When Shit Happens Turn It Into Gold

Shit Happens!
I’ve never thought much about the expression, ‘Shit Happens’ until last week when I visited an Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka.

The saying, ‘Shit Happens’ has seemed unrefined and coarse when I’ve seen it on a bumper sticker or T-shirt. We want to dress up the unattractive and sweeten the unpalatable—to call a stench an ‘obnoxious effluvium’ or label the brown stuff ‘sewerage’ or ‘excrement’.

‘Shit Happens’ could be the motto at the Sri Lankan elephant sanctuary at Pinnewala. There were about 65 elephants at this farm and we had to watch very carefully where we walked.

At feeding time the pachyderms consumed truck loads of leaves and as the activity started at their rear ends one person quoted a statistic from his travel guide saying that elephants eject raw material from their ‘back door’ on the average sixteen times a day!

Yes, ‘Shit Happens!’ Rotten things are thrown at us in life with remarkable regularity. Foul things confront us in surprising ways. Unwelcome happenings are inevitable and there’s nothing to be gained by calling them anything but ‘shit’.

After feeding time the keepers marshaled their animals for the march of the elephants, across the main Colombo-Kandy highway and down a street where the shops on either side keep a shovel handy to clean up the crap after the elephants plop their way to the river.

Poop or Paper
As we watched the elephants drink and bathe we noticed a shop window with the sign, ‘Poo Paper’. This business sold writing paper, photograph albums and diaries created out of elephant refuse. Some enterprising people had seen value in what others had shoveled away.

A nearby paper workshop had a diagram on the wall that charted the progress from the consumption of fiber, to the pulping in the stomach, right to the delivery of fresh dollops of dung which are ready made for the manufacture of paper.

The treasured turds are dried in the sun and boiled to make reams of high-quality stationery with an artistically-textured finish.

If you want to select a different texture or colour you simply change the elephant’s diet, adding ingredients such as tea, paddy husks or onion peel.

Supplying Paper and Truth
Poo Paper isn’t a novelty stationery item and it isn’t unique to Sri Lanka. It is providing an important source of income as the dung transformers supply paper to customers such as the Colombo Hilton, Sri Lankan Airlines and the Bank of Ceylon. Even more than providing money, the paper is communicating important messages about animal conservation and how life’s unwanted circumstances might be transformed.

Mind Shift
It takes an innovative mind to look at dung and see gold. It requires a creative attitude to move from exasperation when you’re sweeping elephant shit to the excitement of viewing this animal as a mobile paper factory.

When bad things are dropped on us, the genius is to reflect long and hard on these very incidents we want to shovel away in order that we might see how they can be transformed into material that we treasure.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: “The treasured turds are dried in the sun and boiled to make reams of high-quality stationery with an artistically-textured finish.”

Imagine Yourself Making a Greater Difference in the World

This video urges us to think about making our lives count, improving the lot of others and shaping our world for good.

Link
Nitin Nohria & Amanda Pepper, Harvard Business School’s Leadership Initiative and XPLANE, YouTube, 24 June 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Contact me on email at geoffpound[@]gmail.com or on Facebook or Twitter.

Taking Them On at Their Own Game

An elderly woman wrote this letter to her bank. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in The Times of London.

Dear Sir,

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my cheque with which I endeavoured to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three 'nanoseconds' must have elapsed between his presenting the cheque and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honour it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my Pension, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years. You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account £30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways. I noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become.

From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person. My mortgage and loan payments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank by cheque, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate. Be aware that it is an offence under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope.

Please find attached an Application Contact Status which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative. Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Solicitor, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof.

In due course, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modelled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Let me level the playing field even further. Whenever you need to call me, press buttons as follows:

1-To make an appointment to see me.

2-To query a missing payment.

3-To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.

4-To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.

5-To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.

6-To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.

7-To leave a message on my computer (a password to access my computer is required. A password will be communicated to you at a later date to the Authorized Contact.)

8-To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 8.

9-To make a general complaint or inquiry, the contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service. While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call.

Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.

May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous, New Year.
Sincerely,

Your Humble Client

Link
In finding a link to The Times I have been unsuccessful but an American version that claims to have been posted in the New York Times is found at this link. The banks are the same the world over!

Who knows? This story might turn out to have the validity and the popularity of this story: Australia’s Best School Answering Machine Message, Stories for Speakers and Writers.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

If You Want to Bring Change Don’t Put the Knife in or Touch any Sore Points

A Catholic Priest, Protestant Pastor and Jewish Rabbi were all chaplains at the same university in the USA.

