A story on excellence.

This story is from a reader digest article. However I will not take the story word to word but will give you the essence of the story.

The story starts with a boy talking about how his father is part of an inspection committee, who sees to it that the unbreakable mugs that are manufactured are truly unbreakable or not. On many occasions his father would take him to the factory and make him sit in his cabin.

His father would take a sample and smash on the floor. Then check it for small cracks. The Son hated to go to the factory and he thought it a very low grade job and hence was always ashamed of his father job.

Soon time past and he gets a job of a salesman. He goes around trying to sell things. He does well and he goes on and then finally he gets a promotion and a raise in his salary. Time progress and he goes on getting promotions after promotions and is now taking back home a good fat salary.

One fine day his boss calls him into his cabin. He is excited because he had just finished a product. Hence he could feel that promotion coming up again. When he went in his boss asked him how much he was getting paid and then took a calculator multiplied that amount by three and made a check for that amount. While giving the check the boss told him that he need not come to the office from the very next day and he was to clear his table and leave that very day.

He was shocked. He didn’t know what to say. He took his check and left to his cabin and started packing up.

He was hurt and sad. So he thought of his dad and reached his dads cabin. It was the same old cabin nothing had changed. His dad did the same old tests. When he walked in his dad greeted him and asked what happened why the sad look??

After relating what happened his dad asked him "son were you ever happy or pleased with your work just before submitting it"?? The son replied with a "No". The father then smiled and said "son if you were not happy with your work then how can others appreciate it. Your boss kept you till the time you kept his clients happy, the moment they were dissatisfied he doesn't earn his salary. So he is not going to stop buying those fancy diamond necklaces for his wife so he sacks you. Look at this mug (he puts the mug under the microscope) flawless and without any cracks. This mug is supposed to be unbreakable (after stating this he smashes it on the floor and then places it under the microscope). Now watch can you see the crack. If we were to sell these mugs sure enough they would sell, but the day that anyone finds the crack they will stop buying it."

"Son I always wanted to start something new, but I could not because I had a family depending on me. You do not have one go and start something new." The son then takes that mug and leaves to start his own marketing company, but he never forgets the mug so it stays right on his desk every single day.

The story ends her, but I would like to say that in today’s world everybody will get away with short cuts and short cuts will bring you big money in small time, but those that do not take these short cuts have the better edge over those who do. Yes they do not make big money in small time, but they last longer...................

Discipline

What is discipline? What is it to be disciplined?Who is disciplined? These questions are always in my mind as I see what all happens at college as a student. Does discipline mean that you have to enter your class room on time, sit properly in class, wish your teachers every time you see them. I doubt whether this is so because if that is so then every single person is disciplined and I doubt whether that is actually possible in real life. I feel that discipline is not just that but is something even more deeper. I think it is a way of thinking of doing things and your approach to them. For example one might come to class on time. So he is considered disciplined. Not necessarily because he might be coming in class because if he doesn't he does not get his attendance. Hence he falls short of attendance and cannot right his exam (off course there is a way if he pays that is a br....). Hence he is coming on time because of attendance. Thus he is not disciplined according to me. This is because you are being disciplined because you are getting something in return. Discipline has to come from inside. You will say that is a famous old cleache. So what does it mean???? I think that it means that you do something for the sake of doing it and not for any other thing. That means that I go to class on time because I want to and there is no other reason behind doing it.

Does being disciplined mean that that I am excellent or reached excellence? The question can also be the other way around. I don't know which one is the right way. Any comments!!!!

Before trying to answer that question I would like to explore what is excellence? I feel that like discipline it is a way of thinking and more than thinking they way you perform your job. I feel that the true test of excellence cannot be done from outside it can only be done from within. I say this because as soon as you know that somebody is going to check your work, you make sure every single thing is perfect. However, the moment there is no person to check does your work fail to be as impressive as the previous one??

