Friday Reflections

Courage is not a lack of fear, but ...

POINT TO PONDER

Courage is not a lack of fear, but the ability to act in spite of it.
 

STORYLINE

Wesley Autrey was waiting for the New York subway's No.1 train with his two young daughters the afternoon of January 2, 2007. It was like most days in Harlem when he took his daughters to their elementary school before he headed off to his construction job downtown.

Except on this morning another passenger, Cameron Hellopter, 20, collapsed on the platform as his body started to convulse. Autrey and two women rushed to his side and helped Mr. Hellopter up. He managed to stand on his own for a second as the rumble from the approaching train filled the station. Then, Cameron Hellopter's body gave out and he fell off the platform and onto the train tracks, between two rails.

Wesley Autrey could have done what most would have - stood idly by and hoped for the best as the trains headlights beamed into the station. Instead, Mr. Autrey jumped onto the tracks. 

In a space about a foot deep, Wesley Autrey pressed Hellopter's body as far down as he could as the train rumbled above them, just inches from Autrey's head. Autry would later find grease marks from the train on his blue knit cap after the ordeal. Five cars in total passed over the two men.

Onlookers screamed as the train screeched to a halt. Then a voice came from underneath the train, “We're O.K. down here, but I've got two daughters up there. Let them know their father's okay.”

Wesley Autrey's heroics made national headlines and the media deemed him the “hero of Harlem.” On January 4th, 2007, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said this about Autrey, “Wesley's astonishing bravery - saving a life in the face on an oncoming subway car - is an inspiration not just to New Yorkers, but the entire world. His courageous rescue of a complete stranger is a reminder of how we are surrounded by everyday heroes...”

REFLECTION

I decided to write this reflection in response to a reader's comments from last week. The question that was posed was, “how do we get out from fear for someone whom had been in that situation for a long time. The fear portion might be even considered as 'Comfort Zone' for someone whom had not tried to come out.” The question is interesting because I believe many of us have grown so used to acting out of fear that it has been become a 'comfort zone' as this reader suggests.

I believe the answer lies within the response from Wesley Autrey regarding his ability to act, “I had to make a split decision,” and ultimately, “I did what I felt was right.”     So to answer this readers question I present a simple solution  - make the decision to act and do it based on what you feel is right in your heart. Get out of your comfort zone and take action. Don't think about it. Make the decision inspite of fear. If Wesley Autrey had thought about what to do, had given in to fear, Cameron Hellopter would be dead today. So I challenge readers to let your heart be your guide and to act in the face of fear just as Wesley Autrey had done that fateful afternoon on January 2, 2007.

…And they flew.

 
POINT TO PONDER:
 
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.” - Paulo Coelho 
 
 
STORYLINE:
 
“Come to the edge,” he said.
They said, “we are afraid.”
“Come to the edge,” he said.
They came. He pushed them...
and they flew.
        -- Guillaume Apollinaire
 
 
REFLECTION by Rajiv Shah

Two voices live within all of us - one of possibility and one of fear.

One often dominates the other and it is often fear that wins. It’s safer and more predictable. It hedges the bets before they've even been made. It lives in us all, a seeming friend concerned about our well-being, whispering to us whenever we move into the unknown. When we dare to push the limits of our capabilities and the breadth of our power, it comes to our side. It wants us to play safe. It feeds on our insecurities and cultivates our failures. It uses disappointment against us, putting it on display whenever we begin to strive for something greater.

We listen to this voice when we push back our hopes and dreams. Fear works from a negative – from something being taken, from not being control, and most dangerous - not being good enough. If that is the voice we choose and that is what we put out – then that is exactly what we will get back in return.

What if we chose the opposite? Try it. It's scary as hell. Do something you've wanted that means a lot to you and that you've been putting off. Start small. It could be anything – making a phone call to someone you think is important, smiling at people even though they may not smile back, getting to the gym, or taking that first step to pursuing your dreams. The beauty is that positivity works the same way, the more you put out and the more will come back.

See if that voice comes in. The one that tells you that it's silly, that it won't work, and that it's not for you right now. Pay attention to what it says and to why you will or will not listen anymore. I almost guarantee that it will be there every step of the way. The choice will be yours whether you give in to it.

“It is never too late to be what you can become.” *

 

 

Point to Ponder: The other day a man asked me what I thought was the best time of life.  "Why," I answered without a thought, "now."  ~ David Grayson

Story Line: by Rajiv Shah

I was out to lunch with a friend of mine yesterday and we were trading stories about how we made it out to Los Angeles to pursue our respective careers as artists. LA is a big city filled with thousands upon thousands of other artists trying to claw their way into a steady career here. It is competitive and youth is a commodity that is highly sought.

