Rethink: queer without fear

We think that the absence of fear is fearlessness; this is a mistake. Fearlessness is not the absence of fear. In the presence of fear, fearlessness is a totally different thing which happens within. It is not the absence of fear. Fearlessness is the total presence of fear, with the courage to face it.

Life does not listen to your logic, it goes on its own way, undisturbed. You have to listen to life, life will not listen to your logic, it does not bother about your logic. Lao Tzu is one of the keenest, and he is keen because he is very innocent -- with childlike eyes he has observed life. He has not put any of his own ideas into it, he has simply observed whatsoever is the case, and reported it.

When you move into life, what do you see? A great storm comes, and big trees fall. They should survive, according to Charles Darwin, because they are the fittest, strongest, most powerful. Look at an ancient tree, three hundred feet high, three thousand years old. The very presence of the tree creates strength, gives a feeling of strength and power. Millions of roots have spread inside the earth, gone deep, and the tree is standing with power. Of course the tree fights -- it doesn't want to yield, to surrender -- but after the storm it has fallen, it is dead, it is no longer alive and all that strength has gone. The storm was too much -- the storm is always too much, because the storm comes from the whole and a tree is just an individual.

Then there are small plants and ordinary grass -- when the storm comes, the grass yields, and the storm cannot do any harm to it. At the most it can give it a good cleansing, that's all; all the dirt that has gathered on it is washed away. The storm gives it a good bath, and when the storm has gone the small plants and the grass are again dancing high. The grass has almost no roots, it can be pulled out by a small child, but the storm was defeated. What happened?

The grass followed Lao Tzu and the big tree followed Charles Darwin. The big tree was very logical, it tried to resist, it tried to show its strength. If you try to show your strength you will be defeated. All Hitlers, all Napoleons, all Alexanders are big trees, strong trees. They will all be defeated. Lao Tzus are just like small plants, nobody can defeat them because they are always ready to yield. How can you defeat a person who yields, who says: 'I am already defeated,' who says: 'Sir, you enjoy your victory, there is no need to create any trouble. I'm defeated'? Even an Alexander will feel that he is futile before a Lao Tzu, he cannot do anything. It happened, it happened exactly like that....

A sannyasin by the name of Dandani existed in the days of Alexander, in the days when Alexander was in India. His friends had told Alexander when he was coming towards India that when he came back he should bring a sannyasin, because that rare flower flowered only in India. They said: Bring a sannyasin. You will bring many things but don't forget to bring a sannyasin; we would like to see the phenomenon of sannyas, what it is, what exactly a sannyasin is.

He was so engaged in war and struggle and fight that he almost forgot about it, but when he was going back, just on the boundary of India, he suddenly remembered. He was leaving the last village so he asked his soldiers to go into the village and inquire if there was a Sannyasin around there somewhere. By accident Dandani was there in the village, by the riverside, and the people said: You have asked at the right time and you have come at the right time. There are many sannyasins but a real sannyasin is always rare, but he is here now. You can have darshan, you can go and visit him. Alexander laughed. He said: I'm not here to have darshan, my soldiers will go and fetch him. I will take him back to my capital, to my country. The villagers said: It won't be so easy.

Alexander could not believe it -- what difficulty could there be? He had conquered emperors, great kings, so with a beggar, a sannyasin, what difficulty could there be? His soldiers went to see this dandani who was standing naked on the bank of the river. They said: Great Alexander invites you to accompany him to his country. All comforts will be provided, whatsoever you need will be provided. You will be a royal guest. The naked fakir laughed and said: You go and tell your master that a man who calls himself great cannot be great. And nobody can take me anywhere -- a sannyasin moves like a cloud, in total freedom. I am not enslaved to anybody. They said: You must have heard about Alexander, he is a dangerous man. If you say no to him, he won t listen, he will simply cut your head off. The sannyasin said: You had better bring your master here, maybe he can understand what I am saying.