They would meet 2-3 times a week over coffee to tell each other how they were getting on converting the heathen students.

One day one of them said, “It is all very fine converting these pagans, but that is easy. I bet you couldn't convert a grizzly bear.”

So they made an agreement that in the next 2 weeks they would each find a grizzly and try to convert it.

They met two weeks later - at the hospital.

“Well,” said the Catholic priest who was the only one still standing - but with two broken arms and covered in deep lacerations, “I found my grizzly and I began to bless him in the name of the blessed virgin. But it attacked me and I was only just lucky enough to get out my bottle of holy water which I sprinkled on his forehead and he became as meek and mild as a lamb. He is going through catechism classes now and the bishop is coming to confirm him in a couple of weeks.”

“Well,” said the Protestant Pastor who was also covered in lacerations but was sitting in a wheel chair with two broken legs, “I found my bear and I began to preach the gospel to him in the name of Jesus but he attacked me. So I grabbed him and we rolled down the hill wrestling together until we fell into the river. Then I managed to grab his head and baptize him in the name of Jesus and he became as meek and mild as a lamb. He is now doing discipleship classes and is thinking about going into the ministry.”

Then they looked at the Jewish Rabbi. He was lying almost dead on a stretcher.

“How did you get on?” they said.

“Well,” he said, “I found my bear alright. But I think that maybe circumcision wasn't the best place to start.”

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: “I found my grizzly and I began to bless him in the name of the blessed virgin.”

Mother Teresa Explains What She Did

I don't do big things.

I do small things with big love.

Mother Teresa

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Mother Teresa.

If You’ve Never Failed You’ve Never Lived

Awe Full Images from Space Thanks to NASA

Check out the newly released photos from the refurbished Hubble Telescope.

Which is your favorite space shot?

So important to get our daily fill of awe.

Image
The one pictured seems to be the people’s choice at the moment.

It is entitled, ‘Butterfly.’

NASA offers this description:

“What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The gas is tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour -- fast enough to travel from Earth to the moon in 24 minutes!”

Link
Amazing New Images from Hubble Telescope, Huffington Post, 9 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Hear Michael Jordan Cite the Hardships that Made Him Reach Higher

Induction
At Springfield Mass. on Friday (11 September 2009) Michael Jordan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

The ceremony took place at Springfield's Symphony Hall, because Jordan was too big a draw card for the Hall of Fame.

The move to the other building allowed for a crowd of about 2,600, more than double what the Hall can accommodate.

Logs on the Fire
Interestingly Jordan had special thanks for the knock backs and the people responsible for creating obstacles. Some saw this as unresolved hurts or unfinished business but it is instructive to see how these difficulties provided the catalyst to spur the champ on to greater heights.

Jordan in his acceptance speech was emotional but then he entertained the crowd with memories of these challenges that inspired him to get to basketball's birthplace:

The coach who cut him from the varsity as a North Carolina schoolboy by saying:
“I wanted to make sure you understood: You made a mistake, dude.”

There was Isaiah Thomas, who allegedly orchestrated a ‘freeze out’ of Jordan in his first All-Star game.

Jordan said, “I wanted to prove to you, Magic (Johnson), Larry (Bird), George (Gervin), everybody that I deserved (to be there) just as much as anybody else, and I hope over the period of my career I've done that without a doubt.”

He spoke of Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy – Jordan called him Pat Riley's ‘little guy’ – who accused Jordan of ‘conning’ players by acting friendly toward them, then attacking them in games.

“I just so happen to be a friendly guy. I get along with everybody, but at the same time, when the light comes on, I'm as competitive as anybody you know.”

Then there was the media who said Jordan, though a great player, would never win like Bird or Johnson.

Jordan said: “I had to listen to all that, and that put so much wood on that fire that it kept me each and every day trying to get better as a basketball player.”

Lastly, Utah's Bryon Russell. Jordan recalled meeting Russell while he was retired and playing minor league baseball in 1994 – and with Sloan looking on in horror – told of how Russell insisted he could have covered him if Jordan was still playing. Russell later got two cracks at Jordan in the NBA finals, and he was the defender when Jordan hit the clinching shot to win the 1998 title.

Jordan said, “From this day forward, if I ever see him in shorts, I'm coming at him.”

Still Not Done
Jordan might still not be done for he shared this concluding word:
“One day you might look up and see me playing a game at 50. Don't laugh. Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”

See and Listen to Michael Jordan
Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Links
Brian Mahoney, Michael Jordan Inducted Into Basketball Hall of Fame, Huffington Post, 11 September 2009.

