How often do you let other people's nonsense change your mood? Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive employee ruin your day? Unless you're the Terminator, for an instant you're probably set back on your heels. However, the mark of a successful person is how quickly he/she can get back her focus on what's important.
Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson. I learned it in the back of a New York City taxi cab.
Here's what happened:
I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car's back end by just inches!
The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us.
My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was friendly. So, I said, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!'
And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'
Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you. When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally.
You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happy you did.
So this was it: The 'Law of the Garbage Truck.' I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people: at work, at home, on the streets? It was that day I said, 'I'm not going to do it anymore.' I began to see garbage trucks. I see the load they're carrying. I see them coming to drop it off. And like my Taxi Driver, I don't make it a personal thing; I just smile, wave, wish them well, and I move on.
One of my favorite football players of all time, Walter Payton, did this every day on the football field. He would jump up as quickly as he hit the ground after being tackled. He never dwelled on a hit. Payton was ready to make the next play his best.
Good leaders know they have to be ready for their next meeting. Good parents know that they have to welcome their children home from school with hugs and kisses.
Teachers and parents know that they have to be fully present, and at their best for the people they care about.
The bottom line is that successful people do not let Garbage Trucks take over their day. What about you? What would happen in your life, starting today, if you let more garbage trucks pass you by?
Here's my bet. You'll be happier.
So.. Love the people who treat you right.
Pray for the ones who don't.
Believe that everything happens for a reason.
If you get a chance , TAKE IT!
If it changes your life , LET IT!
Nobody said it would be easy...
They just promised it would be worth it!
Something to share……
How true it is that whenever we are driving, we always think that we are better drivers than others. When someone is overtaking us, we curse him as “hell driver” and somehow we tend to accelerate our speed wanting to overtake him. Perhaps this is a “Kia Su” garbage truck law in us?
On the other hand, when a car in front blocks our way when we want to overtake, we used to condemn this kind of driver as “kopi O license” driver. As usual,long before approaching, we have flashed the head light warning him to give way and move to the left. How impatient, annoyed, irritated and intolerant we are? Worst of all, the anger keeps boiling inside us!
We have heard of so many cases of law-abiding drivers being beaten by “road bullies”. These are sad cases of people being controlled by anger, a powerful emotion inside us that could take over our thoughts with violent force. It can strike us any time while we are driving, and it seems uncontrollable at times. When people turn to be “road bullies” and become violent because of anger, it will ultimately bring hurt and injury to others who are just strangers to them.
Just like the smiling taxi driver in New York City, we have nothing to loose being humble and apologize first even though we know we have observed traffic laws and not on the wrong side. This will somehow cool down the other driver even he has been blinded with anger. This is the best way to avoid a violent incidence when we have encountered a missed accident. I had come across several incidences like this and I used to say repeatedly “I am sorry, I am sorry” as soon as I came out from the car. So far it worked without any unpleasant incidence happened to me by being apologetic to the other driver.
Always remember, my friends, “FORGIVENESS” (by being apologetic) is surely the greatest remedy for calming down a man of anger.
Oh yes. Don’t ever let the garbage trucks run over us!
In Ephesians 4:31 & Colossians 3:8, God wants us to throw away all garbage in us, such as "bitterness, wrath, anger, malice, clamor, slander, evil speaking, abusive speech and filthy language.”
Are you ready to let go all garbage (also include hatred, nastiness, cruelty, wickedness, mischievousness, uproar, yelling, screaming, shouting, insulting, defamation, jealousy, envy, greed, resentment, offensive, assault, suspicion, distrust, unpleasantness, hostility, fury, rude, impolite, vulgar, abusive, bad-mannered, ill-mannered, etc) in you?
Saturday, 24 November 2007
Sunday, 18 November 2007
Heavan & Hell
A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, "Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like."
The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, 'You have seen Hell.'
They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.