Our conversation turned to an old girlfriend of his. This girl has two kids that she struggles to raise on her own. It turns out her husband passed away ten months ago from a sudden heart attack at the age of thirty-four.

My friend says that this girl has always wanted to come out to LA or New York to become a writer. She writes on her own, scribbling away at the pad into the late evening hours as her babies sleep. Before he passed, her husband was helping her to pursue her dream. They were planning to make the move but now she doesn't know how she'll be able to do it. My friend says she's giving up and she feels she's too old and has too many obstacles in front of her to pursue her dreams.

There is no easy answer and I won't even pretend to know what the answer is for this young woman. What I do know is that deciding when you are too old and when something is too out of reach is in the mind of the individual. Her situation sparked a discussion between my friend and I about successful people who suffered tremendous setbacks and still managed to achieve their dreams.  

Susan Boyle was diagnosed with learning difficulties at an early age. Due to her limitations the longest job she had was as a trainee cook and that only lasted for six months. While taking care of her aging mother she took singing lessons and performed at the local church. Her deepest desire was to sing. After Boyle won several local singing competitions, her mother urged her to enter Britain's Got Talent. She almost gave up, thinking she was too old, until her coach persuaded her to participate. She sang “I Dreamed a Dream” and at the age of 48, she became an international celebrity. Her first Album sold over 3 million copies in first six weeks of release.

Ang Lee, directed his first film “PUSHING HANDS” at the age of thirty-seven after nearly a decade of unemployment.

Morgan Freeman started to work steadily in film in his fifties. He began acting in his twenties and continued with it till he finally succeeded thirty years later.

Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame was broke and unemployed at the age of sixty-five. He found success with KFC ten years later well into his seventies. By 1976, at the age of eighty-six, Colonel Sanders was the world's second most recognized celebrity according to an independent survey at that time.
 

Refelction:

There are no easy roads in life. And the older we get, the harder it is to pursue a dream we feel has passed with our youth. We fight time, age, and doubt.

The only person that can tell you when it's over is you. You decide when to keep walking the path, putting one foot in front of the other. And no matter what age, what your circumstance, it is never too late to be what you can become.

* Title is a quote from the book 'The way of Ping, Journey to the Great Ocean' by Stuart Avery Gold  http://www.pingthebook.com/way_of_ping_excerpt.htm

 

If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But ...

If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good." - Thomas J. Watson, Jr.

 

Story Line:

History is filled with stories of people and organizations who have lived upto the message of either part of above quote. FR has covered many such stories about people and organizations. Two notable ones in organizational area were, "Secrets of World's longest surviving companies" (published before FR went on web so link not available) and "Where are they now?" http://fridayreflections.typepad.com/weblog/2007/03/where-are-they-.html.

There are two types of situations that drives conformity behavior. One situation is where one does not want to ruffle any feathers, in other words just play it safe. Follow whatever rules that are laid down even if they do not make any sense any more, maintain status quo and count the time.
 
The other situation is where a person or organization has been very successful with one approach and a set of rules. But the very success blocks their vision to new ideas for shaping the future. "The way we were" and "Yesterday once more" are themes prevalent in this situation. It is hard for them to break inertia of old ways.
 
But then, the most admirable are the ones who have refused to get into this trap and continuously reinvented themselves or the ones who got trapped but recognized it and made efforts to get out of it. Most of the people who have reignited themselves or their organizations are controversial (have to be to break conformity) so it is understandable if one has a strong feelings about them one way or the other.
 
Here is a recent CNN interview with Paolo Coelho that shades light about such people. Again, you may not agree with everything he says but still there are many gold nuggets in there, advice about raising children is also applies to growing employees.
 
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2009/10/26/connector.paulo.coelho.cnn.html
 

Reflection:

I started my career in 1975 on Middle Field Road in Mountain View California. There were close to 100 companies in two blocks area at that time.  Most of them had great products and growing very fast at the time. But many companies became victims of their success and got complacent. New ideas were rejected, any one who brought competitive information that looked better than their own were ruled out or disciplined (still not as bad as Ancient Empires where people used to get executed for such noble acts).

While 99 of them perished, one of them is around and has become one of world's leading company. Secret, in my opinion: Acknowledging competitors as real and good; and getting aggressive to get better than them. Like world's longest lasting companies, already reinventing itself three times in it's young life.

The greatest mistake is to do nothing because you can only do a little.

"I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do."  ~Edward Everett Hale.

Story Line:

There are times in life and career when one wonders if what he/she does makes a difference, or if there is any significance to a “seemingly small” task performed by someone.

