Friday Reflections

It was in my heart to help a little because I was helped much. Part 3

Point to Ponder: You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. - Khalil Gibran

Story Line: As we entered the minibus in Auckland, a couple inside greeted us with a smile. They were part of a tour group to Hobbiton. While walking around in the park, noticing that they were taking selfies or picture of one of them at a time, I offered to take their photographs. The conversation that followed after a few camera clicks resulted in us discovering the common interests. After a long successful career, Santosh had sold his company and ventured into the next phase of life; 50 days excursion in New Zealand and Australia with his wife was the first part of this phase. They were from the east coast of USA and they had some friends from school days who lived in the Silicon Valley. At the end of the day tour, we exchanged contact information and sent periodic messages.

We met again when they visited San Francisco a year later and continued our friendship with more interaction through frequent messages and phone calls. Last year Santosh travelled to Rishikesh in India to learn various meditation techniques.

A few months ago, in one of our phone calls I mentioned to him that the current Covid crisis, political situation in our country and bombardment of negative news had taken its toll on my moods; feeling anxious, edgy and worried. Santosh mentioned that meditation might help in calming nerves and he graciously offered to do weekly Zoom sessions and teach me what he had learnt.

Since June1st, we have had seven sessions on every Monday; followed by me practicing the learnings every day. With change in diet, thought process and breathing techniques, my blood pressure has gone down on average 15 points and pulse rate by about 20 points. I don’t recollect being this calm since my college days. In last few weeks, with Santosh’s blessings, I have shared his teaching and advices to friends who too have benefited.

All these because of a chance encounter in a tour bus in New Zealand.

Reflection: I have been incredibly fortunate in my life journey to have met so many kind, caring and helpful individuals; most of whom I have met through chance encounters. They have all played a significant role in the wonderful life I've led.

They have enriched me with an enormous wealth of experiences and stories that have been shared in Friday Reflections through the years. I wouldn't have had such a beautiful career and life without the help and encouragement from so many people. I express my sincere thanks to all those individuals and the readers as we are ending the last week of the 35^th year from when Friday Reflections began (August 5, 1985) and 15^th year since they went on internet.

It was in my heart to help a little because I was helped much: Part 1 and 2 were published in 2017.

https://fridayreflections.typepad.com/weblog/2017/08/it-was-in-my-heart.html

https://fridayreflections.typepad.com/weblog/2017/11/it-was-in-my-heart-part2.html

Things to Follow in These Difficult Times

Special Thanks to the reader Yi Fang for sending above poster.

Things that matter most should not be put at the mercy of things that matter least.

Let the children’s laughter remind us of how we used to be.  Their happiness comes from being in the moment, only one that matters, they forget everything else. The Way We Were.

Family who plays and prays together stays together.

 

Note: Friday Reflection about Dumb Fred Episodes 2 and 3 that were planned for this month are postponed to Future dates.

"Dumb Fred" Episode 1: Original Fred Story as the starter.*

Point to Ponder: Never ridicule anyone because they are different and/or do not fit “The System”. There are many pathways to real success in life.

During past fifteen years of Reflections, occasionally some readers have asked: Don’t you have any negative experiences from personal life and learnings from which you can share? Seems almost all of the stories so far have positive spin on them.

Ok, as we are approaching 15^th anniversary on internet (August 5, 2005), for the two reflections starting next week, I will share a few such experiences that have been in backlog for several years. Though negative looking at times, fortunately the end results have turned out well. But before those stories, for this week, let me share one starter for the warmup.

Story Line: “Dumb Fred”

In 1988, my wife and I attended a seminar in San Jose. The speaker was entertaining and told us many stories to deliver key messages, one of those I have never forgotten.

In one school there was a kid named Fred who was not well versed with “current trends in social affairs” and not good in the regular school curriculum as well. He would say things that are not standard discussion subjects, bring stories from reading various magazines that others had not heard of and they would ridicule him for “making up stories”, and ask questions in classes that teachers didn’t expect and got annoyed. He had become laughing stock of the teachers and students. He was very poor in most subjects and getting passing marks seemed to be his biggest accomplishment. Bottom Line: Fred was not well versed in normal baseline expectations. They called him “Dumb Fred”.

One time in an open competition conducted by the state (not school curriculum), Fred came first in the entire state bringing glory to the school. However the principal and the teacher, who were expecting one of their favorite star student to come first couldn’t believe that, and instead of congratulating taunted, “Fred, Are you sure you didn’t cheat? Hard to believe.”

Many years later, there was a high school reunion. The people wearing fancy suites, dresses and holding wine glasses were chatting with one another about what they had achieved in terms of career, financial status, fancy cars, where they lived etc thus catching up on the lost time.

Suddenly a big very fancy limousine pulled up which drew everyone’s attention. The chauffeur got out and opened the door. A man in very modest clothes came out. First they couldn’t recognize the guy but after a few minutes one of them exclaimed “Hey, That’s Dumb Fred.”

They were wondering how Fred could have been in a chauffeur driven limousine, so a few of them started very diplomatic gentle probing.To their surprise they found out that Fred not only owned the fancy hotel that they were in but he also owned many businesses around the country. He also had charitable organizations to help people in different walks of life.

