How many times have your face-to-face conversations been interrupted by a phone call? Sometimes the call would have gone so long that you probably never got a chance to get back to your original conversation.
Has it happened to you that you are talking to someone and they get a call which destroys your conversation instantly because they go ahead with the call?
How many times have you taken such a call while you are still in the middle of a face-to-face conversation?
In a guest post at my friend, Bill Butler’s website, today I shared about the power of stories and why you should share your stories. If you haven't seen that post yet, I encourage you to do so before you proceed further because you are going to enjoy this TED video much more then.
This TED talk by Rita Pierson is not just powerful and inspirational, but also applicable in every endeavor of our lives where we have to work with people. I am not a school teacher (although my parents are both retired from that profession), I found this TED talk appealing to me.
Why?
That's because of two powerful components of this TED Talk:
1. Rita, an educator by profession, shares her message through her own life story. Stories are very powerful tools we all have in plenty. We all can leverage its power if we choose to make an incredible impact and she does it very well.
I received this story in an email a few days ago. Since the email address was not known to me and subject of the email was not an indicator of the content either, I almost deleted it. But then I decided to just see the content, and now I thank God I did because the story I am going to share with you is what the email contained.
It is possible that you may have heard about this story before. But I was amazed by the story as this was my first encounter and therefore, I thought it is worth sharing with you. I am sure you will enjoy the story regardless.
Dreams have power, and simply because of the power of a dream, I am going to work with Richard Branson! I am so excited about it.
[note background=”#F6F6F6″] This is a guest post by Aistis Zidanavicius. He is an entrepreneur and a blogger. To connect with him, check out the links to his social media profiles in the Author Box at the bottom of this post. [/note]
A year ago I got a dream. I had a dream to meet Richard Branson. He has been one of my those inspiring personalities I have always admired. He has been one my heroes because of many things he accomplished in life and because of his relaxed and positive attitude towards everything he does.
Just a few days ago my dream came true and I want to share this story with you today. I hope my story gives you the inspiration to dream big and have faith.
Several months ago, I came across this beautiful story through my Facebook news feed and I had stored it in my collections for future reference. Going through my Evernote today, I decided to share this with you here. I am not sure about the origin of this story or the author. But the story is very powerful and touching. I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.
When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, “I’ve got something to tell you.”
She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.
I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly. She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, “Why?”
“You will never achieve anything in your life more than your own self-esteem”, said my business coach several years ago. To help me get started on the right track, he handed me over the Magic of Thinking Big book. I had just started my first business and I was fortunate to have such a tremendous mentor in my life.
I did not doubt what he said for even a moment. But, as I read the book, the concept began to sink in. I began to realize the importance of working on my own self-esteem.
Going through the book, when I looked back on my achievements so far, I could easily see how my own self-esteem had enabled me to go for those things. At the same time, I could also see how I had missed a few opportunities simply because I never thought I was capable of achieving those.
I had a great time reading some of the amusing tales from a story book about the famous Akbar and Birbal last week. One of the stories that caught my attention was about a dream that emperor Akbar had one night about losing his teeth and what happened after that. Let me share the story here.
By the way, if you are new to Akbar and Birbal tales, here is a quick introduction according to Wikipedia:
Birbal was the (Wazir-e Azam) of the Mughal court in the administration of the Mughal emperor Akbar. He was one of his most trusted members along with being a part of Akbar's inner council of nine advisors, known as the Navaratna, a Sanskrit word meaning nine jewels. Birbal's duties in Akbar's court were mostly military and administrative, but he was also a very close friend of the emperor, who appreciated Birbal for his wit and wisdom, often involving humorous exchanges.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. ~Albert Einstein [tweet this]
"You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks." ~Winston Churchill [tweet this]
An inspiring story from my collections, is the story of a tiny frog who achieved the impossible. Several years ago a friend of mine sent this story in an email and it remained in my collection as one my favorite inspiring stories that teaches the value focus and intensity. I hope you enjoy this as much as I have over the years!
There once was a bunch of tiny frogs who got together to arrange a competition to reach to the top of the highest tower in town.
Talking about a perfect world at the coffee table, several years ago, a good friend shared this with me and asked what would I do in that situation. Today, I would like to share the situation here and ask the same question to you.
Consider a group of children playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused (for unknown reasons). Only one child is playing on the disused track while the rest are all excited and busy playing on the track that was in use. Suddenly you notice that the train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange.
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. One day, his father gave him a bag of nails and a hammer. The father, then asked the son to hammer a nail into the back of the fence every time he lost his temper going forward
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger a bit, the number of nails hammered daily gradually started