Alexander had to go, because the soldiers who had come back. said: He is a rare man, luminous, there is something of the unknown around him. He is naked, but you don't feel in his presence that he is naked -- later on you remember. He is so powerful that in his presence you simply forget the whole world. He is magnetic, and a great silence surrounds him and the whole area feels as if it is delighting in the man. He is worth seeing, but there seems to be trouble ahead for him, the poor man, because he says that nobody can take him anywhere, that he is nobody's slave.

Alexander came to see him with a naked sword in his hand. The sannyasin laughed and said: Put down your sword, it is useless here. Put it back in the sheath, it is useless here because you can cut only my body, and that I left long ago. Your sword cannot cut me, so put it back, don't be childish. And it is said that that was the first time that Alexander followed somebody else's order; just because of the very presence of the man he couldn't remember who he was. He put his sword back in the sheath and said: I have never come across such a beautiful man. And when he was back home he said: It is difficult to kill a man who is ready to die, it is meaningless to kill him. You can kill a person who fights, then there is some meaning in killing, but you can't kill a man who is ready and who is saying: This is my head, you can cut it off. And dandani actually said: This is my head, you can cut it off. When the head falls, you will see it falling on the sand and I will also see it falling on the sand, because I am not my body. I am a witness.

Alexander had to report to his friends: There were sannyasins that I could have brought but they were not sannyasins. Then I came across a man who was really something rare, and you have heard rightly, this flower is rare, but nobody can force him, because he is not afraid of death. When a person is not afraid of death how can you force him to do anything?

It is your fear that makes you a slave -- it is your fear. When you are fearless you are no longer a slave; in fact, it is your fear that forces you to make others slaves before they try to make a slave out of you.

A man who is fearless is neither afraid of anybody nor makes anybody afraid of him. Fear totally disappears.

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Rethink:Life is not a riddle to be solved, it is a mystery to be lived

Once it happened, a great prime minister of a very great emperor died. The prime minister was rare, very intelligent, almost wise, very cunning, shrewd, a great diplomat, and it was very difficult to find a substitute. The whole kingdom was searched. All the ministers were sent to find at least three people; then the final decision will be taken and one of them will be chosen.



For months the search was on. The whole kingdom was searched; every nook and corner was searched. Then three persons were found. One was a great scientist, a great mathematician. He could solve any mathematical problem, and mathematics is really the only positive science — all sciences are its branches — so he was at the root.



Another was a great philosopher, he was a great system-maker: out of nothing he could create all. Just out of words, he could create such beautiful systems — it is a miracle, only philosophers can do it. They have nothing in their hands; they are the greatest magicians. They create God, they create the theory of creation, they create everything — and nothing is there in their hands. But they are clever artisans of words: they join words together in such a way that they give you a feeling of substance — and nothing is there.



And the third one was a religious man, a man of faith, prayer, devotion. And the people who were searching for these three men must have been very wise, because they had found three.



These three represent the three dimensions of consciousness. These are the only possibilities: a man of science, a man of philosophy and a man of religion — these are the basis. A man of science is concerned with experiments: unless something is proved through experiment, it is not proved. He is empirical, experimental; his truth is the truth of experiment.



A man of philosophy is a man of logic, not of experiments. Experiment is not the question; just through logic he proves, disproves. He is a pure man, purer than the scientist, because the scientist has to bring experiments in, then the laboratory comes in. A man of philosophy works without a lab — just in the mind, with logic, with mathematics. His whole lab is in his mind. He can prove and disprove just through logical arguments. He can solve any riddle or he can create any type of riddle.

And the third is the religious dimension. This man does not look at life as a problem. Life is not a problem for a religious man. It is nothing to be solved, it is something to be lived.



The religious man is the man of experience, the scientist is the man of experiment, the philosopher is the man of thinking. The religious is the man of experience, he looks at life as something to be lived. If there is any solution, it will come through experience, it will come through living. Nothing can be decided beforehand through logic, because life is greater than logic. Logic is just a bubble in the vast ocean of life, so it cannot explain all. And experiments can be done only when you are detached, experiments can be done only with objects.