The holy man said, 'I don't understand.' It is simple' said the Lord, 'it requires but one skill. You see, they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'
Something to share……
I remember my friend, Pak Chuah, once told me this story when we first met and he had shared with me his thought from the management aspect. "As a leader, we must share our past experiences with team members unselfishly so that they are well guided while going through hands on training from A to Z. We can’t build up a team if every one of them is only thinking of oneself without love, concern and care for others in the group."
How true it is. By just putting a group of people together does not necessary can form a team without the true spirit of working together and learn how to cooperate with each other. Nevertheless, when they are able to work together, each team member will surely become more initiative, innovative, creative and productive.
As a team member, you are a part of the team you are in. By having the spirit of sharing and care, then you learn to contribute while helping other team members to grow. Moreover, whenever you learn to share with others in your team, you will also receive more in return. Then every team member will eventually become contributors in playing his/her part to build a super and solid team.
A wise man once said, “Coming together is just the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is SUCCESS!”
The spirit of TEAMWORK has been well documented in the Bible. In Ecclesiastes 4:9, God put it very clearly, “Two are better than one. Because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls. For he has no one to help him up.”
In other words, two persons can make up a TEAM and can accomplish more than one person, with much better results in work performance. If one person falls and fails, then the other person will give him encouragement and motivation to lift up his spirit to keep on trying until he succeeds. However, if a person is alone and when he fails, he will fall into deep trouble and will never rise up again for there is no one to care and help him up.
The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, 'You have seen Hell.'
They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.
The holy man said, 'I don't understand.' It is simple' said the Lord, 'it requires but one skill. You see, they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'
Something to share……
I remember my friend, Pak Chuah, once told me this story when we first met and he had shared with me his thought from the management aspect. "As a leader, we must share our past experiences with team members unselfishly so that they are well guided while going through hands on training from A to Z. We can’t build up a team if every one of them is only thinking of oneself without love, concern and care for others in the group."
How true it is. By just putting a group of people together does not necessary can form a team without the true spirit of working together and learn how to cooperate with each other. Nevertheless, when they are able to work together, each team member will surely become more initiative, innovative, creative and productive.
As a team member, you are a part of the team you are in. By having the spirit of sharing and care, then you learn to contribute while helping other team members to grow. Moreover, whenever you learn to share with others in your team, you will also receive more in return. Then every team member will eventually become contributors in playing his/her part to build a super and solid team.
A wise man once said, “Coming together is just the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is SUCCESS!”
The spirit of TEAMWORK has been well documented in the Bible. In Ecclesiastes 4:9, God put it very clearly, “Two are better than one. Because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls. For he has no one to help him up.”
In other words, two persons can make up a TEAM and can accomplish more than one person, with much better results in work performance. If one person falls and fails, then the other person will give him encouragement and motivation to lift up his spirit to keep on trying until he succeeds. However, if a person is alone and when he fails, he will fall into deep trouble and will never rise up again for there is no one to care and help him up.
Thursday, 8 November 2007
NEVER INSULT ANYONE
This is just a joke downloaded from forwarded email. Nevertheless, the massage is clear. “Never insult anyone”
An American and a Japanese were sitting on the plane on the way to LA when the American turned to the Japanese and asked, "What kind of -ese are you?"
Confused, the Japanese replied, "Sorry, Sir, but I don't understand what you mean."
The American repeated, "What kind of -ese are you?"
Again, the Japanese was confused over the question. The American, now irritated, then yelled, "What kind of -ese are you...Are you a Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Javanese or other kind of -ese?"
The Japanese then replied, "Oh, I am a Japanese."
A while later the Japanese turned to the American and asked what kind of 'key' was he.
The American, frustrated, yelled, "What do you mean what kind of '-key' am I?"
The Japanese said, "Are you a Yankee, donkey, or monkey?"
Moral of the story:
Never insult anyone if you don’t want to be insulted!
The terminology that people often used to call other races based on their skin colour usually appears to be very sensitive, offensive and insulting, such as the followings:
In Hong Kong (after being colonized for 100 years), the Hongkee called the British and other westerners Kui Loi (“ghosts). The Singaporeans called them Ang Moi (red hairs). In China, they are politely called Lao Wye (foreigners).
