The Law Of The Garbage Truck

I hopped in a taxi and we took off for Indianapolis Airport. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car’s back end by just inches!

The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And, I mean, he was friendly.

So, I said, ‘Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!’ And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, ‘The Law of the Garbage Truck.’

“Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they’ll dump it on you. When someone wants to dump on you, don’t take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You’ll be happy you did.”
So this was it: The ‘Law of the Garbage Truck.’ I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people: at work, at home, on the streets?

It was that day I said, ‘I’m not going to do it anymore.’

I began to see garbage trucks. Like in the movie ‘The Sixth Sense,’ the little boy said, ‘I see Dead People.’ Well, now ‘I see Garbage Trucks.’ I see the load they’re carrying. I see them coming to drop it off. And like my taxi driver, I don’t make it a personal thing; I just smile, wave, wish them well, and I move on.

Good leaders know they have to be ready for their next meeting. Good parents know that they have to welcome their children home from school with hugs and kisses. Leaders and parents know that they have to be fully present, and at their best, for the people they care about.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let Garbage Trucks take over their day.

—- Author Unknown

Principles of Life

• Winning isn’t everything but wanting to win is.
• You would achieve more, if you don’t mind who gets the credit.
• When everything else is lost, the future still remains.
• Don’t fight too much or the enemy will know your art of war.
• The only job you start at the top is when you dig a grave.
• If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for everything.
• If you do little things well, you’ll do big ones better.
• Only thing that comes to you without effort is old age.
• You won’t get a second chance to make a first impression.
• Only those who do nothing do not make mistakes.
• Never take a problem to your boss unless you have a solution.
• If you are not failing, you’re not taking enough risks.
• Don’t try to get rid of your bad temper by losing it.
• If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.
• Those who don’t make mistakes usually don’t make anything.
• There are two kinds of failures: Those who think and never do, and those who do and never think.
• Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
• All progress has resulted from unpopular decisions.
• Change your thoughts and you change your world.
• Understanding proves intelligence, not the speed of the learning.
• There are two kinds of fools in this world.: Those who give advice and those who don’t take it.
• The best way to kill an idea is to take it to a meeting.
• Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things.
• Friendship founded on business is always better than business founded on friendship.

—- Compiled by Tony Peeris —- India

Nobody's Friend

My name is Gossip.

I have no respect for justice.

I break hearts and ruin lives.

I am cunning, malicious and gather strength with age.
The more I am quoted, the more I am believed.
I flourish at every level of society.

My victims are helpless.

They cannot protect themselves against me because
I have no name and no face.
To track me down is impossible.
The harder you try, the more elusive I become.

I am nobody’s friend.

Once I tarnish a reputation, it is never the same.

I topple governments and wreck marriages.
I ruin careers and cause sleepless nights, heartaches and indigestion.

I spawn suspicion and generate grief.
I make innocent people cry in their pillows.

Even my name hisses.

I am called GOSSIP.

Office gossip
Shop gossip
Party gossip
Telephone gossip

I make headlines and headaches.

REMEMBER, when you repeat a story, ask yourself:

is it true?
Is it fair?
Is it necessary??
If not, do not repeat it.

- author unknown

When A Winner Loses, He Always Comes Back To Be A Better Winner

Refuse to remain fallen.

Refuse to quit.

Refuse to give up.

Refuse to accept a ‘No’ from life.

To fail without putting in the efforts is wrong, but failure in itself can never be wrong. Dare to fail, for only those who fail enough can succeed enough. More than any one single factor, it is your fear of failure that is going to leave you as a failure.

No new venture guarantees success and no new diversification promises profits. Champions understand that it is better to face outstanding failures than mediocre successes. Only those who are willing to persist in spite of temporary set backs, only those who are willing to persevere in spite of midway failures, only those who would not succumb to defeats, can finally sign their own success stories.

Failure is a parenthesis inside which success hides and history makers dig them out through relentless striving against all those failures. Life cannot be punctuated with success alone; failure too will find its imprints.

There is no sunrise without sunset.

There is no life without death.

There is no success without failures.

Learn from your failures and move on. Keep on keeping on. When a winner loses, always come back to be better winner.

—- Sri T. T. Rangarajan, Editor, Frozen Thoughts

A short course in human relations

The six most important words:
‘I admit that I was wrong’

The five most important words:

‘You did a great job’

The four most important words:

‘What do you think?’

The three most important words:

‘Could you please…’

The two most important words:

‘Thank you’

The most important word:
‘We’

The least important word:

‘I’

Potatoes, Eggs and Coffee Beans

Once upon a time, a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. 

Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter.

The daughter moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes, he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup.

Turning to her, he asked, “Daughter, what do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” she hastily replied.

“Look closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft.

He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs, and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity, the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently.

The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water it became soft and weak. The egg was fragile with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which are you?” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

In life, things happen around us and things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

 (storiesfortrainers.com)

The Cracked Pot

A water bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck.

One pot had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made.

But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream… “I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.”

The bearer said to the pot, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?” That’s because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the path. Every day while we walk back, you’ve watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table.

“Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.”

Moral: Although each of us may have our own unique flaws, it is in our uniqueness that we find our special talents and have an opportunity to brighten up the world for ourselves and others!

(storiesfortrainers.com)