Be Open-minded

Generally, our view of the world is made up primarily of what we experience through our five senses. What we personally know of the world, we have either seen, tasted, touched, smelled or heard. Unfortunately, our senses are limited. Therefore, our view of the world is limited. This is not a problem, unless we start believing that what we have experienced through our five senses is the only reality. It is not.

Right now, there are countless things that are real that we are not aware of and just because we are not personally aware of those things does not mean that they are not real or true. For example, if you had never seen the stars on a clear night, and I pointed to the sky in the middle of day and told you that there were countless stars up there, I would have great difficulty convincing you of their existence, yet they are really there… dancing in the sunlight.

No one knows it all. We are all ignorant – just on different subjects. There are many things you know that I don’t, and in like manner, there are things I know that you don’t. In fact, if I shared with you some of the things I have personally experienced, you would stare at me in disbelief and probably think that I was making it up... just like the Little Frog did in the following story.

The Little Frog That Lived In The Well

There was a Little Frog that lived in a nice, deep well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born and brought up there.

The walls of the well were all covered with wet moss. When the Little Frog was thirsty, he drank a little bit of the well water, and when he was hungry, he ate some insects. When he was tired, he lay on a little rock in the well and looked up at the sky above him. Sometimes he saw passing clouds. Occasionally he saw a bird fly past. He experienced night and day. This was his world. He knew of no other way of life for himself. Hence, he did not long for anything more or anything better.

One day another frog that lived in the lake came by the well and accidentally fell into it. The Little Frog asked the lake frog, "Where are you from?"

"I am from the lake.", answered the lake frog.

"The lake!" exclaimed the Little Frog, "How big is that? Is it as big as my well?", and as he enquired, he took a leap from one side of the well to the other.

"My friend", said the lake frog, "you cannot compare the lake with your little well?"

Then the Little Frog took another leap and asked, "Is your lake this big?"

The shocked lake frog exclaimed "What nonsense you speak, the lake is thousands of times bigger than your well. Besides, there is much more up there than you can ever imagine. There are mountains and valleys and rivers and lakes, and all kinds of birds and animals and trees and flowers and people and trains and cars, and countless other things."

"Well, Well," said the Little Frog, "nothing can be bigger and better than my well; He then shouted, "You are a liar, get out."


Like the Little Frog, many people refuse to believe that which they don’t understand. Some will believe only what they like to believe, or only what fits into their own scheme of things, summarily rejecting anything to the contrary.

It is said that incorrect assumptions are the prime cause of failure in adult life.

It is a sad fact that there are so many people out there ‘stuck in a rut’, but who will ignore opportunity when it presents itself because of preconceived ideas about what it might be.

To move onward and upward in life, be open to possibilities. There is (much) more to life than meets the eye. Open-mindedness and the willingness to revise your thinking in the face of new information can provide a tremendous advantage for succeeding in a world of rapid change.

Change... or Pay The Price

Human beings are creatures of habit. We seek the things we want with the least possible disruption to our lives; hence we tend to resist change.

As management guru Tom Peters once put it: "Change is disruptive . . . But it doesn't make any difference. You gotta do it anyway. We're in an era where, literally, to learn to love change is the only survival course."

Let’s get it straight: If you keep doing what you have always done, you will continue to get the results that you have been getting. Unfortunately, there can be no improvement without change. Without change you will be risking your future, as is illustrated by the following Sufi parable…


The Tale of the Sands

A stream, from its source in far-off mountains, passing through every kind of description of countryside, at last reached the sands of the desert. Just as it had crossed every other barrier, the stream expected to cross this one, but it found that as fast as it flowed into the desert, just as fast its waters disappeared into the sands.

It was convinced, however, that its destiny was to cross this desert, and yet there was no way.

Before long, the stream heard a voice whispering from the desert itself, "The wind crosses the desert, so can the stream."

"Yes, but the wind can fly!" cried out the stream, as it kept dashing itself into the desert sands.

"You'll never get across that way," the desert whispered once again. "You'll have to let the wind carry you."