President Obama Inspires Children by Telling about Michael Jordan’s Failures, Stories for Speakers and Writers, 8 September 2009.

On Related Sites
Fujairah for Blue Skies, Beaches and Diving, Fujairah in Focus, 11 September 2009.

The Swiss Advantage in the America’s Cup, America’s Cup in the UAE, 12 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy’s Inspiring Last Letter to President Obama, Stories for Speakers and Writers, 11 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Michael Jordan speaking at his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Ted Kennedy’s Inspiring Last Letter to President Obama

Whatever side of the political fence you sit on, the following statement illustrates the value of letter writing, the importance of taking time to express your appreciation, the significance of those that inspire us and the way that working towards a great dream can capture the imagination of others long after we are gone.

This is the text of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's letter to President Obama, as referenced by the president during this week’s speech:

Dear Mr. President,

I wanted to write a few final words to you to express my gratitude for your repeated personal kindnesses to me - and one last time, to salute your leadership in giving our country back its future and its truth.

On a personal level, you and Michelle reached out to Vicki, to our family and me in so many different ways. You helped to make these difficult months a happy time in my life.

You also made it a time of hope for me and for our country.

When I thought of all the years, all the battles, and all the memories of my long public life, I felt confident in these closing days that while I will not be there when it happens, you will be the President who at long last signs into law the health care reform that is the great unfinished business of our society. For me, this cause stretched across decades; it has been disappointed, but never finally defeated. It was the cause of my life. And in the past year, the prospect of victory sustained me-and the work of achieving it summoned my energy and determination.

There will be struggles - there always have been - and they are already underway again. But as we moved forward in these months, I learned that you will not yield to calls to retreat - that you will stay with the cause until it is won. I saw your conviction that the time is now and witnessed your unwavering commitment and understanding that health care is a decisive issue for our future prosperity. But you have also reminded all of us that it concerns more than material things; that what we face is above all a moral issue; that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.

And so because of your vision and resolve, I came to believe that soon, very soon, affordable health coverage will be available to all, in an America where the state of a family's health will never again depend on the amount of a family's wealth. And while I will not see the victory, I was able to look forward and know that we will - yes, we will - fulfill the promise of health care in America as a right and not a privilege.

In closing, let me say again how proud I was to be part of your campaign- and proud as well to play a part in the early months of a new era of high purpose and achievement. I entered public life with a young President who inspired a generation and the world. It gives me great hope that as I leave, another young President inspires another generation and once more on America's behalf inspires the entire world.

So, I wrote this to thank you one last time as a friend- and to stand with you one last time for change and the America we can become.

At the Denver Convention where you were nominated, I said the dream lives on.

And I finished this letter with unshakable faith that the dream will be fulfilled for this generation, and preserved and enlarged for generations to come.

With deep respect and abiding affection,


Ted

Stories By or About Ted Kennedy
Edward Kennedy Turns Bumbling into a Blessing, SFS, 5 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy: We Carry On, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Legislating with Principle, Mutuality and the Luck of the Irish, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Remembered Most for His Giving Heart, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Text of Obama’s Eulogy at Kennedy’s Funeral Mass, Associated Press, 30 August 2009.

Stories By or About Barack Obama
President Obama Inspires Children by Telling about Michael Jordan’s Failures, SFS, 8 September 2009.

President Obama Inspires Children by Telling about JK Rowling’s Rejection, SFS, 8 September 2009.

Story for the US President about Gatekeepers, SFS.

Barack Obama and the Empathetic Person, SFS.

Ben Okri on Obama the Speechmaker, SFS.

Obama Tells Story of Anne Nixon Cooper, SFS.

Obama’s Speech on Election Night, SFS.

Obama’s Tribute to His Grandmother, SFS.

Obama on the Cost and Struggle of Change, SFS.

Obama’s Tribute to His Grandmother (from book), SFS.

Obama Expresses Debt to Mother and His Humble Beginnings, SFS.

Al Gore on Obama’s Youthfulness, SFS.

Why We in the UAE and Arab World Like President Obama, ETE.

Obama Books
Reviewing The Audacity of Hope, RBM.

Reviewing Dreams of My Father, RBM.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Barack Obama and Edward Kennedy.

Brian Clark on the Dynamics of Authority

Copyblogger, Brian Clark, tells this story about authority and then applies it to people seeking to build an online business:

A television reporter dresses up in a security guard’s uniform and sets up in front of a Las Vegas bank. He sticks a sign on the ATM embellished with a big gold badge and the following message:

“OUT OF ORDER — GIVE DEPOSITS TO GUARD ON DUTY.”