Life is not an object, it is the very core of subjectivity. When you experiment you are different; when you live you are one. So the religious man says, "Unless you are one with life, you can never know it." How can you know it from the outside? You may go about and about, around and around, but you will never hit the target. So neither experiment, nor thinking, but experience; simple, trusting — a man of faith.



They searched and they found these three men, and then they were called to the capital for the final judgment. The king said, "For three days you rest and get ready. On the morning of the fourth day will be the examination, the final. One of you will be chosen and he will become my prime minister — the one who is proved to be the most wise."

They started working in their own ways. Three days were not enough! The scientist had to think of many experiments, and work it out — who knows what type of examination there is going to be? So he couldn't sleep for three days, there was no time: and there was his whole life to sleep once he was chosen, so why bother about sleep? He would not sleep, he would not eat — there was not time enough, and many things were to be done before the examination.



The philosopher started thinking, many problems were to be solved: "Who knows what type of problem is going to be asked?" Only the religious man was at ease. He ate, and ate well. Only a religious man can eat well, because eating is an offering, it is something sacred. He slept well. He would pray, sit outside, go for a walk, look at the trees, and be thankful to God; because for a religious man there is no future and there is no final examination. Every moment is the examination, so how can you prepare for it? If something is in the future you can prepare; but if something is right now, here, how can you prepare for it? You have to face it. And there was no future.



Sometimes the scientist said, "What are you doing? Wasting time — eating, sleeping, prayer. You can do your prayers later on." But he would laugh and he would not argue, he was not a man of argument.



The philosopher would say, "You go on sleeping, you go on sitting outside in the garden, you go on looking at the trees. This is not going to help. Examination is not a child's play, you have to be ready for it." But he would laugh. He believed more in laughter than in logic.



And on the morning of the fourth day, when they started for the palace for the final examination, the scientist was not even in a position to walk. He was so tired with his experiments, as if his whole life had oozed out. He was dead tired, as if any moment he would fall and go to sleep. His eyes were sleepy and his mind was troubled. He was almost crazy.

And the philosopher? He was not so tired, but he was more uncertain than ever, because he had thought and thought and argued and argued, and no argument can become the conclusion. He was muddled, in a mess, he was a chaos. The day he had arrived he could have answered many things, but now, no. Even his certain answers had become uncertain. The more you think, the more philosophy becomes useless. Only fools can believe in certainties. The more you think, the more intelligence comes to you, you can see these are all just words, there is no substance. Many times he wanted to go back because this was not going to be of any use. He was not in the right shape. But the scientist said, "Come on! Let us try. What are we going to lose? If we win, it is okay. If we don't win, it is okay. But let us try. Don't be so discouraged."



Only the religious man was walking happily, singing. He could hear the birds in the trees, he could see the sun rising, he could see the sunrays on the dewdrops. The whole life was such a miracle. He was not worried because there was no examination — he would go and face the thing, he would simply go and see what happens. And he was not asking for anything, he was not expecting, he was fresh, young, alive — and that's all. That's how one should approach God; not with readymade formulas, not with readymade theories, not with many experimental research works, not with many PhD's. No, it is not going to help. This is the way one should go — singing and dancing to the temple. And if you are alive, then whatsoever comes you can respond to it, because response is through life, it is through the heart, and the heart is ready when it is singing, when it is dancing.



They arrived. The emperor had made a very special device. They were taken into a room where he had fixed a lock, a mathematical puzzle. Many figures were on the lock, but there was no key. Those figures were to be fixed in a certain way: the secret was there, but one had to search for it and find it. If those figures were fixed in a certain way the door would open. The emperor took them in and said, "This is a mathematical puzzle, one of the greatest ever known. Now you have to find the clue — there is no key. If you can find the clue, the answer to this mathematical problem, the lock will open. And the person who comes out of this room first will be chosen. So now start." He closed the door and went out.



Immediately the scientist started working out many experiments, many things, many problems on paper. He looked — observed the figures on the lock. There was no time to lose, it was a question of life and death. The philosopher closed his eyes, started thinking in mathematical terms what to do, how this puzzle can be solved. The puzzle was absolutely new.



