Grind or Shine

Adversity is the grindstone of life. Intended to polish you up, adversity also has the ability to grind you down. The impact and ultimate result depend on what you do with the difficulties that come your way. Consider the phenomenal achievements of people experiencing adversity.

Beethoven composed his greatest works after becoming deaf. Sir Walter Raleigh wrote the History of the World during a thirteen year imprisonment. If Columbus had turned back, no one could have blamed him, considering the constant adversity he endured. Of course, no one would have remembered him either.

Abraham Lincoln achieved greatness by his display of wisdom and character during the devastation of the Civil War. Luther translated the Bible while enduring confinement in the Castle of Wartburg. Under a sentence of death and during twenty years in exile, Dante wrote the Divine Comedy. John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress in a Bedford jail.

Finally, consider a more recent example. Mary Groda-Lewis endured sixteen years of illiteracy because of unrecognized dyslexia, was committed to a reformatory on two different occasions, and almost died of a stroke while bearing a child. Committed to going to college, she worked at a variety of odd jobs to save money, graduated with her high school equivalency at eighteen, was named Oregon's outstanding Upward Bound student, and finally entered college. Determined to become a doctor, she faced fifteen medical school rejections until Albany Medical College finally accepted her. In 1984, Dr. Mary Groda-Lewis, at thirty-five, graduated with honors to fulfill her dream.

Adversity - the grindstone of life. Will it grind you down or polish you up?

Seeking Happiness

This story is about a beautiful, expensively dressed lady who complained to her psychiatrist that she felt that her whole life was empty, it had no meaning.

So, the lady went to visit a counselor to seek out happiness. The counselor called over the old lady who cleaned the office floors and then said to the rich lady "I am going to ask Mary here to tell you how she found happiness. All I want you to do is listen to her."

So the old lady put down her broom, sat on a chair and told her story: "Well, my husband died of malaria and three months later my only son was killed by a car. I had nobody - I had nothing left. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, I never smiled at anyone, I even thought of taking my own life.

Then one evening a little kitten followed me home from work. Somehow I felt sorry for that kitten. It was cold outside, so I decided to let the kitten in. I got it some milk, and the kitten licked the plate clean. Then it purred and rubbed against my leg and, for the first time in months, I smiled.

Then I stopped to think, if helping a little kitten could make me smile, maybe doing something for people could make me happy.

So the next day I baked some biscuits and took them to a neighbor who was sick in bed.

Every day I tried to do something nice for someone. It made me so happy to see them happy.

Today, I don't know of anybody who sleeps and eats better than I do. I've found happiness, by giving it to others."

When she heard that, the rich lady cried. She had everything that money could buy, but she had lost the things which money cannot buy.

The beauty of life does not depend on how happy you are; but on how happy others can be because of you.

Happiness is not a destination, it's a journey.

Happiness is not tomorrow, it is now.

Happiness is not a dependency, it is a decision.

Happiness is what you are, not what you have!

From Candles to Soap

In 1879, Procter and Gamble's best seller was candles. But the company was in trouble. Thomas Edison had invented the light bulb, and it looked as if candles would become obsolete. Their fears became reality when the market for candles plummeted since they were now sold only for special occasions.

The outlook appeared to be bleak for Procter and Gamble. However, at this time, it seemed that destiny played a dramatic part in pulling the struggling company from the clutches of bankruptcy.

A forgetful employee at a small factory in Cincinnati forgot to turn off his machine when he went to lunch. The result? A frothing mass of lather filled with air bubbles. He almost threw the stuff away but instead decided to make it into soap. The soap floated. Thus, Ivory soap was born and became the mainstay of the Procter and Gamble Company.

Why was soap that floats such a hot item at that time? In Cincinnati, during that period, some people bathed in the Ohio River. Floating soap would never sink and consequently never got lost. So, Ivory soap became a best seller in Ohio and eventually across the country also.

Like Procter and Gamble, never give up when things go wrong or when seemingly insurmountable problems arise. Creativity put to work can change a problem and turn it into a gold mine.

Now, experts Agree that more companies face an unstable business environment. Improvements in data processing and
telecommunications have produced major changes in most businesses. In addition to this, improvements in transport and the growth
of foreign economies (especially in Europe and Asia) have created a global marketplace and redefined certain industries. In
addition, as consumers are vulnerable to more options, loyalty is becoming less significant as it once was; a marginally better
price or a temporary lack of stock can easily result in the loss of customers. Competitors also can change rapidly, with new ones
emerging out of nowhere (frequently this means the other side of the globe). With the instability of the worldwide market, it is
important that you make tactical planning part of your overall company plan.

Proactive Versus Reactive Management. A few years back, you could set and maintain a business by reacting to and fulfilling
changes in preferences, costs and prices. This reactive style of management was frequently enough to keep the business moving.
However, today changes happen fast and come from a number of directions. By the time a reactive manager can make the necessary
adjustments, they might lose many clients -- maybe for good.

Proactive Preparation is the expectation of future events. Decisions are based on predictions of future conditions of the
environment as opposed to responses to several crises as they occur. Proactive planning in an unstable, technology-driven business
environment is critical to continuing success in almost any endeavor. Rather than reacting to the situation as it affects,
proactive planning requires you to examine environmental forces and earn resource-allocation decisions. Using this method you can
take your business where it needs to be in the next month, decade and year. Barry Worth, a consultant specializing in small
business management, puts it this way: Today's entrepreneur has to be a business architect. Anything constructed in today's
business environment has to have a step-by-step blueprint or plan about the best way best to achieve success. The blueprint for
the business owner is a company plan.

The Need For a Strategic Plan. Planning has a significant role in any business enterprise. It may make the difference between the
success or failure of your business. You should plan carefully before investing your time and, particularly, your cash in any
business venture. The need for a plan is best exemplified by the following scenario -"A Tale of 2 Businesses."

Two franchises (B and A ) were started by individuals who had worked in direction in much larger companies. While Franchise A
provided a product and Franchise B per service, the output of the franchise systems were marketed exclusively in the United States
before the current owners became involved. The output of the two was readily available in several other developed nations as well.
The franchises opened about the same time and neither franchisee had a strong market presence, nor do they at present. Now
Franchise B is bankrupt. By contrast, Franchise A is selling products in the Midwestern United States and in Europe.

What was the Deciding difference from the two franchises' success? You probably expect it to be that one had developed a tactical
plan and the other hadn't; howeverit is not this simple. Several factors can influence the result of a business venture. There
were many similarities between the franchises, but there were also many differences.

Most notably, Franchise A sold a product and Franchise B a service (although this doesn't clearly limit options). The other
difference was that Franchise A had a closely thought-out plan. The investors understood as they looked to get a franchise partner
they wanted to find a product which could satisfy global markets and a franchiser who would support that type of sales campaign.
These investors were based in the Midwest, but negotiated for exclusive rights to export the franchiser's merchandise. Once they
had obtained the franchise, as soon as they started to launch their business domesticallythey also started to contact authorities
specialists from the U.S. Department of Commerce and teachers and local managers with global experience.

Clear plans Were developed outlining how they'd place, promote and distribute the solution and which foreign markets will be
targeted first. Even as they were building sales in a single European market, they had been attending trade shows and planning
entry strategies in others.

By contrast, The second investor (Franchise B) started his business strictly because he wanted to leave a former employer. Of
course many small businesses begin this way; however, in this case no investigation of franchising options was done. The business
was located in an area that, as it turned out, contained virtually no consumers for the kind of support being supplied. When this
mistake was accomplished, it had been too late to move--the investor simply didn't have the cash or the desire to risk starting
back again.

Other examples Further demonstrate the demand for strategic planning and for creating a clear business plan. The owner of a
business that seemed to be performing quite well in just two places was about to start in a third. The writers have been called in
to develop a benefits plan and discovered cash flow conditions that may be found just after operations had started in the new
site. After assessing the circumstance, a growth and financial program was developed for the audio locations only. In another
situation, the authors determined that a company had purchased more equipment than was needed to do the current workload.

After careful Evaluation, plans to make additional purchases were placed on hold, along with the equipment available was utilized
effectively to meet immediate demands.

A Enterprise Enterprise is to complex to presume that failure to develop a sound organization Plan will be the reason behind
problems Nevertheless, this failure often counts Among the factors contributing to business difficulties. As Worth has stated,
"Being a business entrepreneur now takes constant vigilance in order to Be able to benefit from new opportunities and the access
to fresh Information and technology as they become." The first step in Doing this would be to have a program.

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