Bank customers start showing up. Each time, the fake guard smiles and asks if the customer wants to make a deposit or withdrawal.

This whole scenario is ridiculous, right? No bank would conduct business this way.

And yet, customer after customer handed over cash, checks, Social Security numbers, credit cards, account numbers, PIN codes… you name it. Out of 10 people, only one hesitated, but even he complied seconds later.

When the reporter revealed the deception and asked the flabbergasted victims why they handed him money and private information, they all gave pretty much the same answer:

“Because of the uniform. Because of the sign.”

In other words, they complied because he was perceived as authoritative and therefore, trustworthy.

Why?

Neuroscience reveals the somewhat frightening answer. Brain scans show that the decision-making parts of our brains often shut down when we encounter authoritative advice or direction.

That’s part of what makes authority so powerful. And why authority carries great responsibility.

When you’re looking to influence people and build a powerful business online, authority is the way to go. People respect other people who have authority, expertise, and impressive credentials just like they respect people in lab coats and police uniforms.

And they respect authority even more when you demonstrate it rather than simply claim it. More on that in a minute.

Simply put, authority makes you more important in the eyes of others… someone who should be listened to and treated better. And it’s not just people who operate this way.

Source
Popular Copyblogger, Brian Clark, has created a new web site entitled Authority Rules for all his posts on this theme and they are also available on a PDF document from the same site.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: “Because of the uniform.”

Elizabeth Gilbert and Tom Waits on Capturing the Creative Urges

In a TED Talk on Nurturing Creativity, author Elizabeth Gilbert tells how to capture and contain creativity in constructive ways:

“And what is that thing? And how are we to relate to it in a way that will not make us lose our minds, but, in fact, might actually keep us sane?”

“And for me, the best contemporary example that I have of how to do that is the musician Tom Waits, who I got to interview several years ago on a magazine assignment. And we were talking about this, and you know, Tom, for most of his life he was pretty much the embodiment of the tormented contemporary modern artist, trying to control and manage and dominate these sorts of uncontrollable creative impulses that were totally internalized.”

“But then he got older, he got calmer, and one day he was driving down the freeway in Los Angeles he told me, and this is when it all changed for him. And he's speeding along, and all of a sudden he hears this little fragment of melody, that comes into his head as inspiration often comes, elusive and tantalizing, and he wants it, you know, it's gorgeous, and he longs for it, but he has no way to get it. He doesn't have a piece of paper, he doesn't have a pencil, he doesn't have a tape recorder.”

“So he starts to feel all of that old anxiety start to rise in him like, ‘I’m going to lose this thing, and then I'm going to be haunted by this song forever. I’m not good enough, and I can't do it.’ And instead of panicking, he just stopped. He just stopped that whole mental process and he did something completely novel. He just looked up at the sky, and he said, ‘Excuse me, can you not see that I'm driving? Do I look like I can write down a song right now? If you really want to exist, come back at a more opportune moment when I can take care of you. Otherwise, go bother somebody else today. Go bother Leonard Cohen.’”

“And his whole work process changed after that. Not the work, the work was still oftentimes as dark as ever. But the process, and the heavy anxiety around it was released when he took the genie, the genius out of him where it was causing nothing but trouble, and released it kind of back where it came from, and realized that this didn't have to be this internalized, tormented thing. It could be this peculiar, wondrous, bizarre collaboration kind of conversation between Tom and the strange, external thing that was not quite Tom.”

“So when I heard that story it started to shift a little bit the way that I worked too, and it already saved me once. This idea, it saved me when I was in the middle of writing ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’ and I fell into one of those, sort of pits of despair that we all fall into when we're working on something and it's not coming and you start to think this is going to be a disaster, this is going to be the worst book ever written. Not just bad, but the worst book ever written. And I started to think I should just dump this project. But then I remembered Tom talking to the open air and I tried it. So I just lifted my face up from the manuscript and I directed my comments to an empty corner of the room. And I said aloud, ‘Listen you, thing, you and I both know that if this book isn't brilliant that is not entirely my fault, right? Because you can see that I am putting everything I have into this, I don't have anymore than this. So if you want it to be better, then you've got to show up and do your part of the deal. OK. But if you don't do that, you know what, the hell with it. I'm going to keep writing anyway because that's my job. And I would please like the record to reflect today that I showed up for my part of the job.”

Link
Read the full transcript and watch the video:
Elizabeth Gilbert, Nurturing Creativity, TED Talks, February 2009.

