The prologue of a million dollar teacher

Posted on 29 May 2010 03:34am in Education, Inspiration, Empowerment

I am often called by schools to interview teachers for them. It’s not an easy job because schools are not just looking for someone who knows the subject and who can teach. They want an educator, psychologist, paramedic, public speaker, motivator, career counselor, youth advisor, child specialist and what not, all rolled into one, called a teacher.

“You can't find a teacher like that, someone with all those qualities,” you may say. “It’s impossible.”

But I know it’s possible. If you are a teacher you should know. You are one such person already. You’re teaching your subject, watching for learning problems, dealing with all kinds of parents, helping your students with pertinent issues like peer pressure and bullying, building their self-esteem, providing opportunities for decision-making, guiding them through critical life choices… you’re doing everything! It’s all a part of the package of being a teacher.
That’s why everybody can't be a teacher. It’s the special few who can and who choose to teach. For the rest of them, there are other professions.

My job at the interview is to identify and take in those special few with the guts to teach. I’m glad that I always find them, and I am gladder that their number is ever increasing. More and more of these (special breed of) individuals are joining the profession, and helping to transform the very nature of teaching and learning.

Teachers around the world are bringing in a new evolution in education. I can see the change happening before my eyes.

I could see the same vision of change in the eyes of the young man seated in front of me at the last interview. I didn’t much look into the folder of credentials he had submitted; I could see in his eyes a reflection of the passion of his heart. His words too echoed that same passion. He was raring to teach.

I wanted to hire him, but I couldn’t tell him so immediately. I was apprehensive about the pay. The school was offering a handsome pay, no doubt, but this gentleman was worth a lot more than that. I even had a wicked thought momentarily that this gentleman should have applied for some other profession where he would be far better off financially. But then, he wanted to be a teacher and the school was in need of one like him. I told him he was hired and what his salary would be.

He happily accepted the offer and I heaved a sigh of relief. Then I asked him, “What can the school expect of you?”

He replied:

“You can expect me to teach as if I were paid a million dollars. How can I teach anything less than that?”

Indeed, how could he! How could he teach anything less than his very best! I almost stood up to give an ovation to this remarkable person who was going to be a teacher.

He reminded me of my own teacher from school - a million dollar teacher. You will hear a lot about him in this book. The title itself is in honor of him.

This new teacher (his name was David) sounded equally worthy and had all the trappings of a great teacher.

I visited him in the school a few months after this interview to see how he was doing. I was truly amazed by his performance. He had an almost uncanny ability to take a class of ordinary kids and turn them into geniuses and champions, no less. He was indeed a great teacher.

We'll see more of him in the first chapter:

a true alchemist


I hired four teachers that day. The second was Fatima, a middle-aged woman with 20 years of experience with her.

I was impressed by the range of knowledge and skills she had. I could tell that she was an avid reader who had read almost every book that a teacher should read. (I have listed some of these books on page 140.)

“You’re hired,” I told her, “Ms... .” I faltered. I just couldn’t recall her name, and looked blankly at her.

“I’m Fatima,” she quickly said. Then she did an amazing thing – something that doesn’t usually happen at an interview. She taught me an easy way to remember names. Then she ran me through some interesting memory methods such as visual linking and number-rhyme system. In less than 40 minutes, she had given me one of the most impressive lessons in effective learning that I’ve remembered and applied ever since.

You’ll read about her methods in chapter two:

a wizard in the classroom


The third teacher that I was privileged to appoint that day was Arun, who looked and talked like Gandhi, and incidentally, he was born the day Gandhi was shot dead. Yes, he was more than 60, but he was as active as a 16-year-old boy and had the keenness of a six-year-old kid.

As he was telling me how he would like to foster creativity in students, I couldn’t help remembering my million dollar teacher. He always taught us to use our imagination and creativity and had us learn by exploring, experimenting and discovering things for ourselves. I began to wonder how we could make our classrooms more like his. We studied in bamboo and straw shanties back then, sitting on the floor, but our classrooms were laboratories of exploration and discovery.

I suddenly realized that Arun had stopped talking and was looking at me interestedly with a knowing smile on his face.

“Please continue, sir, I’m listening,” I said.

“Well, you haven’t been listening really,” he told me nonchalantly. “You remembered something or someone from the past, and then you started talking to yourself. I was waiting for you to finish with that.”

I was shocked. How did he know what I was thinking?

“Eyes,” he told me. “Words can lie but eyes will always tell the truth. I was looking at the movement of your eyes and I could tell what was going on in your mind.”