"But how?" cried out the stream.

"You have to let the wind absorb you."

This idea was not acceptable to the stream. After all, it had never been absorbed before. It didn't want to lose its identity. So, it asked the desert,
“Once I give myself to the winds, how can I be sure of ever becoming a stream again?

'The wind,' said the desert, 'performs this function. It takes up water, carries it over the desert, and then lets it fall again. Falling as rain, the water again becomes a river.'

The desert told the stream that, if it wished, it could continue to flow into the sand, and that one day, after many, many years, it might even become a swamp on the desert's edge. But, it would never cross the desert as long as it remained a stream.

"Why can't I remain the same stream that I am?" asked the stream.

"You cannot remain as you are. Either you give yourself to the wind or you become a swamp." the desert said. "By giving yourself to the wind, your essential part is carried away and forms a stream again. You are called what you are even today because you do not know which part of you is the essential one."

The stream could not believe it, but realised that the best that could be attained without attempting the suggestion would be to become a swamp. Either way the stream could not stay as it was.

The stream was silent for a long time, listening to certain echoes deep within itself, remembering parts of itself having been held in the arms of the wind before. And then slowly, the stream raised its vapors into the welcoming arms of the wind and was borne upward and over the desert in great white clouds.

As it passed beyond the mountains on the desert's far side, there it began to fall as a gentle rain.

At first it was hushed and quiet, trickling down the rocky slopes. But gradually it increased in strength, as rivulets ran over the rocks and around the bent and twisted trees that grew there. And soon it was flowing as swift currents of water into the beginning of a stream.


Like the mountain stream, each of us is called upon to change continuously, in every arena of our existence, whether it is in our family life, in our profession or in the world at large. Change is the dominant force in these times. Change happens to us whether we like it or not, whether we are prepared for it or not.

In almost the blink of an eye, our society has passed from the Industrial Age to the Information Age - from the age of jobs and employment to the age of the entrepreneur and the self-employed – the age in which knowledge and information are the keys to opportunity and advancement. The information revolution is a revolution in power. More and more of it is vested in people with knowledge. The knowledge revolution rewards ‘intellectual entrepreneurs’.

The discontinuity we are now living through will be as disruptive to our lives, and as beneficial, as the Industrial Revolution was to the lives of our grand-parents. The way we live will change dramatically enough over just the next few years to alter the very structure of out society, empowering some and disenfranchising others.

In a large part, our success in life is measured by how effectively we embrace change.

The greatest barrier to change is the assumption that it simply happens and you don’t have to do anything about it, or that people must change because it is necessary to do so. People will not change until they perceive that the advantages of changing outweigh the disadvantages of continuing with the way things are. People are more comfortable with old problems than with new solutions. In fact, it often takes an emotionally stirring event, such as a job loss or health setback, to jolt someone into making a change.

Change of all kinds - economic, social, cultural, technological, and political - is happening at accelerating rates. In some areas, it is not just accelerating but exploding! And none of this shows any signs of slowing in our lifetime.

Not seeing change is one thing. Seeing it, yet still resisting, is fatal. This is the future, and it won’t wait till you are ready. Either you change with the times or pay the price.

Raise Our Children Well

If we tell our children they're so bad
They'll grow up as we hope they never had
But, if we tell our children they're so good
They'll grow up exactly as we hope they would

If our expectations of them are low
In their performance, it'll show
But, if our expectations of them are high
They'll stretch and reach for the sky

If we don't openly show them affection
It could lead to a misconception
But, if we show them love through touch
They'll grow close to us

If, with them, we hardly talk
Then, at what we say, they'll baulk
But, if with them, we'll join and play
Then as a family, together we'll stay

by Virend Singh

Don't Sell Yourself Short

The human race is a story of people selling themselves short and settling for less than they are capable of achieving. Instead of achievement, we get addicted to activity. In time we confuse activity with achievement.

The following story is a good analogy of how many of us live our lives.