That is the problem with the mind: if something is old the answer can be found, but if something is absolutely new, how can you work it out through the mind? The mind is quite efficient with the old, the known, the routine. Mind is absolutely inefficient when the unknown faces it.



The religious man never went to the lock, because what can he do? He does not know any mathematics, he does not know any experimental science. What can he do? He just sat in a corner. He sang a little, prayed to God, closed his eyes. Those two others were thinking that he is not a competitor at all. "In a way it is good, because the thing has to be decided between us two." Then suddenly they became aware that he had left the room, he was not there. The door was open.

The emperor came in and he said, "What are you doing now? It is finished. The third man is out."

But they asked, "How?… because he never did anything."



So they asked the religious man. He said, "I was just sitting. I prayed and I was just sitting and a voice said within me, 'You fool. Just go and see. The door is not locked.' And I just went to the door; it was not locked. There was no problem at all to be solved, so I went out."



Life is not a problem. If you are trying to solve it you will miss it. The door is open, it has never been locked. If the door was locked, then scientists would find the solution. If the door was locked, then philosophers may find a system to open it. But the door is not locked, so only faith can go — without any solution, without any readymade answer. Push the door open and get out.



Life is not a riddle to be solved, it is a mystery to be lived. It is a deep mystery, so trust and allow yourself to enter into it. No debate can be of any help — with somebody else, or with yourself inside the mind — no debate. All debates are futile and stupid.


OSHO

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ReTHINK : Ideas are never weird, just different.

Ideas are never weird, just different. You will share the same notion with me that you had heard so many typical phrasesin committee, discussion and other supposed “brainstorming” sessions that end up going awry. They eventually stifle any creative thinking effort in a group, because they destroy the part of brainstorming that allows good ideas to sprout from the offbeat or “bad” idea. Ideas was labelled as weird and gunned down.

Eventually people end up thinking alike,and usually stop contributing to the group because they can’t be free to come up with ideas that don’t get shot down. I read once that if all of us are thinking alike then no one is thinking. In the effort to please the management or senior staff, many of us choose to reserve the "weird idea" which is just a different idea and surrender to the similarity of the group.

As tribes always says why fit in when you can stand out.  As time goes i realised the bitter truth.

One of the foundational principles in organizations is the notion of the hierarchy. You can run away from it as it was there since centuries ago.An Efficient organizations need an efficient chain of command. Well-managed organizations require the supervision of trained managers running their departments and reporting upward to more senior decision makers. An it had always been the case.

The problem is that the chain of command works well for issuing orders and making decisions. It works so well that creative ideas stand little chance of being utilized unless they’re being shared from the top downward. Creative ideas that come from the middle or lower levels of a hierarchy have to work their way up through a series of managers, each with the power to veto but each lacking the power to implement. Managers often reject innovative ideas because the individuals who developed theses ideas understand the novelty and applicability of them better than their managers.

As an idea moves through the different levels, the likelihood of rejection increases, since those managers are further from the domain the idea applies to and less likely to understand its true value in that domain. This turns a chain of command into what Vanderbilt professor Dave Owens wrote as a “hierarchy of no.” Owens, who worked as a designer for IDEO before joining the academy, asserts that the standard organizational structure contains natural constraints that kill innovative ideas.While the tendency for hierarchies to kill creativity is serious, it’s impossible  to make a case for abandoning a chain of command entirely.

Despite the impossible one company has developed a system to leave the traditional chain of command in place, while still building a culture where creative ideas are given room to grow and i read this somewhere before.The company, Rite-Solutions, did it by giving everyone in the organization $10,000. The money isn’t for spending; it’s not even real. The money is for investing on the company’s internal idea stock market. Rite-Solutions developed a system where anyone in the company can propose their idea by listing it as a stock and soliciting investment. No one needs to get approval from management before listing an idea. For every idea listed, the idea’s champion creates an “ExpectUs” (a pun on “prospectus”) which describes the idea and its potential. Each stock also has a “Budge-It” (a more obvious pun) which outlines the steps the ideas champion believes must be taken to move (or budge) forward. The new stock is given a starting price of $10 and even assigned a ticker symbol. As mentioned, each employee is also given $10,000 in virtual currency to invest in whatever ideas intrigue them. In addition to receiving investment money, each stock listing also has a comments thread for discussion on the merits of the idea and any next steps that need to be considered.