Related
Elizabeth Gilbert, Creativity Comes Like a Thunderous Train or When Slaving like a Mule, SFS.
Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love, Reviewing Books and Movies.
Elizabeth Gilbert: Arriving in a New Culture, SFS.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Elizabeth Gilbert, novelist; Tom Waits, musician.

Creativity Comes like a Thunderous Train or when Slaving Like a Mule

In a TED Talk on Nurturing Creativity, author Elizabeth Gilbert tells how creativity comes to people in different ways:

Chased by Creativity
“I had this encounter recently where I met the extraordinary American poet Ruth stone, who’s now in her 90s, but she’s been a poet her entire life and she told me that when she was growing up in rural Virginia, she would be out working the fields, and she said she would feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape. And it would come barreling down at her over the landscape. And she felt it coming, because it would shake the earth under her feet. She knew that she had only one thing to do at that point, and that was to, in her words, ‘run like hell’. And she would run like hell to the house and she would be getting chased by this poem, and the whole deal was that she had to get to a piece of paper and a pencil fast enough so that when it thundered through her, she could collect it and grab it on the page.”

“And other times she wouldn't be fast enough, so she'd be running and running and running, and she wouldn't get to the house and the poem would barrel through her and she would miss it and she said it would continue on across the landscape, looking, as she put it ‘for another poet.’”

“And then there were these times -- this is the piece I never forgot --she said that there were moments where she would almost miss it, right? So, she's running to the house and she's looking for the paper and the poem passes through her, and she grabs a pencil just as it's going through her, and then she said, it was like she would reach out with her other hand and she would catch it. She would catch the poem by its tail, and she would pull it backwards into her body as she was transcribing on the page. And in these instances, the poem would come up on the page perfect and intact but backwards, from the last word to the first.”

“So when I heard that, it was like -- that's uncanny, that's exactly what my creative process is like.”

Slaving Like a Mule
“That's not all what my creative process is -- I'm not the pipeline! I'm a mule, and the way that I have to work is that I have to get up at the same time every day, and sweat and labor and barrel through it really awkwardly. But even I, in my mulishness, even I have brushed up against that thing, at times. And I would imagine that a lot of you have too. You know, even I have had work or ideas come through me from a source that I honestly cannot identify. And what is that thing? And how are we to relate to it in a way that will not make us lose our minds, but, in fact, might actually keep us sane?”

Link
Read the full transcript and watch the video:
Elizabeth Gilbert, Nurturing Creativity, TED Talks, February 2009.

Related
Elizabeth Gilbert and Tom Waits on Capturing the Creative Urges, SFS.
Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love, Reviewing Books and Movies.
Elizabeth Gilbert: Arriving in a New Culture, SFS.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Elizabeth Gilbert tells how creativity comes to people in different ways.

President Obama Inspires Children by Telling about Michael Jordan’s Failures

President Barack Obama, in his speech (8 September 2009) to Wakefield High School students in Arlington, Virginia, makes this statement about success and illustrates it with this story:

“Being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.”

“That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures…. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, ‘I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.’”

“These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.”

“No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work.”

Link to Full Text
Barack Obama, Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama Back to School Event, White House Media Resources, 8 September.

More Stories by or About Barack Obama
President Obama Inspires Children by Telling about JK Rowling’s Rejection, SFS, 8 September 2009.
Story for the US President about Gatekeepers, SFS.
Barack Obama and the Empathetic Person, SFS.
Ben Okri on Obama the Speechmaker, SFS.
Obama Tells Story of Anne Nixon Cooper, SFS.
Obama’s Speech on Election Night, SFS.
Obama’s Tribute to His Grandmother, SFS.
Obama on the Cost and Struggle of Change, SFS.
Obama’s Tribute to His Grandmother (from book), SFS.
Obama Expresses Debt to Mother and His Humble Beginnings, SFS.
Al Gore on Obama’s Youthfulness, SFS.
Why We in the UAE and Arab World Like President Obama, ETE.

Obama Books
Reviewing The Audacity of Hope, RBM.
Reviewing Dreams of My Father, RBM.

On Related Sites
Photo Blogging Abu Dhabi UAE, Experiencing the Emirates, 7 September 2009.

Coming Second or Losing in the America’s Cup, America’s Cup in the UAE, 4 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: ‘I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.’

President Obama Inspires Children by Telling about J K Rowling’s Rejection

President Barack Obama, in his speech (8 September 2009) to Wakefield High School students in Arlington, Virginia, makes this statement about success and illustrates it with this story:

“Being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.”

“That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published.”

