What we Forget in our Pursuit of Happiness

A boat is docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village.

A tourist complimented the local fishermen on the quality of their fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

"Not very long." they answered in unison.

"Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?"

The fishermen explained that their small catches were sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families.

"But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children, and take siestas with our wives. In the evenings, we go into the village to see our friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs.

We have a full life."
The tourist interrupted,

"I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you!
You should start by fishing longer every day.
You can then sell the extra fish you catch.
With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

The Cockroach Theory: Reaction vs Response

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach.

Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.

The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but …it landed on another lady in the group.

Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama.

The waiter rushed forward to their rescue.
In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.

The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt.
When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior?
If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?
He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos.

A Poor Millionaire

A Father took his son to a village to show what poverty is all about :

After the trip, he asked his son about poverty...

The son replied :

We live as a nucleated family, they live in big extended families...

We have only 1 dog, they have a farm full of animals...

We have a small pool, they have a long river...

We've lamps, they have stars...

We've a small piece of land, they have large fields...

We buy food, they grow theirs & eat fresh...

They have many friends to play, we have less friends & no time to meet them, so we have to play with Computers & PS2...

Their fathers have time for their children & our fathers don't...

They have happiness, we have money...

Understanding Value

Once upon a time in a small town in India a well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a 500 Rupee note.

To the 200 people listening to him he asked "Who would like to have this 500 Rupee note?" 

Hands started to rise. Everyone wanted it. 

He said, "I am going to give this note to one of you but first let me do this." 

He then crumbled the note up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?"

Still all the hands were up in the air.

"Well", he replied. "What if I do this?" and he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it to the floor with his shoe. He picked up the note now all crumbled and filthy, and asked again "Who still wants this?

Playing Fire with Fire

I have heard these phrases "fighting fire with fire", "an eye for an eye", "a tooth for a tooth" etc. so many times that it sickens me.

The origin of the idiom fighting fire with fire is from the firefighters technique of actually fighting fire with fire. This method is usually used to control violent forest fires. The strategy is to make a roadblock to the oncoming fire by setting a fire intentionally on it's path. By burning the nearby timber the original fire runs out of fuel to feed itself when it reaches the burned out area. This tactic is efficient in this particular case but it has to be noted that in normal situations a firefighters main weapon is water.