Good heavens! How handy that would be to catch your students with their occasional little lies and lame excuses!

“That’s a great feat,” I complimented him. “I wish I knew how to do the same.”

“Oh, it’s a simple little trick that I can teach you in five minutes,” he replied.

I’ll be sharing quite a bit of Arun’s wonderful strategies in the chapter titled:

a master communicator


Mei was next. It was an intriguing interview with her.

Mei asked me more questions about the school and how sincere we were about really preparing the students for their future than I ever got the chance to ask her about herself. When I finally showed my interest in hiring her, she told me something that no interviewer may have ever heard from an interviewee.

“Oh, you can't hire me,” she said tersely.

“What do you mean?” I asked, most surprised. She was here for a job and what did she mean that I couldn’t hire her!

“Let me teach for a week for free’” she said. “I must practically prove how valuable I could be for the school. Then you can decide whether to continue my services for a charge.”

I really liked her idea. “That’s all right,” I said. “We’ll watch you for a week and then hire you if we are satisfied.”

“No,” she retorted. “If you decide to take my services, then in fact I’d be hiring you to pay me.”

Then she explained it to me more clearly. She thought of herself as a teacher and not as an employee. An employee could be hired and fired, but a teacher always remained a teacher.

Mei liked to believe that as a teacher she cold always learn, improve and upgrade herself and offer her services for better charges. She didn’t want to be an employee who was stuck in one place and got paid a certain amount whether one improved or not.

I couldn’t agree with her more.

Just as she proposed, Mei taught for free for a week. In that time, she won the hearts of the students and the trust of the administrators. She proved herself so valuable that the school couldn’t afford not to hire her. Or, in her words, she hired the school to take her services!

She remained with the school just for a year. But in that one year she gave the school what it hadn’t got in 10 years. She established a unique culture in the school and left behind a lasting legacy. You’ll get to read about her unique ways in chapter four:

a friend, philosopher and guide


The final candidate was Sergey.

“If there’s one thing that you’d like to change about our education system, what would it be?” I asked him.

“I’d do away with the testing system,” he replied. “No examinations whatsoever.”

That was a bold statement. How would we ever know whether the students really learned if there were no tests and exams? I asked him to explain.

In reply, he opened an album that he had brought along and he showed me a collection of photographs.

The photos spoke volumes about what this teacher was doing to make a significant difference in the lives of his students. He wasn’t teaching them so that he could test and grade them at the end of each term; instead, he was preparing them for life!

I just needed to have him at the school. He could be a wonderful agent of change – a positive change that would impact not only the school but also the society around it.

You’ll read about some of his wonderful ways in the last chapter:

a rebel with a cause


The interview was over but my relationship with these wonderful teachers wasn’t. I felt a deep connection with them. I couldn't wait to see them in action. I wanted to see how they would create their little miracles in the classroom and beyond.

They were all so much like my own teacher from school – the million dollar teacher. He came to our village (which was a grueling five-day walk from the nearest motorway) one day out of nowhere, collected a few kids and adults, sat under a tree and started teaching! In three years, he had established a fully functional school, galvanized the society to the cause of education, filled us with hope and dreams, given us enough reasons to excel and achieve, and then … he left.
We never saw him again.

I am always looking for him. I search him in the eyes of every teacher I meet. I seek his qualities in the teachers I interview. Maybe I am expecting too much. Or maybe not, because wherever I go, whichever school I visit, I always find a million dollar teacher teaching in a corner classroom, inspiring the students to greatness, instilling hope and dreams for the future, showing them reasons and ways to excel and achieve. I find them watching for learning problems, dealing with tough parents, helping students with pertinent issues like peer pressure and bullying, building their self-esteem, providing opportunities for decision-making, guiding them through critical life choices… they’re doing all they can!

How would these five teachers (David, Fatima, Arun, Mei and Sergey) do? How would they awaken genius, power and magic in the classroom? How would they light the fire in their students? How would they transform the world around them?

Join me in the following chapters to find out.

A fantastic tale to delight your heart and ignite your soul

Life skills for young people

An unconventional guide to exceptional teaching

2 comments ( post yours ) more »

Study skills for smart students

Posted on 17 April 2010 10:54am in Education


How do smart students study? What specific skills do they use? What are their optimum learning habits? Do they apply any special strategies? How do they learn faster, study better and score higher at exams? What are their secrets?

Their secrets are really no secrets at all. They have a few predictable study habits and they follow some simple rules of learning. Anyone who observes the same strategies will get the same results.