Link to Full Text
Barack Obama, Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama Back to School Event, White House Media Resources, 8 September.

More Stories about or by Barack Obama
Story for the US President about Gatekeepers, SFS.
Barack Obama and the Empathetic Person, SFS.
Ben Okri on Obama the Speechmaker, SFS.
Obama Tells Story of Anne Nixon Cooper, SFS.
Obama’s Speech on Election Night, SFS.
Obama’s Tribute to His Grandmother, SFS.
Obama on the Cost and Struggle of Change, SFS.
Obama’s Tribute to His Grandmother (from book), SFS.
Obama Expresses Debt to Mother and His Humble Beginnings, SFS.
Al Gore on Obama’s Youthfulness, SFS.
Why We in the UAE and Arab World Like President Obama, ETE.

Obama Books
Reviewing The Audacity of Hope, RBM.
Reviewing Dreams of My Father, RBM.

More on JK Rowling
Amnesty International’s Influence on J K Rowling, SFSAW
J K Rowling on the Value of Imagination, SFWAW
J K Rowling on the Value of Failure, SFSAW
J K Rowling: Giving a Commencement Address, SFSAW
J K Rowling’s Commencement Address at Harvard, SFSAW
J K Rowling on Friendships, SFSAW

On Related Sites
Photo Blogging Abu Dhabi UAE, Experiencing the Emirates, 7 September 2009.

Coming Second or Losing in the America’s Cup, America’s Cup in the UAE, 4 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: “JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published.”

Teddy Kennedy on Preparation, Practice and Perseverance

At the funeral for Senator Edward Kennedy, his son gave a very moving tribute.

He commenced his statement this way:

“My name is Ted Kennedy Jr., a name I share with my son, a name I share with my father. Although it hasn't been easy at times to live with this name, I've never been more proud of it than I am today.”

He shared this story:

During the summer months when I was growing up, my father would arrive late in the afternoon from Washington on Fridays and as soon as he got to Cape Cod, he would want to go straight out and practice sailing maneuvers . . . in anticipation of that weekend's races.

And we'd be out late, and the sun would be setting, and family dinner would be getting cold, and we’d still be out there practicing our jibes and spinnaker sets long after everyone else had gone ashore.

Well one night, not another boat in sight on the summer sea, I asked him, "Why are we always the last ones on the water?" Teddy, he said, "Well, you see, most of the other sailors we race against are smarter and more talented than we are. But the reason why we are going to win is that we are going to work harder than them and we will be better prepared."

And he just wasn't talking about boating. My father admired perseverance. My father believed that to do a job effectively required a tremendous amount of time and effort.

Link
Ted Kennedy Jr Remembers His Father, Full Script, Boston.Com, 29 August 2009.

Related Ted Kennedy Stories
Edward Kennedy Turns Bumbling into a Blessing, SFS, 5 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy: We Carry On, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Legislating with Principle, Mutuality and the Luck of the Irish, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Remembered Most for His Giving Heart, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Text of Obama’s Eulogy at Kennedy’s Funeral Mass, Associated Press, 30 August 2009.

On Related Sites
Stop Off for the Finest Dates in All of Arabia on Your Way to Fujairah, Experiencing the Emirates, 6 September 2009.

Coming Second or Losing in the America’s Cup, America’s Cup in the UAE, 4 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Edward Kennedy guides a sailboat up to a pier in Hyannisport, Mass., while sailing with his wife Vicky off the coast of Hyannisport.

Edward Kennedy Turns Bumbling into a Blessing

Three decades ago, Senator Edward Moore Kennedy ruined his last hope to be elected to the White House when a television interviewer asked him why he wanted to be president. He could not articulate an answer, offering instead a rambling, empty response that persuaded his party that he may not really have wanted or been suited for the job that his brother John had held and to which his brother Robert had aspired.

Yet as so often happened in an extraordinary life that careened from success to misfortune and scandal and back to success again, this bumbling moment worked to Mr. Kennedy’s advantage and, as it turned out, to the even greater advantage of the nation as a whole. Having failed in his insurgent challenge to President Jimmy Carter, Mr. Kennedy was finally free to focus with passion and political craft on his more natural calling as one of the master legislators and great reformers in the modern Senate.

Link
Senator Edward Kennedy, Editorial, New York Times, 26 August 2009.

Related Stories
Ted Kennedy: We Carry On, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Legislating with Principle, Mutuality and the Luck of the Irish, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Remembered Most for His Giving Heart, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Jnr’s Father Taught Him that Nothing is Impossible, SFS, 4 September 2009.

