The founder of a highly successful company was asked what it took to achieve success in life. He replied: “The same thing it tool to get started; a sense of urgency about getting things done.”

Success in life should be determined by contributions, not accumulations.

  At the time of creation, God called upon his archangels and asked them to help him decide where to put Secret of Life. One suggested to bury it in the ground; another, to put it at the bottom of the sea; and still another, to hide it in the mountains.

God said, “These places are beyond the reach of most people. The Secret of Life must be assessable to EVERYONE.”

One archangel suggested: “Put it in each human’s heart.”

God took the suggestion. And there lies the secret of Life to this day. But how many actually find it there?

A man went for a loan to a bank manager, who said, “In truth I should refuse you, but I’ll give you a sporting chance. One of my eyes is made of glass. If you point out the correct one I’ll grant the loan.”

The customer looked at the other intently for a few moments and then said: “It’s your right eye.”

“That’s correct,” said the manager. “How did you guess?’

“Well,” replied the customer, “It’s the kind and sympathetic one.”

Sympathy is the golden key that unlocks the heart of others.  

A mother watched her three-year-old son carefully open the birthday present given by his grandmother. He screamed with excitement to find a drum and a whistle, but his mother was not pleased.

She turned to her mother and said, “mum, I’m surprised. How could you d this. Don’t you remember how when we were his age we would drive you crazy with  drums and whistles?’

The boy’s grandmother replied with a smile, “I remember.”

There is the story about a couple who did not know what to do about the jealousy of their three-year-old son towards their new baby. So they got themselves a Book of Child Psychology and studied it. One day when the little fellow was in a particularly bad mood the mother said, “Take the teddy bear, son, and show me how you feel towards the baby.”

According to the book he was supposed to punch and squeeze the teddy bear. But the three-year-old grabbed the teddy bear by the leg and. With obvious delight, went over to the baby and hit her one the head with it.    

A young officer had been given a difficult and important assignment.  But he failed miserably in his attempts to accomplish it, and thought his career was at an end. But then, to everyone’s surprise, including the young man’s, the colonel gave him another task of equal importance and danger.

The youth put his heart to it and did an excellent job. In fact, he displayed such fine heroism that he even received a medal for his accomplishment. After the ceremony, when his comrades tried to congratulate him, the young officer cried out almost indignantly. “What else could I do? I failed the man, and he went on trusting me.”

Always give people more than they expect to get.   

As her young daughter was going to a party, her mother told her to behave herself and to remember to thank her hostess before she left.

When she returned home, the mother asked if she had thanked her hostess.

The little girl replied, “No, the girl in front of me did and the lady said, ‘don’t mention it’ so I didn’t!!”

A preacher once gave a graphic description of the ways in which people give.

There are three kinds of givers the flint, the sponge and the honeycomb. To get anything out of the flint, you must strike it and then you get only sparks and chips. To get water out of a sponge, you must squeeze it; and the more you squeeze it, the more you get out of it. But the honeycomb just overflows with its sweetness.

One of the things couple did to fill their leisure hours was to grow vegetables and raise chickens. They themselves lived a simple life, so they had no financial problems. That is why the people who came to buy their vegetable or eggs were surprised that they charged the full market price. They refused to give discounts even to their closest friends and neighbours. Naturally, people began to gossip about their miserliness. Only later, however, someone discovered that the couple gave all the proceeds from the sale of the vegetables and eggs to two poor families living in the neighbourhood.

 In judging others it’s always wise to see with the heart as well as with the eyes.

Sandra Hook, a schoolteacher from Vancouver, spent her summer vacation in 1984 working for Mother Teresa in Calcutta. One of her jobs at Nirmal Hriday, the home for the dying destitutes, was to bathe a woman who was very sick. Sandra could not stand the sight of the woman, who was covered with filth and sores and had her nose partially eaten away by insects.

Then she says, she remembered the words of Mother Teresa, "When you touch the poor, touch them as though you are touching the loving Jesus."

Suddenly, her whole perspective changed. She did not find it difficult to bathe the woman.


It is possible to serve without loving, but it is impossible to love without serving.