activities that produce little satisfaction for you.

The message is simple enough - focus on activities that produce the best outcomes for you. This applies to both your business/working life and your personal life .


To read more on it:

• Wikipedia's definition


• Thoughts on 80-20 rule


• Pareto Principle's Complete Information