Just like in a real market, investment money flows unevenly to the ideas that investors favor and feel has the best chance of becoming a viable project. But employees don’t just invest money, they also volunteer their time and expertise to help the potential project. Once a week, a “market maker” logs into the system and revalues each stock based on the money invested and the time committed. Ideas that fail to attract enough interest are eventually removed. Ideas that gain momentum are given actual funding to help develop them into real projects. When a stock moves from an idea to a money making project, those who have invested their time get to share in the proceeds through bonuses or actual stock options. Anyone who lists an idea, even if it generates no investment, is given credit for doing so on their annual performance evaluation. In its relatively short lifespan, the system has already been a huge success. In its first year alone, the idea stock market accounted for 50 percent of the company’s new business growth.

What Rite-Solutions has created is a system for managing the flow of creative ideas without needing those ideas to make a death march through the hierarchy of no. The decision to green light a project doesn’t rest on any one manager or senior leader. Instead that power is distributed throughout the organization to people who are more likely to understand the ideas utility in its domain. If enough people, regardless of their level in the hierarchy, feel the idea has merit, than it is acted upon. This keeps the hierarchy in place, but democratizes the process of innovation. While the chain of command stays efficient, the creative process becomes efficient too.



On that note i would like to share with you from a newspaper article on TED. 



Try carrying this list into your next staff meeting or brainstorming session so you can put an end to the creativity killing.

Our place is different

1. We tried that before.
2. It costs too much.
3. That’s not my job.
4. They’re too busy to do that.
5. We don’t have the time.
6. Not enough help.
7. It’s too radical a change.
8. The staff will never buy it.
9. It’s against company policy.
10. The union will scream.
11. That will run up our overhead.
12. We don’t have the authority.
13. Let’s get back to reality
14. That’s not our problem.
15. I don’t like the idea.
16. I’m not saying you’re wrong but…
17. You’re two years ahead of your time.
18. Now’s not the right time.
19. It isn’t in the budget.
20. Can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
21. Good thought, but impractical.
22. Let’s give it more thought.
23. We’ll be the laughingstock of the industry.
24. Not that again.
25. Where’d you dig that one up?
26. We did alright without it before.
27. It’s never been tried.
28. Let’s put that one on the back burner for now.
29. Let’s form a committee.
30. It won’t work in our place.
31. The executive committee will never go for it.
32. I don’t see the connection.
33. Let’s all sleep on it.
34. It can’t be done.
35. It’s too much trouble to change.
36. It won’t pay for itself.
37. It’s impossible.
38. I know a person who tried it and got fired.
39. We’ve always done it this way.
40. We’d lose money in the long run.
41. Don’t rock the boat.
42. That’s what we can expect from the staff.
43. Has anyone else ever tried it?
44. Let’s look into it further.
45. We’ll have to answer to the stockholders.
46. Quit dreaming.
47. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
48. That’s too much ivory tower.
49. It’s too much work.

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Dare to make mistake

Lots of people dare not to make mistakes. They fear they would be ridiculed or blamed by others. They fear they would loose their money and belongings or be under a lot of stress. But risks are unavoidable and they do pave the way you must tread upon towards success. Have you ever heard of someone who achieves success without making any mistake before?

So it is only natural that making mistakes in your effort to reach your dreams is considered a must, and you shouldn’t worry about that as you may get a lot of advantages out of your mistakes. By making mistakes at least you then can distinguish between the correct and the incorrect portions of what you did. Anthony D’Angelo said : “In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what to do the next time.”, and Robert Louis Stevenson even went to the extreme as to say : “Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.”

You needn’t worry about anything as long as you keep on going by wisely learning from your mistakes and try even better. Problems occur when you stop trying after you did some mistakes. It would only justify the criticism coming from your family or friends such as : “There, so I told you before.” or “Come on, it is surely not for you.”.