Whole-brain learning
One of the first things to know and apply is what is called whole-brain learning. It’s really a simple concept after all. There are two hemispheres in our brain – the left and the right – joined by a complex neural switching system called the corpus callosum. Each of these sides performs its own special functions. The left side plays a major part in processing the language, logic and mathematics (academic abilities) and the right side mainly deals with music, imagination and pictures (creative activities).

While learning our courses, we generally neglect the right side. But best learning takes place when you engage both sides of the brain.

One reason we remember songs easily is because they use music (right brain activity) and words (left brain activity) together. Similarly, movies use music, pictures and lots of imagination. No wonder we like them so much.

So it would be a pretty good idea to take the services of your right brain while you study. Make use of music, pictures and imagination whenever and as much as possible. Let the right brain do the visualizing while the left brain is busy analyzing. Two brains working together is always better than one struggling alone!

Mind mapping
If you want to engage both sides of your brain in the learning process, then you wouldn’t want to take linear notes starting at the top of the page and ending at the bottom. You’d make a mind map instead and study it.

Mind mapping is a simple tool to brainstorm, organize and store ideas. It’s actually like making a map of what you’re studying (or thinking) using words and pictures. You start from the center with the main idea and put all the related ideas and points on the branches spreading out from that center.

A mind map looks rather like an octopus with main idea as its head and supporting points as its arms. See an example here.

Mind mapping is an effective learning tool because it has food for both the brains - words and pictures. Besides, it gives information to the brain the way it likes it. You see, the brain doesn’t work in neat lines and columns. It processes information on its tree-like dendrites, using special association patterns. You do just that when you make a mind map of what you’re learning.
For more on mind mapping, read Tony Buzan’s excellent book on the subject The Mind Map Book.

Memory systems
There are fantastic memory systems that you can make use of as a student. One of the oldest and most popular is the linking system. “In order to remember any new thing, it must be associated, in some ridiculous way, with something you already know,” says Harry Lorayne, a memory specialist. And that’s really the essential part of this system. You connect new material (what you want to remember) with something common and familiar (that you already know) in some funny way. The crazier and more ridiculous the connection, the better the memory. You can find a good example of this in my book Circle of Excellence.

Then there are other simple and effective methods such as the peg and the number-rhyme system and a whole range of mnemonics. The good news is it doesn’t take long to understand and apply these systems – a week should be good. Read a couple of fine books on the subject such as the ones listed here (25 Power Books for Students) and you’ll be excellent.

The superlearning state
If you want to learn faster, then you’ve got to slow down your brain – down to what is called the alpha level. At this level, the brain is working at a frequency of 8-12 cycles per second. At higher frequencies of beta level (12-16 cycles per second), the brain is surely alert and prompt, but it’s not in the right state for learning. Beta is good for other activities such as talking, driving and playing. Then, at the lower frequencies of theta and delta (0-8 cycles per second) the brain is actually too slow to take in new learning. Alpha is just right – here your brain is slow but alert and open to learning. Researchers believe that when you are in this state of ‘relaxed alertness’, the information you take in goes directly into the subconscious mind. It’s the superlearning state.

How do you put your brain into that state? Through relaxation and music. The best is Baroque music – a 60-beat per minute music from the 17th century. But of course, even your favorite relaxation music will help.

Listen to it (again, Baroque if you can get it!) for about 30 minutes before you sit down to study. Or you can have it playing softly in the background even while you study.

Do it for a few weeks and you’ll begin to see the difference.

Rest and review
Do you know why normal class periods are usually of 40 to 45 minutes? That’s because it’s time to take a quick rest. You can't learn much by pushing your brain too hard for too long at a stretch. After every 30-to-50-minute session of study you need to take a short break – five minutes will do fine. The brain uses this downtime to make sense of what has been learned and to organize and store the stuff in their right places. And as your brain is doing its critical duties behind closed doors, you can just stretch and relax. Or if you wish, you can jump, hum or doodle. Do whatever pleases you. Just don’t study. Then, after five minutes, you’re back to work, ready to learn more.

Now something about revision. You can study like crazy, but if don’t review and revise at regular intervals, you’re wasting a lot of good energy.

Most of what you’ve learned will have gone from your head within the next 24 hours if you do not review it. Within a week or two, you may have nothing to show for it. So a smart thing to do is, after you’ve studied anything, review it immediately in about 5 to 10 minutes. Review it again in 24 hours, then again in a week and then again in a month. Each review may take less than five minutes, but this short-term investment will deposit well in your long-term memory.