The renowned French Naturalist, Jean-Henri Fabre, conducted an interesting experiment with processionary caterpillars, so-called because of their habit of following a lead caterpillar, each with its eyes half closed and head fitted snugly against the rear end of the preceding caterpillar.

Fabre was able to get them on to the rim of a large flowerpot with the lead caterpillar connected up to the last one, thus forming a complete circle, which started moving around in a procession, with neither beginning nor end. In the middle of the circle created by their procession, he placed some pine needles, their favourite food. Each caterpillar followed the one ahead thinking that it was heading for the food.

The naturalist expected that after a while they would discover their predicament or get tired of their useless procession, and move off in some new direction. But that was not the case. Through sheer force of habit, the creeping circle of caterpillars kept moving around the rim of the pot, quite oblivious to the world around them. Thry were busy being busy, blindly following the caterpillar in front.

Round and round they went for seven days and nights! After a week of this mindless activity, the caterpillars started to drop dead because of exhaustion and starvation. They died with the food they were searching for just inches away. Because of their nature and this circular arrangement, they all assumed that the caterpillar in front was leading.

The processionary caterpillars were locked into this lifestyle of rigidly following their instincts, habits, past experience, tradition, custom and precedent - the way they always had done things. In reality, they got nowhere.

The caterpillars confused activity with accomplishment. They confused being busy with results. Many of us are guilty of the same mistake, but we have no excuse because we are blessed with intelligence and freewill, and therefore the ability to change our direction anytime we choose. However, we are creatures of habit and can all too readily get into ruts, which can become vicious circles, and which, in turn, lead nowhere except to a life of frustration and dysfunction, if not mediocrity.

Being busy is our way of feeling in control of our lives… until our busywork spirals out of control and eventually robs us of life itself. . Many people mistakenly feel that being busy means you're doing things that are important. But, what it really means is that you are no longer in control, often doing things that aren’t critical, necessary or important.

So, while it might seem easier in the short term to give away control and, like the processionary caterpillars, even follow others blindly, it is generally riskier in the long term. Being busy gives you an excuse for poor performance and a way to ignore parts of your life that need attention.

Ask yourself, “What is the point of my life - to live a FULL life (filled with busywork) or to live a FULFILLED life?”

As intelligent beings, we expect our activities in life to be purposeful.

So, if you are one of the many people who finds themselves stuck in a rut and headed nowhere, I challenge you to take back control and live a meaningful and abundant life. Live your life on purpose and for a purpose.

According to Albert Einstein, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

Emulate Success

I find it fascinating that, on the one hand, there are people that are virtually ‘uneducated’ who are worth millions and, on the other hand, there are many very ‘educated’ people who are struggling to make ends meet. Many of these ‘educated’ people have high levels of motivation and are very productive in what they do, but they are still not “successful” in the true sense of the word. They are working from dawn till dusk, trading hours for dollars, with little or no hope of attaining their goal of being financially free (and living life on their terms) even if they currently earn a good pay cheque. They are wage-slaves. A wage-slave has a job and everything he needs to live: a roof over his head; clothes on his back; food to eat; medical care when he is sick. He is comfortable, but frustrated at the same time because he lacks that which he wants most: he lacks choice and the freedom to live life on his own terms.

I was one of these people… until I learnt that to be successful, I had to emulate success. In other words, I had to think and act like successful people do. So, I became a ‘student of success’ and learnt the subtleties that differentiated the highly successful from the rest. I implemented these subtle differences into my thinking and my behaviour, and the results were dramatic. Today, I enjoy complete autonomy, living life on my terms. My income is residual (or passive) i.e. I get paid even when I am not working! I have no boss, no employees, no set workplace and no set hours. I earned my freedom the smart way – through entrepreneurship and the application of specific principles of success.

As an entrepreneur, I have come to realize that businesses most often fail because of the business owner’s lack of understanding of fundamental success principles and not because of the business concept itself. In fact, these fundamental success principles apply to all aspects of life, not just to business alone. So, regardless of what you do for a living, my wish is to share with you, through my online programs, the success principles that turned my life around and catapulted me into the top 1% of income earners.