My dad always told me every time that we fixed something at home, Khirad the true test of excellence is when you put in your best in every aspect of your work even if it is not to be seen or even appreciated by the others. Then off course to prove this he would relate the story of how he made sure the inside of his audio amplifier was designed to such perfection that if the outer cover was removed it still could be placed as a show piece in the show case. There was no need for this extra effort because nobody (except the service men) was going to open it up and look inside in its entire working life. Has my dad reached excellence?? I think so. Why I say I think so is because you reach excellence when you put in every single thing into it. Then that is the best product that you have made and then and only then have you reached excellence and I don't know whether dad did put in everything.

Thus I feel that excellence is when you put in your best. It is not comparable. You cannot compare it with another person. This is because every individual has his or her own limits and due to these limits it is not fair to compare two people. However, on the other hand excellence is not a destination which once you have reached it that's it. It is not bound. You can go on and on each time challenging yourself and increasing the level of your excellence.

I thought of concluding with a story from a reader's digest issue called " The cracked Mug". However, that will be with my next blog.

Animals do they have mental powers

I thought of this after remebering an incident that took place many years back. My dad goes for a course in meditation and during that time you do not even speak to anybody. You have to be absolutely silient. Well so one day when sitting in meditation my dad got a signal saying sophie has been killed. Note Sophie is our pet dog. later on he got a signal sophie is not dead but sophie is hurt. When he finished his meditation he called up home and asked my sister what had happened and it so happened that on that very day while crossing the road she was hit by a scooter. Did my doggie actually reach out to my dad when the two of them were a couple of thousands of kilometers apart?? Do animals actually have intelligence. I have begun to believe so. Confused. Well let me tell you one more thing. Well before sophie we had a dog called Randy. She was very smart. She would follow us everywhere we went. Infact there was even a time when my cousin sis and aunt were walking and a stranger approached and touched my aunt. The very next instant randy was after him. She made sure she scared the shit out of that man. Well i am deviating towards dogs. But in general animals do have intelligence and they also have intuition something that we humans have ignored. The least number of deaths in the tsunami in december 2004 were animals. Why because they had already had the intuition that somthing is wrong get out. So they had already run away fronm home and gone far away. Off course here i mean land animals. At certain times i feel that there is no real difference between man and animals intelligence. They have the same emotions as we do. Infact i think they are one step ahead of us because they trry and discover new things but they do not go too deep. On the other hand qwe humans go so deep that we turn up using it in a distructive way. For example the whole process of finding out what is responsible for our charecteristics and then the study of DNA and RNA. that now i can actually manupulate my childs interest, his eye colour and everything before he is born. Technology has made it possible to know the sex of the baby before it is even born. The whole world now is blaming each other of having nuclear weopons. Such a desructive thing made from the discovery of fussion and fission.

I trully wonder know who is the more learned one the animals or us??? we go on making things to destroy o0ur own very existance. Do animals actually know what we are learning and they are aware of the consiquence and hence do not go further into it ??

Any comments or answer are welcome

Does science explain everything

I always wonder whether science will ever be able to explain every single thing in life. I say this because as we go over the past years science has been able to explain some fantastic things. Like the theory of relativity or the chaos theory, The simple but yet powerful 3 laws of Newton or for that matter anything. As humans we always have the thirst for knowledge. Why things occur the way they do or how do they occur the way they do. So on and so forth.
Things have been proven and the answers found, But does science know the truth? Lost?? Let me give an example. How does one know that the theory of relativity actually is true or not. For example even today there are new things discovered about the behavior of animals. So is there something that Einstein did not take into account for in his theory?? I am not saying it is wrong or correct I am doubting the completeness of the theory. I will end with a few question and do answer them. Is there a way of knowing whether your theory is complete or not? Will science ever be able to explain every single thing that takes place in life? Will we be able to solve the remaining mysteries of the human Brain? Is there an end to discovery? Or rather will there be a day when scientists can say we know why everything works and how it works?