Speed reading
You may think that if you read slowly and deliberately, word by word, you will understand better. But no, it works the other way round. The faster you read, the better you understand.

The brain itself is designed to understand things quite fast. Would you understand a movie better if they rolled the film fast or if they showed you one frame at a time (taking a couple of months to finish the complete movie)? Would you understand a joke better if I told you the whole thing in one shot or if I told you one word a day?

So learn to read fast. One simple way to do so is to train your eyes to jump from one group of words to another. Not glide in a straight line, but jump. You’ll find clear instructions on how to do this in my book Circle of Excellence in the section titled How to study better, learn faster and score higher.

Individual learning styles
You learn best if you follow your own learning style, of course. For example, if you are an auditory learner, then you will learn better and faster if you listen to things. Why not record all your notes and listen to them on your mp3 player? That’s a cool way to learn! You could even put the stuff into some kind of music and then sing it. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

If you are a visual learner, then you could draw pictures of what you’re learning. Design colorful mind maps rather than take the usual black-n-white notes. Make mental movies of the matter to learn and then play them in your head while you lie on the couch. That’s what you call having fun while you learn!

If you are a kinesthetic learner who has to touch or feel or do something to get a grasp on the subject, then don’t sit still and moan. Get into action. Dribble a ball while you learn. Dance while you study. Act the part. Do something!

As a student, you’re going to have to learn a lot of stuff – some of it important and relevant to life and some of it hopelessly outdated and useless stuff. But learn you must whether it’s for life or for the exams. If you adopt smart and creative ways to learn, you’ll do yourself a world of good. On the one hand, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and effort. On the other, you will score better, which counts too. On top of it all, you will develop a genuine love of learning because for you it won’t be a chore anymore, but a creative adventure. It will serve you for life.

All the best.

A fantastic tale to delight your heart and ignite your soul

Life skills for young people

An unconventional guide to exceptional teaching

7 comments ( post yours ) more »

How to quit smoking and drinking

Posted on 09 December 2009 10:02pm in Empowerment

It’s easy. I know because I have done it.

I used to smoke like a chimney and drink like a fish. I was an addict for more than fifteen years. Then one fine day I quit. No struggles, no therapies. I just quit.

Do you want to hear my story? I don’t think I will tell you because it’s long and complicated. But I will share the secret with you. It’s simple, effective and durable. So read on.

Why do people smoke?
OK, tell me, why do you smoke or drink in the first place? Is it to feel good? No, there are a thousand other ways to feel good. You wouldn’t want to engage in these damned habits to make you feel good. In fact, you don’t really feel good by blowing up your life in smoke and drowning in hell. So tell me the truth, why do you smoke or drink?

To look cool, to ‘belong’ in a certain group, to impress the opposite sex…. No, silly. Those were the reasons that got you started. You were an idiot then. But now you know better. You have grown up since then. So now why do you smoke or drink?

“Because I’m addicted!” I hear you shout. “My body wants it. I can’t help it.”

Oh, no. You don’t drink or smoke because you are addicted. You drink and smoke because you have nothing better to do. That’s it.

Yes, you have nothing better to do. If you had, then you’d be doing those ‘better’ things. You would be pursuing more wholesome desires and doing something more constructive with your life. You wouldn’t be sitting there sucking the life out of yourself.

So how can I quit?
You cannot quit by trying to quit. You have tried many times already, haven’t you? You have thrown your packet of cigarettes into the trash can and begun chewing gum. You have emptied a whole bottle of whisky down the drain and vowed never to drink again. Everyone has tried these tricks, but then you know what happens the very next day, or a couple of days later. Old habits die hard and little tricks don’t work.

What you need is something larger than the habit itself. Remember what Einstein has said: “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

You need to take a massive decision. You need to go for a compelling change. You need to create a quantum shift. What you need is a mission.

Yes, a mission. Not a mission to quit, but a mission for your life.

Remember what I said earlier – you’re following these dumb habits because you have nothing better to do. That is to say, you don’t have a mission for your life. You’re not following your passion and you’re not going for your dreams. You’re not living your life according to your true potential. That’s why these darn little habits are eating away your life just like termites eat wood and rust eats iron.

When you build a vision for your own life and go for your dreams, these pesky little habits crumble and dissipate own their own. They lose their power. They give up themselves at your mere decision to quit.

Here’s a line from my book Little Master that sums this idea so well:
“When you know your own greatness, petty things lose their sting.”

