Man's search for meaning

Victor Frankl who wrote about the Holocaust survivors in his book 'Man's Search for Meaning," said this:

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of human freedoms- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances- to choose one's way."

2o Rules to get rich

Here are the timeless rules given by By Carla Fried, Money Magazine.

1. Be humble
When you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it--this is knowledge.
--Confucius

2. Take calculated risks
He that is overcautious will accomplish little.
--Friedrich von Schiller

3. Have an emergency fund
For age and want, save while you may; no morning sun lasts a whole day.
--Benjamin Franklin

4. Mix it up
It is the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow and not to venture all his eggs in one basket.
--Miguel de Cervantes

5. It's the portfolio, stupid
Asset allocation...is the overwhelmingly dominant contributor to total return.
--Gary Brinson, Brian Singer and Gilbert Beebower

6. Average is the new best
The best way to own common stocks is through an index fund.
--Warren Buffett

7. Practice patience
It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It was always my sitting. Got that? My sitting tight!
--Edwin Lefevre

8. Don't time the market
The real key to making money in stocks is not to get scared out of them.
--Peter Lynch

9. Be a cheapskate
Performance comes and goes, but costs roll on forever.
--Jack Bogle

10. Don't follow the crowd
Fashion is made to become unfashionable.
--Coco Chanel

11. Buy low
If a business is worth a dollar and I can buy it for 40 cents, something good may happen to me.
--Warren Buffett

12. Invest abroad
The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
--St. Augustine

13. Keep perspective
There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.
--Harry Truman

14. Just do it
It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.
--Eleanor Roosevelt

15. Borrow responsibly
As life closes in on someone who has borrowed far too much money on the strength of far too little income, there are no fire escapes.
--John Kenneth Galbraith

16. Talk to your spouse
"In every house of marriage there's room for an interpreter."
--Stanley Kunitz

17. Exit gracefully
Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.
--Pablo Picasso

18. Pay only your share
The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward.
--John Maynard Keynes

19. Give wisely
The time is always right to do the right thing.
--Martin Luther King Jr.

20. Keep money in its place
A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.
--Jonathan Swift

Steve Prefontaine - America's greatest running legend

Over his short running career, Steve Profontaine ran 153 races, of which he won 120, or 78 percent of his races.

One of Prefontaine's most famous quotes given below is still vibrant in runners today.

A Quote on Personal Development

Promise Yourself:

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words but great deeds.

To live in faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

-Christian D. Larson

Meetings

Meetings are a great trap. Soon you find yourself trying to get agreement and then the people who disagree come to think they have a right to be persuaded. However, they are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.

John Kenneth Galbraith

The Wealth of Nations

"It is the highest impertinence and presumption, therefore,
in kings and ministers, to pretend to watch over the economy
of private people, and to restrain their expence, either by
sumptuary laws, or by prohibiting the importation of foreign
luxuries. They are themselves always, and without any exception,
the greatest spendthrifts in the society. Let them look well
after their own expence, and they may safely trust private
people with theirs. If their own extravagance does not ruin
the state, that of their subjects never will."


by:
Adam Smith(1723-1790) Scottish philosopher and economist

Source:
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations par. II.3.36

Shakespeare on travel

"A traveller! By my faith, you have great reason to be sad: I fear you have sold your own lands to see other men's; then, to have seen much and to have nothing, is to have rich eyes and poor hands."
--William Shakespeare, As You Like It.

Inflation.

(1) The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.
-John Maynard Keynes

(2) Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.
-Milton Friedman

(3) Inflation is thought of as a cruel, and maybe the cruelest, tax because it hits in a many-sectored way, in an unplanned way, and it hits the people on a fixed income hardest.
-Paul A. Volcker

Create your best team for success

Success in any business is not always attained individually. In fact, most of the time we achieve our successes as part of a team.

Great teams are the teams that are committed to excellence. In everything they do, their goal is to achieve at the highest level.

Their commitment is held throughout the team and at every level. A successful team cannot have members who are not committed to excellence because in the end they will become the weak link.

Employee involvement helps to create an environment in which people have an impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs.

Employee involvement and empowerment has become the new management and leadership philosophy on how people are able to contribute to continuous improvement and the ongoing success of their organization.

Some quotes on teamwork

1)Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.
-Andrew Carnegie


2)The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.
-Vincent Lombardi


3)The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
-Thoedore Roosevelt


4)The best job goes to the person who can get it done without passing the buck or coming back with excuses.
-Napoleon Hill


5)There is one rule for industrialists and that is: make the best quality goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.
-Henry Ford


6)Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson


TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More

Mises' magnum opus: Human Action

"It is impossible to understand the history of economic thought if one does not pay attention to the fact that economics as such is a challenge to the conceit of those in power.

An economist can never be a favorite of autocrats and demagogues. With them he is always the mischief-maker, and the more they are inwardly convinced that his objections are well-founded, the more they hate him."

-- Ludwig von Mises -(1881-1973) Economist and social philosopher
Source: Human Action. A Treatise on Economics (1949), Third Revised Edition (San Francisco: Fox & Wilkes, 1963), p. 67

Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age

"Our First Amendment expresses
a far different calculus for regulating speech
than for regulating nonexpressive conduct
and that is as it should be.

The right to swing your fist should end at the tip of my nose,
but your right to express your ideas
should not necessarily end at the lobes of my ears."

-- Alan Dershowitz- Professor of Law at Harvard Law School

Source: Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age, 2002

US remembers King

On Monday the United States celebrated the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his legacy of bringing civil rights to all.

Given the daunting challenges facing a globalised world today, Martin Luther King's desire for peace and non violence should focus the attention on the savagery of violence in several parts of the world.


Here are some of King's quotes.


1-"One of the great problems of mankind is that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance."


2-"The means by which we live have out distanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has out run our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."


3- "One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change."


4-"The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually."

Tecumseh Quote

"Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.Trouble no one about his religion.Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours.

Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.Seek to make your life long and of service to your people.

Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,or even a stranger, if in a lonely place.

Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light,for your life, for your strength.Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.

If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to foolsand robs the spirit of its vision.

When your time comes to die,be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death,so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more timeto live their lives over again in a different way.

Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home."


by:
Tecumseh(1768-1813) Shawnee Chief

Power

The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use - of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.
Robert F. Kennedy

Exercise

1) Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act with cheerfulness.
Joseph Addison, The Spectator, July 12, 1711English essayist, poet, & politician (1672 - 1719)

2) Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.
Thomas Jefferson 3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)

Imagination

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire: you will what you imagine: and at last you create what you will."
-George Bernard Shaw

Liberalism and Conservatism-

Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.

William E. Gladstone

Kindness

To become acquainted with kindness one must be prepared to learn new things and feel new feelings. Kindness is more than a philosophy of the mind. It is a philosophy of the spirit.
-- Robert J. Furey

Quotes from "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin

_ "I have no fear of losing my life — if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it."

_"I get called an adrenaline junkie every other minute, and I'm just fine with that."

_"Fear helps me from making mistakes, but I make lot of mistakes."

_"Crikey, mate. You're far safer dealing with crocodiles and western diamondback rattlesnakes than the executives and the producers and all those sharks in the big MGM building." — comparing dealing with deadly animals with show business."

_ "Crikey!" — his catch phrase, exclaimed repeatedly during his television show whenever something interesting happens.

Power- A quote for today

"In order to get power and retain it, it is necessary to love power;
but love of power is not connected with goodness but with qualities
that are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning and cruelty."

-- Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi
(1828-1910) Russian writer