Stories on Related Sites
Freej: The Bright Star in the UAE Film Firmament, Experiencing the Emirates, 4 September 2009.

Coming Second or Losing in the America’s Cup, America’s Cup in the UAE, 4 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: “Free to focus.”

Winston Churchill and the Puddings He Despised

This brief story came via a Status Update on Facebook:

“Winston Churchill is reported to have once sent a pudding back to a chef complaining it lacked a theme.”

“How many lives (stories, talks, jobs…) lack a theme?”

Link
Thanks to FB Friend Leonard Sweet (good name for a story on puddings), 4 September 2009.

Freej: The Bright Star in the UAE Film Firmament, Experiencing the Emirates, 4 September 2009.

Coming Second or Losing in the America’s Cup, America’s Cup in the UAE, 4 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Pudding with a theme—bread and butter. I'm sure Winston loved this theme. Can’t you imagine him tucking into this pud? Washing it down with brandy and enjoying the afterglow with a cigar? No wonder he could fight them on the beaches after a pud like this one.

Ted Kennedy Jnr’s Father Taught Him that Nothing is Impossible

At last week’s funeral for Senator Edward Kennedy, his son gave a very moving tribute.

He commenced his statement this way:

“My name is Ted Kennedy Jr., a name I share with my son, a name I share with my father. Although it hasn't been easy at times to live with this name, I've never been more proud of it than I am today.”

He shared this story:

“But today I'm simply compelled to remember Ted Kennedy as my father and my best friend.”

“When I was 12 years old I was diagnosed with bone cancer and a few months after I lost my leg, there was a heavy snowfall over my childhood home outside of Washington D.C. My father went to the garage to get the old Flexible Flyer and asked me if I wanted to go sledding down the steep driveway. And I was trying to get used to my new artificial leg and the hill was covered with ice and snow and it wasn't easy for me to walk. And the hill was very slick and as I struggled to walk, I slipped and I fell on the ice and I started to cry and I said ‘I can't do this.’ I said, ‘I'll never be able to climb that hill.’ And he lifted me in his strong, gentle arms and said something I'll never forget. He said ‘I know you'll do it, there is nothing you can't do. We're going to climb that hill together, even if it takes us all day.’”

“Sure enough, he held me around my waist and we slowly made it to the top, and, you know, at age 12 losing a leg pretty much seems like the end of the world, but as I climbed onto his back and we flew down the hill that day I knew he was right. I knew I was going to be OK. You see, my father taught me that even our most profound losses are survivable and it is what we do with that loss, our ability to transform it into a positive event, that is one of my father's greatest lessons. He taught me that nothing is impossible."

Link
Ted Kennedy Jr Remembers His Father, Full Script, Boston.Com, 29 August 2009.

Related Ted Kennedy Stories
Ted Kennedy: We Carry On, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Legislating with Principle, Mutuality and the Luck of the Irish, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Remembered Most for His Giving Heart, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Text of Obama’s Eulogy at Kennedy’s Funeral Mass, Associated Press, 30 August 2009.

On Related Sites
Freej: The Bright Star in the UAE Film Firmament, Experiencing the Emirates, 4 September 2009.

Coming Second or Losing in the America’s Cup, America’s Cup in the UAE, 4 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Ted Kennedy Jnr. delivering a eulogy for his father (Photo courtesy of C J Gunther, Getty Images and Boston.Com at the link above).

Coming Second or Losing

In a discussion with Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post and the chances of the Redskins, the question of how satisfied sports people are about coming runner up is debated:

One commentator makes this statement and tells a story:

“I promise you that to Nicklaus and Woods, finishing second IS losing.”

Or the classic quote attributed to a Royal Navy officer standing by Queen Victoria as they watched the first America's Cup race in 1851.

As the yacht America crossed the finish line to win the cup that would bear its name, the Queen supposedly asked who was second. “Your Majesty,” the officer is said to have replied, “There is no second.”

Link
Thomas Boswell, Ask Boswell: Nats, Orioles, Redskins and More, Washington Post, 3 September 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: ‘America’ the winner of the first America’s Cup, 1851.

Ted Kennedy: We Carry On

President Obama had this to say in his eulogy about Edward Kennedy’s personal care and pastoral wisdom:

In the days after September 11th, Teddy made it a point to personally call each one of the 177 families of this state who lost a loved one in the attack. But he didn't stop there. He kept calling and checking up on them. He fought through red tape to get them assistance and grief counseling. He invited them sailing, played with their children, and would write each family a letter whenever the anniversary of that terrible day came along. To one widow, he wrote the following:

"As you know so well, the passage of time never really heals the tragic memory of such a great loss, but we carry on, because we have to, because our loved one would want us to, and because there is still light to guide us in the world from the love they gave us."