What can I do now?
You know what to do. First decide on your mission in life. Set goals for your future. Begin working towards those goals. Then you can talk about quitting.

“But I don’t know what my mission in life is. I don’t even know if I have any goals. How do I begin?”

Well, then, it looks like we have to begin from scratch.

First, sit down and have a good look at the wreck you have made out of yourself. Then look into the future. See yourself there. See yourself as the person you want to be. What kind of life do you want to live? What do you want to achieve? See yourself living that life, having achieved what you want to achieve. See yourself as a successful person who’s living the best life you can imagine.

Yes, see yourself in the future. Project yourself five or ten years into the future. You don’t see yourself smoking and drinking there, do you? Which means, in that future time, you have already quit these nagging habits. You are successful and happy there. You are using your talents and giving value to the world. You have found your mission in life.

There you are. What you just did was get a glimpse of the possibilities. You saw yourself as having quit the habit though at the moment you don’t have the slightest idea how you did it. You saw yourself as living a successful, mission-bound life even though you don’t yet know how that could be possible.

This is the beginning. See this vision every day. It won’t be long before new avenues begin to open up for you. You’ll begin to see possibilities where it seemed none existed before. You will feel a new surge of power within you.

Let the countdown begin.
Now you begin to realize who the boss here is. Certainly not that stupid roll of tobacco or that poor glass of vodka. They had taken the power over you because you had been weak, with no direction and mission in life. But now you know better. You are the boss. And your decision rules.

So, now is the time to act. Decide on a day when you will quit once and for all. I propose that you choose a special day, such as the New Year’s Day or your birthday. It’s going to be an important occasion – the beginning of a new life for you.

On that day you bid goodbye to your habit. You don’t smoke and you don’t drink any more. You have other more important things to do in life.

But then you may feel fidgety, quirky and shaky for a few days. That’s because your old habits have left a vacuum in you and you feel off balance. You have got to fill that vacuum with the seeds of your mission.

What is your mission again? What is it that you want to achieve in life? What do you want to be, do and have? Fill your days with the thoughts of your mission and work on your goals. Use every moment of your free time acquiring new knowledge and skills. Do the things that will fuel your passion and propel you towards your mission.

In other words, replace your dead habits with new and empowering ones.

That is the way it works.

You don’t quit major habits by using minor methods. You need to apply massive force. And what greater force can there be than the vision of your own life.

Have a vision for your life first, then you’ll see how easy it will be to quit. In fact, you won’t even have to quit; the habits that don’t serve your purpose will quit themselves.

I’ll leave you now with these two resounding quotes on vision:

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." -Proverbs 29:18
“We go where our vision is.” - Joseph Edward Murphy

A fantastic tale to delight your heart and ignite your soul

Life skills for young people

An unconventional guide to exceptional teaching

7 comments ( post yours ) more »

A test of multiple intelligences

Posted on 31 July 2009 04:49am in Education

You’ve heard of Multiple Intelligences, haven’t you? Harvard professor Howard Gardner came up with this theory way back in the early 80s. He said that we don’t have one intelligence; rather we have eight or more intelligences. Some of these intelligences are dominant in us and some are less prominent. For example, some of us may be highly competent at reading and writing tasks (linguistic intelligence) while others may be exceptionally good at science and numbers (logical-mathematical intelligence) and some others may be masterful at art and design (visual-spatial intelligence). The truth is, everyone’s intelligent in some way.

So what are the different intelligences? Here are the eight clearly identified ones:
Bodily-kinesthetic
Interpersonal
Verbal-linguistic
Logical-mathematical
Naturalistic
Intrapersonal
Visual-spatial
Musical

And it’s not very difficult to identify these intelligences. Here’s a quick little test:

Updating....

A fantastic tale to delight your heart and ignite your soul

Life skills for young people

An unconventional guide to exceptional teaching

0 comments ( post yours ) more »

Who reads Little Master?

Posted on 13 July 2009 10:49pm in Inspiration

When I first started writing Little Master, I never thought the book would appeal to readers of all ages. I was expecting that my readers would be mostly school-going kids, and possibly some conscientious teachers and parents. After all, it was going to be a story about a lost and lonely schoolboy who ‘escapes’ school and goes on a marvelous voyage of self-discovery. He uncovers the amazing secrets of learning and the wonderful secrets of life. It’s all about exploration, learning and discovery that perhaps only kids would be interested in.

That’s what I thought and I’m glad that I was wrong.