The following story by Loren Eisley was sent by a reader from Ghana in response to last week’s Friday Reflection, and was also previously sent by readers from Ireland, Malaysia and Korea.  It has real good points to ponder for individuals, managers and teachers.

One day a man was walking along the beach, when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.  Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”
 
The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out.  If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”
 
“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?  You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf.  Then, smiling at the man, he said…”I made a difference for that one.”

Reflections:
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.  "Anne Frank" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wuSaNCIde4&feature=related

*The title of this FR is a quote by -- Sydney Smith, English clergyman and writer

How to choreograph your life and career: Kitaro

August 5th is the fifth anniversary of Friday Reflections on the Internet, and the 24th year since its inception.

"This music is not from my mind. It is from heaven, going through my body and out my fingers through composing. Sometimes I wonder. I never practice. I don't read or write music, but my fingers move. I wonder, 'Whose song is this?' I write my songs, but they are not my songs." - Kitaro in an interview.

“He came out of stage.  It was black.  Then the spotlight came up slowly.  He just stood there.  And everything stopped.  The man has presence.” - Karen and Rich (Arizona Couple) describing their experience in a Kitaro concert.

Story Line: Takahashi Masanori’s (now known as Kitaro) first encounter with music was in early teenage years when he heard the songs of American singer Otis Redding.

1. Deciding what he loves to do, assuming responsibility and learning new skills: He learned guitar, formed a small band with his friends, and started performing at various events. Later he changed to keyboard. Once, before an event, the drummer was injured. Kitaro took a crash course on drumming and the event went on for the customer. On another occasion, the Bassist got ill and he learnt how to play Bass.
2. Willing to pay the price for what he wanted to achieve: after graduating from his home town, he moved to Tokyo and supported himself by taking on several part time jobs such as cooking or civil service work, meanwhile composing songs at night. There he joined a commercial band and toured around the world. In 1977 he went solo and his music in Japanese TV series Silk Road (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ulc51ZOGQk) gave him international recognition.
3. Go out with passion for your dream never look back and produce incredible performance: His music in the Oliver Stone movie Heaven and Earth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO82u7CKj1k&feature=fvw) won a Golden Globe award. A quarter of a century later, with 67 albums, two Grammy awards, various international recognitions and sales exceeding over 100 million records, he is still going strong - touring around the world sending a profound message of peace and spiritual development through his music.

Here are two additional samples of Kitaro’s music:

• Dance of Saraswati: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=244lUx0HaPY&feature=related
• Kokoro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgO81dKsL4Y&feature=related

Reflection:

Friday Reflections started in August 1985 when I was working an intense, long hours, demanding job in a start up called Altera. To balance whatever time was left in a day for family (8-10PM); every evening we would go out for an hour long car ride to catch up on day’s events.

Monday to Thursday were music days, and every Friday I would tell a story to the children - about either work life or other life. 24 years later, FR stories are read in over 120 countries. Those two children are long gone from home, but evening rides have continued with music. Kitaro is one of those great musicians we take along for a ride with us.

Is there a pony in the current global dung heap (crisis)?

Points to Ponder:

“In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.” - Lee Iacocca (who was fired from Ford Motors in the 1980s, joined Chrysler in bankruptcy, and turned it around to be a very profitable company)

"Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different”
- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi quotes (Hungarian Biochemist, 1937 Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1893-1986)

Story Line:

Worried that their boys had developed extreme personalities - one was a total pessimist, the other a total optimist - their parents took them to a psychiatrist.

First the psychiatrist treated the pessimist. Trying to brighten his outlook, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with brand-new toys. But instead of yelping with delight, the little boy burst into tears. “What’s the matter?” the psychiatrist asked, baffled. “Don’t you want to play with any of the toys?” “Yes,” the little boy bawled, “but if I did I’d only break them.”

Next the psychiatrist treated the optimist. Trying to dampen his outlook, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with horse manure. But instead of wrinkling his nose in disgust, the optimist emitted just the yelp of delight the psychiatrist had been hoping to hear from his brother, the pessimist.

The optimist clambered to the top of the pile, dropped to his knees, and began gleefully digging out scoop after scoop with his bare hands. “What do you think you’re doing?” the psychiatrist asked, just as baffled by the optimist as he had been by the pessimist. “With all this manure,” the little boy replied, beaming, “there must be a pony in here somewhere!”

Reflection:

It seems that in current global situation everything that could go wrong seems to be going wrong. But then looking back at previous crisis whether: economic, wars, terrorism, corrupt politicians, natural disasters; the new world order has emerged with new opportunities. Even during the greatest depression era (1929-37); many ideas, new companies and new leadership emerged.

So where are the Ponies in current dung heap? Any Points to Ponder?