The Indonesians called them Bule (Indonesian-English Dictionary: white skin people) just as the blacks are known as Negro (Indonesian-English Dictionary: a black – esp. in colonial period) to the Americans. In Malaysia, the white men are known as Mat Salleh to the Malays.
One has to be humorous about his skin colour and feels great about it :
One pastor from Ambon joked about his skin colour saying that he’s a “Hitachi”, meaning “Hitam tapi Cina” Well, well, well. He told us that he was born in a mixed marriage family of a Chinese father and an Ambonese mother.
If you are born in a mixed marriage family, you are just great!
I remember I was having lunch in a Chinese restaurant in London in 1972. A family of 3 generations walked in. Guess what I saw? The elder of the family was a Punjabi with a Chinese wife. Their daughter-in-law was an English lady. Obviously their grandson was having Punjabi, Chinese and English blood and a grand good-looking fixture of 3 great races!
When you travel out of your country, you may be white, black, brown, yellow in skin colour, but you can be Americans, Australians, South Africans, Brazilians, Cubans, Koreans and so forth depending on which country you are citizen of.
During our recent trip to Beijing organized by CTC travel in Singapore, there were 33 of us from Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. All of us are of Chinese origin (whether we are keturunan Cina or suku Tionghua). The Chinese Immigration Officers at Beijing International Airport recognized us as Singaporeans, Indonesians and Malaysians. That’s because we were holding passports of Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia and we are citizens of the respective countries. Undoubtedly, we are all proud to be Malaysians, Indonesians and Singaporeans when we were tourists in Beijing,China.
An American and a Japanese were sitting on the plane on the way to LA when the American turned to the Japanese and asked, "What kind of -ese are you?"
Confused, the Japanese replied, "Sorry, Sir, but I don't understand what you mean."
The American repeated, "What kind of -ese are you?"
Again, the Japanese was confused over the question. The American, now irritated, then yelled, "What kind of -ese are you...Are you a Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Javanese or other kind of -ese?"
The Japanese then replied, "Oh, I am a Japanese."
A while later the Japanese turned to the American and asked what kind of 'key' was he.
The American, frustrated, yelled, "What do you mean what kind of '-key' am I?"
The Japanese said, "Are you a Yankee, donkey, or monkey?"
Moral of the story:
Never insult anyone if you don’t want to be insulted!
The terminology that people often used to call other races based on their skin colour usually appears to be very sensitive, offensive and insulting, such as the followings:
In Hong Kong (after being colonized for 100 years), the Hongkee called the British and other westerners Kui Loi (“ghosts). The Singaporeans called them Ang Moi (red hairs). In China, they are politely called Lao Wye (foreigners).
The Indonesians called them Bule (Indonesian-English Dictionary: white skin people) just as the blacks are known as Negro (Indonesian-English Dictionary: a black – esp. in colonial period) to the Americans. In Malaysia, the white men are known as Mat Salleh to the Malays.
One has to be humorous about his skin colour and feels great about it :
One pastor from Ambon joked about his skin colour saying that he’s a “Hitachi”, meaning “Hitam tapi Cina” Well, well, well. He told us that he was born in a mixed marriage family of a Chinese father and an Ambonese mother.
If you are born in a mixed marriage family, you are just great!
I remember I was having lunch in a Chinese restaurant in London in 1972. A family of 3 generations walked in. Guess what I saw? The elder of the family was a Punjabi with a Chinese wife. Their daughter-in-law was an English lady. Obviously their grandson was having Punjabi, Chinese and English blood and a grand good-looking fixture of 3 great races!
When you travel out of your country, you may be white, black, brown, yellow in skin colour, but you can be Americans, Australians, South Africans, Brazilians, Cubans, Koreans and so forth depending on which country you are citizen of.