I find adults reading, enjoying and being enriched by this book just as much as the kids are. I meet college students who say their life took a new course after they read the book. I hear from teachers and parents almost every day how the book changed the way they look at children, how they see, treat and teach them. And of course the kids, they’re never the same after they’ve read the book. For they’ve now found a new meaning in life and a whole new purpose to learning.

So now when someone asks me who the book is for, I boldly say, “It’s for everyone” and I mean it. Because there really is something in Little Master for everyone, whether a learner, a teacher, a parent, a youngster or an adult.

Learners
No real learning can take place when you are caught in a whirlpool of tests, grades, degrees and certificates. That's not learning. That's madness. True learning explores your genius and inspires you to greatness. Little Master can be your guide.

Teachers
There are plenty of things for teachers. There is in fact a complete chapter dedicated to you - What a teacher! You shape the destiny of countless lives and you literally steer the course of the world. You carry in your hand a staff of greatness, a true magic wand. Don't ever let your magic wand turn into a cane of torture, a devil's weapon! You can let Little Master remind you, now and then, when you are unsure or tend to falter.

Parents
The greatest healers in the world - that's the chapter for parents. Why healers? Read it and you will know. You are healers when you know. Surely you have seen parents who are killers - they murder their children's greatness without the slightest compunction. That's what can happen when you don't know.

Youngsters
Hormones, society and so many other things can play havoc on your life when you are young and growing. You could easily lose direction, and you could even commit dreadful acts out of ignorance. But when you know your own greatness, petty things lose their sting. Reading Little Master can help, truly.

Adults
No matter how old you are, there's a kid in you, alive and kicking. Or has that kid already died? If he/she has, then revive him/her. An adult is no adult if they have no kid in them. Read Little Master and let the kid in you come alive one more time, full of wonder, amazement and questions - questions that you have either forgotten to ask or are too scared to ask. You get the answer only when you ask.

So there you see, Little Master a book for everyone. And it’s no wonder. Packed within its 108 pages is ageless wisdom and timeless inspiration told in the form of a fascinating tale that both young and old can enjoy. I even dare say, and hopefully without bias, that if you want to read just one book in your lifetime, make it Little Master. You’ll do yourself a lot of good.

Happy reading.

A fantastic tale to delight your heart and ignite your soul

Life skills for young people

An unconventional guide to exceptional teaching

0 comments ( post yours ) more »

What's the love of your heart?

Posted on 23 June 2009 10:16pm in Empowerment

If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you. - T. Alan Armstrong

There are more than six and a half billion people in the world today and it amazes me to think that EVERY ONE of them is special and unique in some way. Everyone has some talent or ability or gift that is unique to them. That special gift, or the mark of genius as I would like to call it, resides in the depth our hearts. It is what gives us direction in life.

Some people recognize this gift in them and they make it their passport to greatness. Others never bother about it and, by their ignorance and negligence, they simply let the genius die. And let me tell you, it’s painful to watch genius die.

And it’s even more painful, excruciatingly painful, to know that countless geniuses die every day without ever knowing that they were geniuses. Without knowing that they were special, uniquely gifted individuals who could live fulfilling lives if they explored and expressed their core genius. Who could not only brighten their own life but also illuminate the whole world if only they recognized and manifested their unique talents and special abilities. If they simply followed their passion – the love of their hearts!

What about you? Are you following the love of your heart? Are you expressing all your special talents and abilities? Are you giving the world the special gifts that it expects from you?

Please do. Do the thing you love. Do what brings joy to your heart. Follow your passion. Answer your calling. Give the world the fruit of your genius. You just can't come down to this world, hang around a few years, and just leave from here. That's mighty discourteous. You've got to leave something behind, something of value. And what better thing to leave behind than the gift of your genius!

Yes, the gift of your genius. Which, again, is only possible if you follow the love of your heart. Whatever it may be. Whatever. From collecting rocks to designing rockets. It may even be hanging out talking with people. That's what people like Oprah and Ellen do. Or it may be computers, just like that of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. So, as I said, whatever. Whatever pumps your heart and makes you jump out of bed in the morning. Do that. Do it as passionately as Ms Winfrey or Mr Jobs do.

That's all it takes.

Now to end this post, I'd like to invite Steve Jobs, yes the same Mr Jobs, the whiz and boss of Apple Inc, to say something to you on this very topic. Perhaps Steve would like to share a few remarkable instances from his own life. Watch him speak in this YouTube video and let the message sink in.

All the best.

A fantastic tale to delight your heart and ignite your soul

Life skills for young people

An unconventional guide to exceptional teaching

2 comments ( post yours ) more »


« Older entries