Lesson's For A Smart Life...!!! @ Sunny

Okay, if you're not ready to geek out, and you have trouble getting past the horn-rimmed glasses and plaid button-down shirts you might want to skip this...HOWEVER, if you're ready to see the cool new stuff coming to your browser, then by all means take the time to watch these videos from the Google I/O conference.

I don't know what it will do to their bottom line, but Apple may have just won the OS wars today by pricing their upcoming Snow Leopard (OS 10.6) at $29.

Think about it this way: If you buy a new Mac today with Leopard (OS 10.5) in September you can upgrade to the latest and greatest for $29. If you buy a new Windows-based machine today with Vista in October you can upgrade to the latest and greatest (Windows 7) for $200--or even $300+ if you want the Ultimate version.

I'll grant you that you'll have to buy Apple hardware to run Snow Leopard, or be willing to risk running a Franken-Mac on "non-approved" hardware, but that Apple-tax folks so often quote is starting to sound a lot lower.

~~ Techno Pub

There're so many secrets of success. Of all the secrets, some are basic. They're desire, determination, persistence, patience, enthusiasm, will power, discipline, honesty, integrity, punctuality, courage, and hard work. Let's see how they lead us to success.

1. Desire

Desire determines progress. If you've desire, you'll progress. If you don't have desire, you won't progress. If you want success, you've to develop a desire. A weak desire produces poor result. A strong desire produces good result. A stronger desire will produce better result. Your achieving success depends on the intensity of your desire. All the great personalities the world has seen had a strong and burning desire to do great things in their lives. Shiv Khera says, "A burning desire is the starting point of all accomplishment. Just as a small fire can't give much heat, a weak desire can't produce great results." When you're very thirsty, the first and foremost thing you want to do is drink a glass of water. When you're very hungry, the first thing you look for is food. Let's see if we can make these statements the other way round. To drink a glass of water, you've to be thirsty.
To eat a piece of meal, you've to feel hungry. To achieve success, you've to develop a strong desire to succeed. If you don't have a strong desire to succeed, you won't look for success. That's as simple as that.

You may ask how 'desire' is so important a secret to success. Here's a story that'll answer your question. Once, a young guy went to Socrates. He asked Socrates to teach him the most important secret to success. Socrates agreed. He told the young guy to go with him into a river. The young guy agreed. Both of them went into the deeper area of the river. The river water covered them up to the neck. All of a sudden, Socrates caught hold of the young guy's neck. He immersed the young guy's head into the water with all his might. The young guy struggled hard to escape from Socrates' firm hold but failed. He got suffocated long enough to turn blue. Socrates then pulled his head out of water. The young guy gasped. He took in a deep breath. Socrates asked him, "What did you want the most when you were under water?" To that the young guy replied, "Air." Socrates looked into the eyes of the young guy and said, "That's the secret to success. When you want success as intensely as you wanted air under water, then you'll have it." Napoleon Hills says, "The beginning of every great success is desire."

2. Determination

The determination should be a firm determination. Only then, it'll take us to our goal. You may have a strong desire to succeed. But if you aren't determined to succeed, you won't succeed. Desire and determination should go hand in hand.

Thomas Alva Edison failed more than 10,000 times before he invented his electric bulb. He was determined to invent the bulb. He was determined to put efforts. He was determined to go up to end. Ten thousand failures were nothing to him. When ten thousand failures were nothing to Thomas Alva Edison, why should we be ashamed of our first, second or third failure?

Beethoven was told that he had no talent for music. Did he give up hope? Never! He was determined to learn music. He was determined to put efforts. He was determined to go up to the end. The result? He gave the world some of the best pieces of music....... ......... ......... ."

There was once a boy who wanted to seek the secret of
success. One day he approached a wise man living up in
the mountain. When he found the wise man at the hut, he
asked, “Wise man, can you tell me the secret to becoming
successful in life?” The wise man was silent for a
while. After a moment of silence, the wise man led the
young lad to a nearby river. They kept walking into the
river until the boy’s head was fully submerged in the
water. The boy struggled to keep his head above the
water. To his astonishment, the wise man did not help
him. Instead, the wise man held the boy’s head in the
water. After a few minutes the wise man pulled the boy
out of the water and they proceeded to walk back to the
hut. At the hut the wise man asked the young boy what
he desired most when his head was submerged in water.
To this the young boy quickly responded, “Of course, I
wanted to breathe, you old fool!” To which the wise man
replied, “Son, if you desire success as much as you
wanted to breathe, then you would have found the true
secret of success.”

Once upon a time a very strong woodcutter ask for a job in a timber merchant, and he got it. The paid was really good and so were the work conditions. For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work. The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees "Congratulations," the boss said. "Go on that way!" Very motivated for the boss’ words, the woodcutter try harder the next day, but he only could bring 15 trees. The third day he try even harder, but he only could bring 10 trees.Day after day he was bringing less and less trees. "I must be losing my strength", the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on. "When was the last time you sharpened your axe?" the boss asked. "Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees..."

Author - Stephen Covey

A young man was getting ready to graduate college. For
many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's
showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told
him that was all he wanted.

As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited
signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the
morning of his graduation his father called him into his private
study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine
son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son
a beautiful wrapped gift box.

Curious, but somewhat disappointed the young man
opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible. Angrily,
he raised his voice at his father and said, "With all your money you
give me a Bible?" and stormed out of the house, leaving the holy
book.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in
business.
He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his
father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to him. He
had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make
arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had
passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He
needed to come home immediately and take care things.
When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and
regret filled his heart.

He began to search his father's important papers and
saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With
tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. As he
read those words, a car key dropped from an envelope
taped behind the Bible.
It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the
sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation,
and the words...PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss God's blessings because they are not
packaged as we expected?

One night a group of nomads were preparing to retire for the evening, when suddenly they were surrounded by a great light. 

They knew they were in the presence of a celestial being. 

With great anticipation, they awaited a heavenly message of great importance that they knew must be especially for them. 

Finally, the voice spoke. 

"Gather as many pebbles as you can. Put them in your saddle bags. Travel a day's journey. Tomorrow night you will be both glad and sad." 

Afterwards, the nomads shared their disappointment and anger with each other. 

They had expected the revelation of a great universal truth that would enable them to create wealth, health and purpose for the world. But instead they were given a menial task that made no sense to them at all. 

However, the memory of the brilliance of their visitor caused each one to pick up a few pebbles and deposit them in their saddle bags while voicing their displeasure. 

They traveled a day's journey. That night, while making camp, they reached into their saddle bags and discovered that the pebbles they had gathered the night before had turned into beautiful and brilliant diamonds! 

Indeed, they were both glad and sad, just as the voice had promised. 

They were glad they now had beautiful and valuable diamonds. They were sad they had not gathered more pebbles when they had the opportunity