Few short stories of great people from my collection:

When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he tried over 2000experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, “I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2000-step process.

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Wilma Rudolph was the 20th of 22 children. She was born prematurely and her survival was doubtful. When she was 4 years old, she contacted double pneumonia and scarlet fever, which left her with a paralyzed left leg. At age 9, she removed the metal leg brace she had been dependent on and began to walk without it. By 13 she had developed a rhythmic walk, which doctors said was a miracle. That same year she decided to become a runner. She entered a race and came in last. For the next few years every race she entered, she came in last. Everyone told her to quit, but she kept on running. One day she actually won a race. And then another.

From then on she won every race she entered. Eventually this little girl, Who was told she would never walk again, went on to win three Olympic gold medals.

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In 1962, four nervous young musicians played their first record audition for the executives of the Decca recording Company. The executives were not impressed. While turning down this group of musicians, one executive said, “We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.” The group was called The Beatles.

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In 1944, Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modeling Agency, told modeling hopeful Norma Jean Baker, “You’d better learn secretarial work or else get married.” She went on and became Marilyn Monroe.

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In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, Fired a singer after one performance. He told him, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere….son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.” He went on to become the most popular singer in America named Elvis Presley.

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When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it did not ring off the hook with calls from potential backers. After making a demonstration call, President Rutherford Hayes said, “That’s an amazing invention, but  who would ever want to use one of them?”

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In the 1940s, another young inventor named Chester Carlson took his idea to 20 corporations, including some of the biggest in the country. They all turned him down. In 1947 – after seven long years of rejections! He finally got a tiny company in Rochester, New York, the Haloid company, to purchase the rights to his invention an electrostatic  paper-copying process. Haloid became Xerox Corporation we know today.

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A winner is not one who never fails, but one who NEVER QUITS!

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Uncategorized Inspirational Wisdom

Got this in my mailbox today, worth sharing.

“Pajja is the proprietor of a Siri-Paya and Nehari Shop in Lahore. Sales are low and, in order to increase them, he comes up with a plan to allow his customers to eat now and pay later. He keeps track of the meals consumed on a ledger.

Word gets around and as a result increasing numbers of customers flock to Pajja’s shop. Pajja’s suppliers are delighted and are very willing to sell more and more raw materials for the meals he prepares. Pajja shows them his ledger of receivables and they extend him credit.

A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and gives Pajja a credit line and then increases Pajja’s borrowing limit.

Taking advantage of his customers’ freedom from immediate payment constraints, Pajja jacks up the prices of his Nehari and Siri-Paye. Customers dont mind as they are not required to pay on the spot. Sales volume increases massively; Banks and suppliers lend more; Pajja opens more outlets. He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the customers as collateral.

At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert bankers recognize Pajja’s customer loans as assets and transform these customer assets into BONDS. These negotiable instruments are given exotic names such as SIRIBOND, PAYABOND, MAGHAZBOND AND BONGBOND. These securities are then listed on the Stock Exchange and traded on markets worldwide. No one really understands what the names mean and how the securities are guaranteed but, nevertheless, as their prices continuously climb, the securities become top-selling items.

One day, although the prices are still climbing, a credit risk manager of the bank decides that the time has come to demand payment of one of the debts incurred by Pajja. Pajja in turn asks his clients to pay up. One by one they refuse; the clients cannot pay back the debts. Pajja refuses to serve them any more. The clients stop coming.

Pajja is really screwed now. He cannot fulfill his loan obligations and therefore claims bankruptcy. All Bonds drop in price by between 80 to 95%.

The suppliers of Pajja, having granted generous payment due dates and having invested in the securities are faced with similar problems. The meat supplier defaults on payment to the sheep and cattle supplier and claims bankruptcy. The atta supplier is taken over by a competitor; Pajja lays off the cook and staff. Bankruptcies soar, unemployment mushrooms.

The bank that lent the money in the first place is set to collapse. It is saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock consultations by leaders from the governing political parties with Pajja commuting back and forth in his Executive jet and Mercedes 500SEL, brokering the deal.

THE FUNDS REQUIRED TO SAVE THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE ARE OBTAINED BY A TAX LEVIED ON THE CITIZENS, MOST OF WHOM DO NOT EAT NEHARI OR SIRI-PAYE.

UNDERSTOOD?”

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Uncategorized

Subject: ironies..

What do you call it when very rich people exploit poor people?
- Greed and selfishness.

What do you call it when very rich countries exploit poor countries?
- Globalization.

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What do you call the form of government where a small elite exploits and intimidates the citizens?
- A dictatorship.

What do you call the form of government where a small elite exploits and intimidates the citizens, and the citizens can choose every few years which part of the elite should occupy the government buildings?
- A democracy.

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What do you call it when a group of people take the law into their own hands and kill people without a fair trial?
- A lynching.

What do you call it when the US takes the law into its own hands and kills people without a fair trial?
- Operation Enduring Freedom.

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What do you call someone who steals from the rich and gives to the poor?
- Robin Hood.

What do you call someone who steals from the poor and gives to the rich?
- The US Government.

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What do you call a weapon that can kill thousands of people?
- A weapon of mass destruction.

What do you call a weapon that has killed 1.5 million Iraqis, including more than 500,000 children?
- Sanctions.

What do you call it when just over 3 thousand people were killed in the September 11 attack on the US?
- An atrocity.

What do you call it when nearly 5 million people were killed in the Vietnam war?
- A mistake.

What do you call a foreign oppressor in the last century that controlled the economical and social life of a country?
- A colonialist power.

What do you call a foreign oppressor in this century that controls the economical and social life of a country?
- The International Monetary Fund.

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What do you call it when people are slaughtered?
- A massacre.

What do you call it when 100.000 to 200.000 Iraqi’s are slaughtered by the US at a loss to American forces of 148 (46 of which were killed by friendly fire)?
- The Gulf War.

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What do you call the 2002 presidential election in Zimbabwe where there are serious irregularities?
- A flawed election.

What do you call the presidential election in the US where there are serious irregularities?
- A victory for democracy.

What do you call someone who explodes a bomb and kills innocent people?
- A terrorist.

What do you call someone who drops a bomb from a plane and kills innocent people?
- A brave American pilot.

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What do you call it when a Palestinian uses violence against the Jews who have illegally occupied his land?
- A terrorist attack.

What do you call it when an Israeli helicopter fires rockets at Palestinian youths armed with stones?
- Self-defense.

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What do you call it when someone gives money to a government official in return for favors?
- Bribery.

What do you call it when a large corporation gives money to a government official in return for favors?
- A campaign contribution.

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Uncategorized