So important is this courage to exercise making mistakes or failure that one successful businessman goes as far as saying that he is so worried about his successor-to-be (that is his own son) because so far his son has never made any disturbing mistake nor failure. As Abraham Lincoln said : “Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”

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Queer without fear

In his book The Element, Dr. Ken Robinson recounts a wonderful story about an eight-year-old girl, Gillian, who was having trouble in school: missing deadlines, testing poorly, and becoming easily distracted. This true story took place in the 1930s. School administers thought that Gillian had a problem and should be placed in a school for kids with learning disorders. Gillian’s parents took her to the school psychologist, who questioned Gillian’s mother for about twenty minutes, glancing at Gillian and making mental notes during the conversation. He then asked Gillian to remain in the office for a few minutes while he talked with her mother privately. Before he left the office, he turned on the radio. There was a window to the office, and he and Gillian’s mother watched the little girl from the hallway. “Gillian was on her feet, moving around the room to the music. The two adults stood watching quietly for a few minutes, transfixed by the girl’s grace. Anyone would have noticed there was something natural—even primal—about Gillian’s movements. At last, the psychologist turned to Gillian’s mother and said, ‘You know, Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn’t sick. She’s a dancer. Take her to a dance school.’”


The little girl did attend dance school, the very next week. The little girl, Gillian Lynne, never lost her passion for dance. She entered the Royal Ballet School in London, met Andrew Lloyd Webber, and went on to create some of the most successful musical-theater productions in history, including Cats and The Phantom of the Opera. “Gillian wasn’t a problem child. She didn’t need to go away to a special school. She just needed to be who she really was,” writes Robinson.

Robinson and other scientists who study the field of human potential agree that the most successful among us are those who pursued their passions, regardless of the paycheck. “They pursued them because they couldn’t imagine doing anything else with their lives,” says Robinson.

"Many people set aside their passions to pursue things they don’t care about for the sake of financial security. The fact is, though, that the job you took because it ‘pays the bills’ could easily move offshore in the coming decade. If you have never learned to think creatively and to explore your true capacity, what will you do then?”

Robinson believes in order to compete in the global knowledge economy, where creativity and innovation will be rewarded, we have to think differently about how we approach education and our own careers and business choices.

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Be creative

“If you let people break your spirit and detour you from your path, then you have not been true to yourself or those you're here to touch, those who believe in you.”

Innovation requires creativity and energy. Donald Trump once said that without passion, you have no energy, and without energy, you have nothing. Loving what you do is the fuel that you need to keep working, keep striving, keep reaching for the life you imagine. Passion is not something you talk about; it’s something you feel, and everyone can see it in you. When you’re passionate about your work, you light up a room—it’s in your eyes, your body language, your vocal inflection. It has the power to transform your world and, as a result, the worlds of the people you touch.

"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself the be"
—PATANJALI

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Failing 5,126 Times : James Dyson

Story below is a memory that I always cherished and been awhile that I wanted to share with the tribes.James Dyson vision inspired me and his message whispers whenever I'm getting exhausted to go on.

I leave you this evening with inspiring story of James Dyson.

Failing 5,126 Times

Inventors are, by definition, failures. They fail far more often than they succeed. British inventor James Dyson was passionate about engineering, design, and vacuum cleaners. Yes, vacuums (there’s a passion for everything). In 1978, he became frustrated with the performance of the vacuum cleaners on the market that lost suction as they picked up dirt. The problem was in the bag: it got clogged as it sucked up dirt and, as a result, would lose suction. Supported by his wife’s salary as an art teacher, Dyson spent five years toiling on his idea, and on his 5,127th attempt, a working version of a dual-cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner emerged.

“I wanted to give up almost every day,” Dyson said. “But one of the things I did when I was young was long distance running, from a mile up to ten miles. I was quite good at it, not because I was physically good, but because I had more determination. I learned that the moment you want to slow down is the moment you should accelerate.