From their score cards, it was hard to believe that Fred had attained that kind of status and results. Now that they perceived Fred’s status much higher than theirs, one of them mustered up enough courage to ask (of course very gently and politely): “Fred how did you do all these?”

“Well”, Fred started “I couldn’t make it to college because as you all know, I had bad grades and couldn’t write a good essay either. So I took a job selling food in the market. I liked talking to customers and treated them well. One day one customer asked me to join his new restaurant business." The way the rest of the story went was that Fred treated every level of employee, suppliers and customers very well and the business grew lips and bounds. It diversified into many other areas.

But what Fred said at the end was most revealing. When asked about the return on investments, Fred said,“The Businesses brought me good return of 20%/Year and thus the money tripled every three years, and with God’s grace: Here I am.”

When the classmates heard that final sentence they all looked at each other: “He is still the same ‘Dumb Fred’. How did he make it?”

Reflections: More investigation into Fred's life revealed that: He was still very poor at math and he didn’t have a clue about the compounding interest formula. But he seemed to understand the power of compounding his business by focusing on high quality products and helping people grow. Fred had a common sense to understand the real needs of society and used his gut instincts to make decisions rather than going through elaborate financial analysis. He showed keen interest in people from other cultures and beliefs, learned from diversity, and treated everyone with respect regardless of their social status. He still lived in his old neighborhood and had not learnt driving a car because he had none when he was poor and no time when his businesses took off. People who interacted with Fred loved and respected him and they went extra miles to compensate in the areas Fred was not well versed.

Most of us have had our own “Dumb Fred” moments. When they are used as learning and growing experiences, they result in positive outcomes.

Be Simple, Be humble, Be curious. No Malice, No Bitterness. Utilize every encounter in life as the learning and growing experience.

*with minor modifications/touch ups.

Prevention:You can only connect the dots looking backwards

Point to Ponder: What did Taiwanese, New Zealanders, Thais and others knew that some did not. “An ounce of Prevention is better than a pound of cure.”

Story Line: “Perfect Containment until Proven Prevention.”

Covid-19: Source: Worldometers.  Date: July 9, 2020

No	Country	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths	New Deaths
1	USA	3,215,549	56,617	135,683	821
2	BRAZIL	1,755,779	39,583	69,184	1129
3	UK	287,621	642	44,602	8
99	THAILAND	3202	5	58	0
131	NEW ZEALAND	1540	3	22	0
163	TAIWAN	449	0	7	0

Observations of containment and semi-prevention (of virus spreading) from three visits to Taiwan in January, February and March and One to Chiang Mai.

1. January 28: 75% of the passengers and 100% of crew members in the plane from SFO-TPE were wearing Facemasks. Restrooms were sanitized more often than normal. From TPE to ChingMai 100% of people in plane had facemasks.
2. Upon arrival at Taipei Airport almost all (found only 6 exceptions amongst several hundreds) people were wearing facemasks. So we surrendered and put on masks.
3. On the Second visit to Taiwan in February, there was a body temperature check and individual interview before proceeding to Immigration. Hotel pickup van and reception desks also did temperature checks. 100% of people including foreigners were wearing facemasks.
4. On the third visit in March, same as #3 plus temperature check before entering high speed railway platform. The train was completely full with passengers for 3 hours journey. Everyone was wearing facemask. In the crowded bus from train station to Hotel, on the town streets and in small Alishan forest railways, people were wearing facemasks. Public places were frequently cleaned and sanitized.
5. In January, in early stages of virus spread, Taiwan and Thailand had put ban on travelers from Coronavirus origins places, taking huge losses in tourist revenues. Estimates are over a million tourists were scheduled to visit those countries for the New Year vacation time.
6. One very notable thing was that people were mingling close to one another, walking shoulder to shoulder in crowded markets or in buses and sitting close to others in diffrent places. No social distancing of several feet, but they had facemasks on.

Reflection: Taiwan and some other countries have done a superb job of preventing spread of the virus by Proactive early engagement actions. For some countries it was knowledge and learning from past episodes and having prevention systems in place, for others like New Zealand it was aggressive actions based on the knowledge of what countries like Taiwan had already done. (wise learn from others' experiences).

Full prevention of virus will be achieved only when the source of the virus is eliminated and vaccine is developed. But until then for some of the countries where virus is widely spreading fast: Without pointing fingers at anyone* let us work together to combat this terrible human tragedy. To wear the mask or not to and whether to follow other containment actions, that is not the question. To act for own safety and that of our families and our fellow human being is individual responsibility. United we stand, divided we will fall.

*A few months ago, even respected medical experts in USA were not advocating use of facemasks, not even simple cloth covering face, while medical grade masks were in short supply. But everyone is learning along the way; hard way in this case. A lot of new discoveries are coming up in the process of finding solutions so at times some of the previous information is not valid or may seem contradictory. Medical professionals are working long hours both for containment and finding Prevention solutions. Let us trust that they would do the right things.

Some people are starting to doubt prevention methodologies and also starting to wonder if all this is a Hoax. I would just point to the data and observations from the places presented above. (Following the best known practices vs drifting and not following them).

While thinking about investing in Prevention and/or New Discoveries I remember the words of Steve Jobs: Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.