We carry on.

Link
Text of Obama’s Eulogy at Kennedy’s Funeral Mass, Associated Press, 30 August 2009.

Related
Ted Kennedy Legislating with Principle, Mutuality and the Luck of the Irish, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Remembered Most for His Giving Heart, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Ted Kennedy.

Ted Kennedy Remembered Most for His Giving Heart

President Obama had this to say in his eulogy about how Edward Kennedy’s personal love and pastoral care will be missed even more than his legislative skill:

But though it is Ted Kennedy's historic body of achievements we will remember, it is his giving heart that we will miss.

It was the friend and colleague who was always the first to pick up the phone and say, "I'm sorry for your loss," or "I hope you feel better," or "What can I do to help?"

It was the boss who was so adored by his staff that over five hundred spanning five decades showed up for his 75th birthday party.

It was the man who sent birthday wishes and thank you notes and even his own paintings to so many who never imagined that a U.S. senator would take the time to think about someone like them. I have one of those paintings in my private study -- a Cape Cod seascape that was a gift to a freshman legislator who happened to admire it when Ted Kennedy welcomed him into his office the first week he arrived in Washington; by the way, that's my second favorite gift from Teddy and Vicki after our dog Bo. And it seems like everyone has one of those stories -- the ones that often start with "You wouldn't believe who called me today."

Ted Kennedy was the father who looked after not only his own three children, but John's and Bobby's as well. He took them camping and taught them to sail. He laughed and danced with them at birthdays and weddings; cried and mourned with them through hardship and tragedy; and passed on that same sense of service and selflessness that his parents had instilled in him.

Shortly after Ted walked Caroline down the aisle and gave her away at the altar, he received a note from Jackie that read, "On you the carefree youngest brother fell a burden a hero would have begged to be spared. We are all going to make it because you were always there with your love."

Link
Text of Obama’s Eulogy at Kennedy’s Funeral Mass, Associated Press, 30 August 2009.

Related
Ted Kennedy Legislating with Principle, Mutuality and the Luck of the Irish, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Ted Kennedy sharing a joke.

Ted Kennedy Legislating with Principle, Mutuality and the Luck of the Irish

President Obama had this to say in his eulogy about how Edward Kennedy became ‘the greatest legislator of our time’:

“We can still hear his voice bellowing through the Senate chamber, face reddened, fist pounding the podium, a veritable force of nature, in support of health care or workers' rights or civil rights.

And yet, while his causes became deeply personal, his disagreements never did.

While he was seen by his fiercest critics as a partisan lightning rod, that is not the prism through which Ted Kennedy saw the world, nor was it the prism through which his colleagues saw him. He was a product of an age when the joy and nobility of politics prevented differences of party and philosophy from becoming barriers to cooperation and mutual respect -- a time when adversaries still saw each other as patriots.”

“And that's how Ted Kennedy became the greatest legislator of our time. He did it by hewing to principle, but also by seeking compromise and common cause -- not through deal making and horse-trading alone, but through friendship, and kindness, and humor.

There was the time he courted Orrin Hatch's support for the Children's Health Insurance Program by having his chief of staff serenade the senator with a song Orrin had written himself; the time he delivered shamrock cookies on a china plate to sweeten up a crusty Republican colleague; and the famous story of how he won the support of a Texas committee chairman on an immigration bill. Teddy walked into a meeting with a plain manila envelope, and showed only the chairman that it was filled with the Texan's favorite cigars. When the negotiations were going well, he would inch the envelope closer to the chairman. When they weren't, he would pull it back. Before long, the deal was done.”

“It was only a few years ago, on St. Patrick's Day, when Teddy buttonholed me on the floor of the Senate for my support on a certain piece of legislation that was coming up for vote. I gave him my pledge, but expressed my skepticism that it would pass. But when the roll call was over, the bill garnered the votes it needed, and then some. I looked at Teddy with astonishment and asked how he had pulled it off. He just patted me on the back, and said ‘Luck of the Irish!’”

“Of course, luck had little to do with Ted Kennedy's legislative success, and he knew that. A few years ago, his father-in-law told him that he and Daniel Webster just might be the two greatest senators of all time. Without missing a beat, Teddy replied, ‘What did Webster do?’”

Link
Text of Obama’s Eulogy at Kennedy’s Funeral Mass, Associated Press, 30 August 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Ted Kennedy.