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 »

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 »

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 »

The tale of a firewalker

Posted on 08 June 2009 09:16am in Inspiration, Empowerment

Can anyone actually walk barefoot across a bed of red hot burning coals and not get hurt? Is it possible to take your shoes off and walk on a heap of broken beer bottles without getting a cut on your feet? Fakirs and monks from the east have been known to have achieved such feats, but how about mere mortals like you and me?

Well, I did both and lived to tell the tale and share the lessons I learned.


The first time I ever heard of firewalking was from Indra Gurung, an HR trainer and friend of mine. He had participated in one of Anthony Robbins’ firewalking seminars in Manila some years back and would often talk of his experience. I used to think to myself, don’t some people have anything better to do than walk on fire?

But then, a few days back I found myself staring at a 12-feet stretch of embers and flame, ready to take the steps. Do you think I was scared? Or was I enthusiastic and eagerly waiting for the countdown from my coach? Honestly, I was filled with Fear (yes, with a capital F), and how I wished I could just run away from the scene. But then there was no escape, with more than a hundred people cheering and prodding me from all directions. I did the 12 feet marathon and when I reached the other end there was a winning smile on my lips and not a tiniest burn on my feet.

Then I did something else. I walked over a pile of broken glass strewn on the floor, and I did it without so much as a scratch on my feet.


Tall tale? No. There was not a scar on the feet of any of the people who went through the experience. I was not an exception.

How did we do it? And why did we do it? Why would anyone in their senses ever want to walk barefoot on fire, or glass, or ice, or whatever for that matter?

Let me explain.

How is it possible?
Most promoters of fire and glass walk emphasize that you need to be in a special mental state or have an unwavering belief in order to prevent the hot coals from burning and the sharp glass edges from cutting your feet. Critics quickly point out that neither firewalk nor glasswalk has anything to do with the power of the mind, and it doesn’t really require any special mental state or ability; it all has to do with basic physics.

Going by the laws of physics, the reason you can walk on burning coals is that they are poor conductors of heat. It is the same reason why you can touch a cake baking inside an oven without being burned, but you can’t touch a metal plate inside the same oven.

Similarly, it is subtle pressure management when it comes to broken glass walk. A bed of glass is prepared with sufficient depth for the glass to be able to shift and settle as a foot is planted slowly and directly down upon it. This is somewhat similar to pressing a sharp knife with the flat of the blade against one's flesh, where considerable force may be used without injury.

A word of caution though, no matter how much physics or logic you apply, there are definitely serious risks involved in both fire and glass walks. So do not try any of them at home! To make matters clearer, swimming across a 12-feet deep pool is possible by all laws of physics, but you wouldn’t take the plunge unless you know how to swim or you have an experienced coach to guide you through the process.

Why would you do it?
In certain tribes such a practice is a part of the ritual that you can’t escape, and for the ascetics it may be a form of penance and surrender. As for Tony Robbins, Suresh Padmanavan (whose event we attended) and other life coaches, getting people to walk barefooted across a bed of red hot coals or a pile of broken glass is a way of driving home some valuable life lessons.

These people use fire or glass walk as a tool to demonstrate it to people how they can overcome their fears and limiting beliefs.

One of the most important sets of beliefs that we have are the beliefs about possibilities and impossibilities in life and these beliefs influence not only our choices, behavior and actions, but also the risks that we take and what we are willing to try. If we believe something is impossible for us, we wouldn’t even try it, would we? But once we start believing that something is actually possible, it opens up a whole new set of avenues and choices right in front of us.

The firewalk or glasswalk experience is a perfect example. People who have not seen or experienced any of them find it difficult to believe that anyone could actually walk on hot coals or broken glass without getting hurt. It seems to go against common sense and their previous experiences with hot coals or broken glass. But when they do the walk, the old belief comes crashing down, and there is a major shift in paradigm.

That’s what exactly happened with me.

PS: This article was written almost two years ago right after the event.

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 »

What to do when someone calls you ugly and stupid

Posted on 03 June 2009 02:36am in Empowerment

I have been called ugly, stupid, dunce, failure, thief, everything. Not now of course, but in the past.

Do you think I am any of those? Not by any chance. I am a wise and handsome author and educator who’s into giving, rather than thieving. And I am not a failure; I am a success by any definition.

What about the people who called me those names?

Well, I don’t even bother about them because I secretly know that they were calling those names to themselves.

How’s that?

Look, it’s simple. If they were beautiful people, they wouldn’t call me ugly. Those who have beauty in them also have the vision to see the beauty in others. And if they were wise people, they wouldn’t call me stupid. Those that are truly wise have the wisdom to see the greatness in others.

I never paid attention to what they said. I knew I wasn't any of the things they said about me. So whatever they said went back to them.

Indeed, what we see in others is really what we are. It is our own reflection that we see around us – good, bad, ugly, beautiful, success, failure, everything.

In the story of Little Master, the little boy learns this lesson from the stars. He and his friends were looking at the stars when…. Well, let me give you the extract from the book itself:

Suddenly, the sky looked unusually bright. There was a flurry of flashes and blinks all over the sky. It seemed the stars were in celebration of some kind.

Then the boys and girls heard whispers and giggles up in the sky. "We are beautiful! They think we are beautiful!" It was the stars whispering among themselves.

Then a bright old star in the northern sky blinked merrily at the boys and girls as if it was trying to get their attention. When they looked at it, it simply said: "Thank you for making us beautiful." The other stars immediately broke into a beautiful chorus. "Thank you for making us beautiful!" they sang.

The little boy was thunderstruck, and so were his friends.

"We... how do we... make you beautiful?" the little boy asked in great surprise and disbelief. "You are stars and we're just human, young and little."

The stars continued to sing. "You are made of the same stuff that we are made of. Yet you are more than the stars. It is you who make us twinkle."

"Wow!" exclaimed the boys and girls in unison. "How do we do that?"

The wise old star of the north winked heartily at them and said:

"We are stars because you call us so. We twinkle because you look at us. We dance with joy for you think we are beautiful. If it weren't for you, we'd just be balls of hot swirling gases."

The old star then joined its billions of little friends in the merrymaking. They were all frisking and frolicking and turning the sky into a heaven of lights.

The little boy and his friends continued to look at the marvelous night sky for some more time. Now they had a new reason to look there: to make the stars beautiful, to get them to twinkle. They even made new stars appear in different parts of the sky.

Imagine making the stars beautiful!

But it could be true. It could be true that the beauty we see around us (including that of the stars) is really our own beauty reflected back to us. It could be true that how we see other people is really how we are. It could be true that when we call someone ugly or stupid, we are really calling that to ourselves.

So the next time you are tempted to point a finger at somebody, remember that you might be doing that to yourself. The rubbish you want to hurl at someone might land on your own nose.

But what, now I hear you scream, but what if it is the others who are calling me the names and throwing the garbage at me? It’s they who think I am ugly and stupid. I am the victim here!

Well, in that case, you have a choice: Believe what those people say to you and dutifully play the role of a victim. Or do what I did – DON’T GIVE THEM A DAMN! Let them call you a thousand names, point a million fingers at you and scream their hearts out. You hold your head high, put a smile on your lips, pray for those poor souls and walk your way. For you know the truth.

A fantastic tale to delight your heart and ignite your soul

Life skills for young people

An unconventional guide to exceptional teaching

3 comments ( post yours ) more »


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