During our recent trip to Beijing organized by CTC travel in Singapore, there were 33 of us from Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. All of us are of Chinese origin (whether we are keturunan Cina or suku Tionghua). The Chinese Immigration Officers at Beijing International Airport recognized us as Singaporeans, Indonesians and Malaysians. That’s because we were holding passports of Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia and we are citizens of the respective countries. Undoubtedly, we are all proud to be Malaysians, Indonesians and Singaporeans when we were tourists in Beijing,China.
Friday, 2 November 2007
BEIJING TOUR 12 - 19 OCTOBER 2007
It had been my childhood dream to visit Beijing since I learned about Great Wall of China when I was in primary school, way back in the 50s. I wanted to climb the Great Wall of China long ago and, thank God, I had finally made it, together with my wife, during our recent Beijing tour from 12 – 19 October 2007. The Beijing Chinese put it this way, “You are not a (good) guy if you don’t climb the Great Wall of China.” We felt so great about it that we wish to share our photos with our children, relatives and friends.
We also visited other tourist spots in Beijing such as the well-known Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City (Imperial Palace), the Ming Tombs, Yiheyuen (Summer Palace) and Daguanyuan (Grand View Park). In Chengde, we visited the Imperial Summer Resort and Little Potala Palace.
The trouble with joining a tour was that our time was totally controlled by the local Chinese tour guard though we could visit many palaces as arranged in the tour itinerary and at the convenience of traveling in a comfortable coach. He was well versed in China history and whenever he stopped, it was good listening to him as he briefed us the related historical events. However, he had skipped the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall where the preserved body of the late Chairman was displaced for tourists to have a quick look. It was certainly regretful for many of us in the tour group because his excuse was merely of not having sufficient time for us as we need to queue up for hours to get inside the Memorial Hall. On the other hand, many of our time were wasted by taking us to places where we were expected to buy jades, silks, Chinese medicines, Chinese teas etc. Mind you, the pricing was not cheap though the buyers could get some satisfaction out of it on bargaining. Many of us ended up buying costly Chinese medicines after a free lecture on health and free diagnosis by the so-called highly qualified sinsehs in Tongrentang, a famous China traditional medicine shop with a 100 year history.
Besides climbing the Great Wall of China, there was a lot of walking when we visited the about tourist attractions. A free foot reflexology section had been arranged on the 4th night after dinner to release our pain and aching on our legs due to too much of walking but we were asked to tip them. That’s fine but some of our tour members ended up buying Chinese medicines again!
We were also disappointed at Shimao Tianjie known as Beijing Xin Tian Di where we were supposed to enjoy our shopping spree and keep our heads up to watch the 4D undersea movie shown on the long screen under the roof. Instead, we were given 5 minutes to take some photos just to show that we had been there. There was no such show on the roof screen as we arrived there at the wrong timing!
Nevertheless, we did enjoy the grand Ice Skiing and Colourful Dancing Show after the wonderful spa at Beijing Tianlongyuan Hot Spring. The Old Peking acrobatic show brought us back to the memory lane. They used to performance on the streets during the good old days in Peking and we had watched them many times in Kong Fu movies. The evening cultural show Golden Mask Dynasty was very grand after we had spent the whole afternoon in the Happy Valley Theme Park. Well, only the children in our tour group were having happy hours in the 6 theme zones.
The slogan of “One World One Dream” was everywhere. It’s all about Beijing Olympic Games to be held on 8.8.2008. However, our coach just stopped by the roadside for us to take photos of the still under construction “Bird’s Nest” Main Stadium for Beijing Olympic 2008. We also came across many authorized shops selling Beijing Olympic 2008 souvenir when we were brought to shopping malls to purchase other Made in China products and gifts for friends and relatives.
If you plan to visit Beijing in August 2008 coincide with the Summer Olympic, you may have to pay much more than what we had paid for joining the tour, hotels and foods. But if you can afford, why not? It’s once in a lifetime opportunity, right?
I and my wife are planning to visit other places in China, may be Shanghai or Jiucaigoa. We hope our children can join us in 2008. But we will keep reminding ourselves, “We'll go there as tourists, not as sick patients. So there will be no more free diagnosis by sinsehs and no more buying Chinese medicines.”
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