Are you an Eagle living the life of a Chicken?

Thanks to Sophia Zhou from Dalian China for sending this thought-provoking story, based upon "The Chicken and The Eagle Story" by Dr. Eldon Taylor

A baby eagle was once rescued by a farmer, who nurtured it to health and brought it up with his flock of chickens.  Years later, a visitor came to the farm and was incredulous to see this eagle amongst the chickens, wandering around scratching on the ground for seeds ... even making noises like a chicken -- "bwack bwack bwack!"

He was very sad to see such a magnificent creature acting this way, when he knew it was supposed to soar freely in the sky. Hoping that the eagle would discover its true nature, he convinced the farmer to take the eagle to the top of a large hill overlooking the valley below, and throw it towards the sky.

For the first few tries, the eagle was not able to fly.  It simply fell down and started scratching in the dirt again.  But the farmer did not give up.  Every day he would take the eagle back to the hills and every day the eagle would try again.  Eventually, at last, the eagle soared up into the sky and disappeared.

Reflection: There are many meanings within this story. First and foremost, don’t allow yourself to be bound by the standard conventions and expectations of your surroundings.  If you accept the life of a chicken, you'll never be able to soar like an eagle.  Broaden your horizons and push your limits. 

Your reflection?

Everyone knows a piece of dust (sand) can fly, but who would have imagined that it can make an airplane fly?

"If you can think of it, you can dream of it, (and if you do something about it), you can achieve it." - Siegfried and Roy

Story Line:

Five decades ago when I started my first job at Raytheon Semiconductor in Silicon Valley, my boss Charles Fa (a co-founder of Advanced Memory Systems prior to joining Raytheon) often used to tell me: "This industry is going to change the world".

Working in a silicon fabrication area with a 56 mm diameter slice (a.k.a silicon wafer) that had a few transistors on it, I often wondered how something made out of a piece of sand (dust) is going to change the world. But the job had definitely changed my world: I had an income and green card eligibility, so I accepted my boss's imagination.

At the time, the area around Middlefield Road and Ellis Street was filled with many buildings belonging to Fairchild Semiconductor, three buildings belonging to Raytheon, and one small building occupied by Intel. There were of course many more companies in the Santa Clara area as well.

Today, most of the silicon wafers in use are of 300mm diameter and contain millions of transistors. The continuous innovations in technology have created a wide variety of applications, started many new industries around the world, and made a significant impact on the world and its economy.  Look around: cooking appliances, medical devices, cars, cash registers, computers, musical instruments, telephones, airplanes...

Look more; the silicon chips all around us....

Today's reflection is dedicated to all great people: That Dare to Imagine, Dare to Try, Dare to Fail, Dare to Persevere and Dare to Win.

Everyone knew a piece of dust can fly, but only you had imagined that it would make an airplane fly.

Reflection: Many of the companies from my early days have purged; some have merged and a few have surged (and continues to surge). I wish all the remaining ones a great future ... and a very special greetings to my tiny neighbor on Middlefield Road five decades ago, which has grown into the world's largest semiconductor company. Happy 40th Birthday Intel.

Wisdom in Failure

“Every problem that you face comes to you at the time when you need it to learn a valuable lesson that will act as a springboard to future success. But you must find that lesson and learn it.” - Dennis Waitley

Storyline:

During my recent overseas trip, I met this young gentleman. Looking at his face, it seemed to me that something was bothering him. He had graduated four years ago and joined high-tech industry. As his fate would have it, the first two projects he had been assigned were canceled after a few years. He seemed to have personally associated himself with the failure of the projects. 

When I asked for more details about what had happened, I was amazed how many different experiences this young man had been exposed to in those two projects and the amount of knowledge he had gained out of various experiments, the type of things that he could have never learned if the projects had gone without hiccups. In fact, he had not only gathered immense technical knowledge but also a lot of knowledge about business, relationships and logistics. As it turns out, the projects were canceled for business reasons, and not by any of his doing.

I told him that not many four-year employees are as lucky as he was to become one of the most valuable players for the group. He seemed surprised until we took an inventory of his learning and identified multiple places where they could be useful.

As my friend Biil Lim, the author of 'Dare to Fail' and 'Wisdom in Failure' says, "Don't worry about your failures (and disappointments). In fact, you should record and keep them. You will be surprised how much people are prepared to pay to listen to your failure stories when you succeed."

Reflection:

J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series delivered her commencement address, "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination" at the annual meeting of the Harvard alumni association.

"I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale."  Here is the link for the curious and the interested...

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkREt4ZB-ck
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kh_tSiqL1U&feature=related

"You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default." - J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter.