source unknown

Fall seven times, stand up eight.

- thus spake someone

Fireflies - Tagore

  FIREFLIES 
          Rabindranath Tagore 

I touch God in my song
  as the hill touches the far-away sea
     with its waterfall.


The butterfly counts not months but moments,
   and has time enough.


Let my love, like sunlight, surround you
   and yet give you illumined freedom.


Love remains a secret even when spoken,
   for only a lover truly knows that he is loved.


Emancipation from the bondage of the soil
   is no freedom for the tree.


In love i pay my endless debt to thee
     for what thou art.

Vincism

Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind

from The Stateman's editorial

With the advent of globalisation, the problem of corruption has acquired transnational dimensions and is posing serious challenges for developing countries suffering from weak institutions and lack of resources. Some writers have argued that corruption and bribery are necessary lubricants for a cumbersome system of administration.It enables entrepreneurs to bypass irksome and stultifying regulations and helps the process of development. Samuel P Huntington has bluntly stated that, in terms of economic growth, the only thing worse than a rigid, over-centralised, dishonest bureaucracy is a rigid, over-centralised, honest bureaucracy. It has also been argued that corruption can have a desirable distributive impact as it shifts income and wealth from richer individuals and companies to poorer ones. These arguments, however, do not stand the glare of serious scrutiny. Speed money often in practice slows down the wheels of administration.Corruption, even when it is petty and routine, cannot be a means of stimulating economic growth and improving living standards. It causes illegal transfer of state revenue to richer individuals who are in a position to pay bribes to the detriment of those who are not. Available empirical evidence shows positive relationship between the extent of bribery and the amount of time that enterprise managers spend with the officials. The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Survey for 1997 surveyed 59 countries and obtained responses from 3000 firms showing that enterprises reporting greater incidence of bribery and tend to spend a greater share of management time with bureaucrats and public officials regarding licences, permits and taxes. Corruption jeopardises development in several ways. First, it distorts public spending. Distortion arises by deflecting allotted resources from their original purpose. Public resources are deflected in corrupt regimes because allocation goes where corrupt officials and politicians gain most. Contracts are awarded in a nepotic fashion rather than on the basis of merit. Poor people become the primary victims of corruption as they are denied services because the resources are directed elsewhere. Second, corruption undermines efficiency. Public sector efficiency suffers because corruption imposes informal practices over proper views and procedures of the government. It also adds direct and indirect costs to the execution of the programmes.A 1996 survey showed that within Ukraine firm owners who pay large sums of bribes had to spend one-third more time with officials than firm owners who pay less bribes. Third, corruption also saps economic growth. In a path-breaking paper, economist Paulo Maro showed that highly corrupt nations have a smaller share of their gross domestic products going into investment.Corruption raises the cost of business and deters would-be investors. The World Bank Report of 1997 points out that bribes are not only a disincentive to further investments because of the immediate costs but also because they entangle the business in a “web of time consuming and economically unproductive relations”. Fifth, corrupt regimes are intrinsically arbitrary and they introduce risks of uncertainty that many investors are simply not willing to take. This also automatically raises the transaction cost of investment. As a result, key economic objectives like job creation, development of small and medium enterprises suffer.TechnologyIn worst case scenarios the very choice of a project is determined by corruption. Some examples of this kind of corruption are purchase of technology, which is totally unsuited to the needs of a country or the choice of a capital-intensive project because it is more lucrative in terms of corruption than a labour-intensive one that would have been more beneficial to the development of a country. Thus real development priorities of a country are thrown to the winds in pursuit of corruption as it helps decision-makers to amass large fortunes.It may be mentioned in this connection that Africa is littered with deserted motorways, which are now being eroded by savannahs or empty factories that had fallen into ruin only a few years after they were opened. These “follies of development” can be found in many other developing countries and not just in Africa alone

Thomas L. Friedman 's commencement address

Quotes from Thomas L. Friedman “Listen to Your Heart.”
Commencement address at Williams CollegeWilliamstown, Massachusetts USAJune 5, 2005
Tom Friedman is an award-winning author and foreign affairs columnist of The New York Times.
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Lesson #1 is very simple. As the writer Dan Pink noted in New York Times just yesterday, it is a piece of advice that graduation speakers all over the land will be giving to graduates today, and it goes like this: Do what you love. But the reason that advice is no longer, what Pink called "warm and gooey career advice’" but actually a very "hard-headed’" survival strategy, is because, as I like to put it, the world is getting flat. Yes, mom and dad, you have paid tens of thousands of dollars to have your child get a Williams education only to have their graduation speaker declare on their last day on campus that the world is flat.


So whatever you plan to do, whether you plan to travel the world next year, go to graduate school, join the workforce, or take some time off to think, don't just listen to your head. Listen to your heart. It's the best career counselor there is. Do what you really love to do and if you don't know quite what that is yet, well, keep searching, because if you find it, you'll bring that something extra to your work that will help ensure you will not be automated or outsourced.

Lesson #2. The second lesson I learned from journalim is that being a good listener is one of the great keys to life. My friend and colleague, Bob Schieffer of CBS News used to say to me, "The biggest stories I missed as a journalist happened because I was talking when I should have been listening." The ability to be a good listener is one of the most under-appreciated talents a person or a country can have. People often ask me how I, an American Jew, have been able operate in the Arab/Muslim world for 20 years, and my answer to them is always the same. The secret is to be a good listener. It has never failed me. You can get away with really disagreeing with people as long as you show them the respect of really listening to what they have to say and taking it into account when and if it makes sense. Indeed, the most important part of listening is that it is a sign of respect. It's not just what you hear by listening that is important. It is what you say by listening that is important. It's amazing how you can diffuse a whole roomful of angry people by just starting your answer to a question with the phrase, "You're making a legitimate point" or "I hear what you say" and really meaning it. Never underestimate how much people just want to feel that they have been heard, and once you have given them that chance they will hear you.


Lesson #3 is that the most enduring skill you can bring to the workplace is also one of the most important skills you always had to bring to reporting -- and that is the ability to learn how to learn.

Lesson #5 is this: Always remember, there is a difference between skepticism and cynicism.

You can't bet your whole life on some destination. You've got to make the journey work too. And that is why I leave you with some wit and wisdom attributed to Mark Twain: Always work like you don't need the money. Always fall in love like you've never been hurt. Always dance like nobody is watching. And always -- always -- live like it's heaven on earth.Thank you.

SALUTATION TO THE DAWN

BY MAHA KAVI KALIDAS



Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence:
The bliss of growth
The glory of action
The splendor of achievement,
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today well lived makes yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day!
Such is the salutation to the dawn.

Prayers

One of my all time favorite prayer-- By Tagore

This is my prayer to thee, my lord - strike, strike at the root of penury in my heart.
Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows.
Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service.
Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might.
Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles.
And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love.


Prayer for forgiveness- to Shiva

Kara charana krutam vaak kaayajam karmajam vaa
shravan naya najam vaa maanasam vaaparaadham
vihita maavihitam vaa sarvametat shamasva
jai jai karunabdhe shri maha deva shambho

The meaning :Whatever I have done with my hands or feet, or speech, my body or my actions, Whatever I have heard or seen, or thought, all my mistakes, Whether knowingly or unknowingly, please forgive them all, Great all forgiving God, Mahadeva Shambho


Another prayer by Tagore

Give me the supreme courage of love, this is my prayer—the courage to speak, to do, to suffer at Your will, to leave all things or be left alone. Strengthen me on errands of danger; honor me with pain; and help me climb to that difficult mood which sacrifices daily to You.

Give me the supreme confidence of love—this is my prayer—the confidence that belongs to life in death, to victory in defeat, to the power hidden in the frailest beauty, to that dignity in pain which accepts hurt but disdains to return it.

Fiorina's mit address

Commencement Remarks by Carleton "Carly" Fiorina
June 2, 2000
INTRODUCTION: Please welcome to the platform, Ms. Carleton Fiorina, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Hewlett-Packard Company. Ms. Fiorina will now give the address.
FIORINA:" ....The longer I looked at the messages, however, certain patterns began to emerge and slowly it became clear to me what I think you really wanted to hear. You wanted this address to be based on my life experience, not esoteric theory. You wanted to know the best way to make the decisions you'll need to live life, to build a career, and, with that one exception, of that nameless aforementioned gentleman, you actually did want to know how a leader can lead in this new landscape that's emerging from the mist. And, oh, I must also add, that on one point there was complete unanimity: please don't run over your time. On that last point I do promise to be brief.
And so, this morning, I'd like to talk about journeys, how you get from one place to another, and how sometimes the journey brings you back home. In some ways, today, for me, is about coming home. I was sitting in one of those chairs on the shady side only eleven years ago. [CHEERING] Thank you. In 1989, as a graduating Sloan Fellow, I can honestly say I didn't expect to be CEO of a company like Hewlett-Packard; truthfully, I don't think I expected to be a CEO at all. I can honestly say that I never would have predicted the huge impact that technology would today be playing in all our lives. And certainly, if you had looked at me in my cap and gown, seated in those chairs, eleven years ago, logic would not have indicated that I would be your commencement speaker today.

Journeys in life are far more random, far less orderly, than they seem at first glance. The reason I say first glance is that paths appear random, are random, especially when you are looking at them one step at a time. It's only when you stand back and see the whole journey in perspective, the paths chosen, the paths rejected, a pattern emerges, a pattern that over time defines the journey of life. And today for you is a wonderful day to put your journey in perspective.
The significance of commencement exercises dates back over centuries, because graduations have always been markers, life markers, along the way. Your time here at MIT and the journey that lies before you will be defined not only by the power of your logic and your intellect, but equally by the power of your aspiration and determination.

When I sat where you are eleven years ago, or when I sat in a different chair three thousand miles away at Stanford twenty-four years ago, the proud holder of an undergraduate degree in Medieval History, yes, that's true, or when I worked as a secretary in the shipping department of a company called Hewlett-Packard, typing bills of lading, logic and intellect would never have predicted that I would one day return to run that same Palo Alto company.

And this is, of course, exactly my point. At any one moment in time you often can't see where your path is heading and logic and intellect alone won't lead you to make the right choices, won't in fact take you down the right path. You have to master not only the art of listening to your head, you must also master listening to you heart and listening to your gut. One has to look beyond the immediate choices at hand and dare to dream big, dare to strive for the art of the possible, dare to truly aspire. It is far too easy to get paralyzed by the seeming weight of it all. It is too easy to freeze up at moments exactly like today. I can sympathize.

In some ways, the world you are going into, while far more prosperous, is actually far more complex, far more complicated, than the one I faced at Stanford in 1976, or even the one I faced here in 1989. But have no fear, although fear is part of the journey as well, because in fact you have all the tools you need up here in your head, here in your heart, and in your gut. All you really have to do is engage your heart, your gut, and your mind in every decision you make, engage your whole self and the journey will reveal itself with the passage of time. And so let me put that into personal context for you.

I can see now that I started my professional journey on the day at age 4 when I declared to my parents and to the world, Mom, Dad, I want to be a fireman. Now this was not some precious instinct towards civic duty. No, it really wasn't terribly profound. In fact, it was simply that I loved the color red and I thought the black and white dogs with spots were really cool. But when I look back now I see a kid who was not afraid to commit to a different path through life, and I see parents who encouraged their child's ambition whatever it was.

I see now also that I began my path to become a CEO on the day I decided to quit law school. After I realized that being a fireman was actually about more than the color red and the dogs, and I knew I couldn't paint like my artist mother, I automatically assumed that I would follow in my father's footsteps. You see, my father was a law professor and a judge, and his guidance and example have always meant the world to me. And so, after studying medieval things at Stanford, I went on to law school. I followed the logical path that I, and others, had always presumed for me. I wanted my father to be proud of me. I wanted to follow in his footsteps.
But it quickly became apparent to me in law school that I didn't like studying the law. For me, the emphasis on precedent felt confining. My father loved the law; he still loves the law, but while I was intellectually challenged, the rest of me was left cold. And so this presented for me a gut-wrenching dilemma. Do I risk letting my father down? Do I stick it out in law school? Or do I go do something else? Do I let go of this notion of the logical path for Carly?
And while that decision tortured me at the time, I literally didn't sleep for three months, I made the decision and I didn't blink and I left law school. What seemed at the moment, especially to my father, a random, ill-advised move, was actually an important life lesson and a marker in my own journey.

And I genuinely believe that life teaches lessons in strange ways. The lesson I learned at that life marker was love what you do, or don't do it. Don't make a choice of any kind, whether in career or in life, just because it pleases others or because it ranks high on someone else's scale of achievement or even because it seems to be, perhaps even for you at the time, simply the logical thing to do at that moment on your path. Make the choice to do something because it engages your heart as well as your mind. Make the choice because it engages all of you. Remember as graduate of a world class university, as a graduate of this place, with your double-E or your degree in Physics or Computer Science or Architecture, the freedom to choose is now yours.
And to make the most of that freedom, use your mind and your heart and your gut. Freedom to choose can sometimes feel like a terrible burden, but the burden is greatly lightened when we learn how to use our whole selves, when we realize that we have everything we need for this journey of life.

Now, here at MIT this morning, we are celebrating the graduation of your minds. Your minds have done exceptionally well in this training phase. You have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can absorb knowledge, and invent, and create. And the stuff that you have stored in your mind will be immensely valuable without question.

But your mind alone won't do it. When you leave here you start on the second important journey, figuring out how to listen to your heart. Now, of course, for some of you, engaging all of yourself is natural; it's easy for you. You've known how to do it perhaps since birth. But for the rest of us, getting there is a process. It can take years, decades. Some of us never get to know our whole selves, but we need to keep trying.

My own process of finding the soul to guide me brings me back once again to my parents. My mother was a stay-at-home wife and an artist, but my mother, more than anyone else, taught me about the power of aspiration and courage. She also taught me the world of dreams expressed in art, the world of things freed from the laws of everyday. And she did it with a strength and a passion that I wish could be bottled. Even when it wasn't easy or convenient, both my mother and father were ultimately true to themselves. And I absorbed that lesson from them. Their definition of greatness was about greatness of character.

And, of course, now it's time to turn to the parents in the audience, all of you who have instilled greatness of character into the graduates seated before us. And so I'd like to take a moment for the graduates to look out into this audience and find the people who have helped get you to this place, your parents, your grandparents, your partners, your guardians, your friends, whoever has been a catalyst, whoever has had defining influence and lasting impact on your life, whether they truly know it, whether you really see it, whether you really fully feel its weight yet. Take a moment now and honor all of them. [APPLAUSE]

And parents, guardians, partners and friends, those who have sacrificed so much for today's graduates, I have perhaps unfortunately some advice for you today as well. If you have done your job right, your soon to be newly minted MIT grad is going to follow their own path. If you have done your job well, they may in fact surprise you, confound you, even defy you. They may not become the doctor, or the teacher, or the electrical engineer, or the next billion dollar dot.com founder or Nobel Laureate. Then, again, they might. And that's OK. It is probably difficult to fathom, especially because you have worked so hard, sacrificed so much, to get your graduates to this incredible place. But your ultimate job is to let them go. Today is an important day for you, an acknowledgement of one chapter closed and the handing over of the pen, so they can write their own next chapter.

In this chapter, the one that is now coming to a close, when you first embarked upon it I think many of you were drawn to this place because of one of the words in its name: technology. Now some of you asked me to address the changing role of technology in business and in life. As you draw this first chapter in your life to a close, we are also drawing the first chapter in the Information Age to a close. And I believe we are now entering the Renaissance phase of the Information Age, where creativity and ideas are the new currency, and invention is a primary virtue, where technology truly has the power to transform lives, not just businesses, where technology can help us solve fundamental problems.
In this new world we must always remember that technology is only as valuable as the use to which it is put. In the end, technology is ultimately about people. And in this technology Renaissance, we will witness and experience the fundamental transference of power to the people, to the masses. To the individuals who bring their own spark, their own energy to the process, technology becomes not about bits and bytes, but about the celebration of people's minds and people's hearts.

And so, what will it mean to be a leader in this world that you are entering? How must leadership be re-invented to be commensurate with the opportunity, the world we have just described?

Leadership in this new landscape is not about controlling decision-making. We don't have time anymore to control decision-making. It's about creating the right environment. It's about enablement, empowerment. It is about setting guidelines and boundaries and parameters and then setting people free.

Leadership is not about hierarchy or title or status; it is about having influence and mastering change. Leadership is not about bragging rights or battles or even the accumulation of wealth; it's about connecting and engaging at multiple levels. It's about challenging minds and capturing hearts. Leadership in this new era is about empowering others to decide for themselves. Leadership is about empowering others to reach their full potential. Leaders can no longer view strategy and execution as abstract concepts, but must realize that both elements are ultimately about people.

Now, of course, traditional aspects of being a Chief Executive will continue to be important, like understanding the business or the institution, understanding the numbers or the assets, pushing the right levers to bring about the right results. But the most magical and tangible and ultimately most important ingredient in the transformed landscape is people. The greatest strategy in the world, the greatest financial plan in the world, the greatest turnaround in the world, is only going to be temporary if it isn't grounded in people.

There are small and large acts of leadership. And small acts of leadership can change the world as surely as large acts. Ultimately they can have as much effect on people's lives as big ones. A mother who teaches a child inventive ways of thinking, or a mother that encourages her daughter's desire to become a fireman, that's a small act of leadership. A dad who lets his daughter quit the law, that's a small act of leadership.

Expressed another way, your generation of leaders will know that every one on this earth is born with the potential to lead. And that is a deep and fundamental shift, a shift worth celebrating. Every man and every woman on this earth is born to lead. A leader's greatest obligation is to make possible an environment where people's minds and hearts can be inventive, brave, human and strong, where people can aspire to do useful and significant things, where people can aspire to change the world.

At Hewlett-Packard we call this way of thinking, this set of behaviors, the rules of the garage. You see the garage is a special place to us; it is where we began. But these rules are about the way we compete and the way we work.

And our rules are, believe you can change the world, work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever, know when to work alone and when to work together; share tools, ideas, trust your colleagues. No politics, no bureaucracy: these are ridiculous in a garage. The customer defines a job well done. Radical ideas are not bad ideas. Invent different ways of working. Make a contribution every day. If it doesn't contribute, it doesn't leave the garage. Believe that together we can do anything. Invent.

These rules, while they really are core to the culture and behaviors that drive HP, I believe that if you carry these rules with you on your journey, if you create an environment where people's hearts and minds are fully engaged, where strategy is ennobling, where great aspirations are powered by the desires of people to do something worthwhile, then you will have touched others you encounter on your journey.

And now I am almost finished and you are just beginning a great journey. You are commencing your life's work. Many of you are commencing your lives as adults. I'm a bit further along than you. Perhaps that's why you ask me what, if anything, I would have done differently. Would I skip medieval history and philosophy? Would I have stayed in law school? Would I have become a fireman? Would I have preferred not to have been a secretary? And the answer to all of these questions is, no. I still believe that everything I did had a purpose, even if the purpose was to tell me I was going the wrong way. I believe every lesson life has taught has prepared me for what I do today.

Now, if I could send you an email, every year for the rest of your days -- don't worry, I won't -- I'd say this: see your life as a journey, pause at moments like this to see life's markers and the patterns that emerge, know yourself, be true to yourself, engage your whole self in everything you do. Remember that leadership is not in fact about you, but about the people who you are trying to inspire by unleashing their talents, their hopes, their aspirations. Remember that leadership comes in small acts as well as bold strokes. And last, if technology is your passion, then make sure people are at the heart of your endeavors.

And finally, remember that throughout this journey, the only limits that really matter are the ones you put on yourself, and that those crucial moments in your life, when you know what you need to do, but others advise against what they perceive to be a detour from your path, know yourself, trust your whole self, and don't blink. If you do these things, when you look back, or maybe when you look down from this podium, you will know that this journey was a wonderful gift and that you have made as much of this wonderful gift as you could have. Thank you very much