In long distance running, you go through a pain barrier. The same thing happens in research and development projects, or in starting any business. There’s a terrible moment when failure is staring you in the face. And actually if you persevere a bit longer you’ll start to climb out of it.”3
Most people would have given up after the first few fits and starts, but Dyson plugged away. He reveled in failure, because that’s what engineers do—they tinker, they test, they try out new ideas. They get a kick out of it. If you don’t get a kick out of something, then do something else, because the odds of breakthrough success are against you. “I don’t mind failure.

I’ve always thought that schoolchildren should be marked by the number of failures they’ve had. The child who tries strange things and experiences lots of failures to get there is probably more creative,” Dyson said.

Dyson is so proud of his 5,126 failures that he memorialized his tribulations in a small brochure that comes with every vacuum cleaner his company sells—the Dyson Story. Although it took five years to build the product, that step was just the beginning.

Dyson would face multiple rejections from established global companies such as Hoover, whose shortsighted executives saw only the immediate profits they were making from the sales of bags for vacuum cleaners. Hoover executives passed on Dyson’s invention, even though they admitted that it worked nicely.

Dyson has said that anger and frustration are prime motivators—as is necessity. Since no company would buy his invention, Dyson sold it directly to consumers, and not in the United Kingdom but Japan.

The Japanese became enamored of the Dyson’s styling and functionality. The Dyson did eventually become a hit in the inventor’s home market and reached the rank of bestselling vacuum cleaner in the United Kingdom, outpacing the cleaners offered by manufacturers that had once rejected the idea. Hoover would later make a blunt admission: an executive said the company should have bought Dyson’s idea and crushed it so it would never see the light of day.

That way Hoover’s dominance would remain intact. For many leaders, innovation—new ideas that improve people’s lives—is not and will never be part of their company’s DNA.

A Forbes reporter once asked Dyson why a lot of companies say they want to hire innovators but end up hiring “company men,” people who had been doing the same function at other companies for years. According to Dyson:

The trouble is you have human resource departments and headhunters, and you have to fill out forms, and then they try to recruit people that match what’s said on the forms. I fight against it all the time, this idea that when you take someone on, you take someone on who’s had experience in your field. There’s a horrible expression, “hit the ground running.” I hate that idea. In some cases, they might be perfect for you, but in most cases, the person’s probably had the wrong sort of experience, and you’ve got to retrain them. So I much prefer to hire people straight from university, or people who have been working in another field but did some interesting work. It’s very difficult to get recruiters to think that way.

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ReTHINk

Moishe the Carpenter, returning home with his week’s wages, was accosted by an armed robber on a deserted street.

“Take my money” said Moishe, “but do me a favour.. Shoot a bullet through my hat otherwise my wife won’t believe I was robbed.

The robber obliged. He threw Moishe’s hat into the air and put a bullet through it.

“Let’s make it look as if I ran into a gang of robbers” said Moishe, “otherwise my wife will call me a coward! Please shoot a number of holes through my coat.”

So the robber shot a number of holes through the carpenter’s coat.

“And now…” continued Moishe. “Sorry..” interrupted the robber.

“No more holes. I’m out of bullets.”

“That’s all I wanted to know!” said Moishe.

“Now hand me back my money and some more for the hat and coat that you’ve ruined or I’ll beat you black and blue…”

The robber threw down the money and ran away.

Moral: It’s never too late to use our brains to get out of a difficult situation.

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Rethink...Never give up

"A couple of hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin shared with the world the secret of his success. Never leave that till tomorrow, he said, which you can do today. This is the man who discovered electricity. You think more people would listen to what he had to say. I don't know why we put things off, but if I had to guess, I'd have to say it has a lot to do with fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, sometimes the fear is just of making a decision, because what if you're wrong? What if you're making a mistake you can't undo? The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can't pretend we hadn't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore. Until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin really meant. That knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beat the hell out of never trying." -Meredith Grey

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Direct your passion wisely

Most people don't realize how much passion they put into what they don't want.

When you speak to a friend and you tell them all about an "awful" situation, you are putting passion into what you don't want.

When you react to an event negatively, with the response that it is "terrible", you are putting passion into what you don't want.

You are a beautiful passionate being, so make sure you direct your passion wisely.

From The Secret

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