�Who Says You Can�t Teach an Old Dog a New Trick or Two�

Yesterday I had a number of comments that made me really question –  WHAT IS MY PURPOSE? So today I did some soul searching – discussed the point with two of my sons and did some Internet surfing.

My conclusion: There is only thing that I can work at on a daily basis that gives my life value – setting a personal goal to help others and to give away to all I meet – kindness – compassion and love.

In any case I stumbled upon a couple of interesting reads:

1^st: This was pretty interesting and has many branch offs

http://www.relfe.com/life_purpose.html

2^nd: Something You Forgot … Along the Way

Stories of Wisdom and Learning

by Kentetsu Takamori

1 Making the World Happier

A Smiling Face and a Word of Kindness

John Wanamaker (1838-1922) was a department store pioneer. One day, a young man came to apply for an advertised job opening in his store. Wanamaker himself conducted the interview, and the applicant answered every question with a firm “Yes” or “No.” He was a strapping young man with impressive academic credentials, and no one present at the interview doubted he had nailed the job. Even so, Wanamaker turned him down.

“He seemed like a fine fellow,” commented one of Wanamaker’s aides. “Was there something about him you didn’t like?”

Wanamaker explained, “He answered all my questions with a plain “Yes” and “No” instead of “Yes, sir” or “No, sir.” If he doesn’t know enough to be polite to me, I doubt he would treat customers with the proper consideration. In my store, the customer always comes first. I couldn’t possibly hire him.” The story illustrates the power of a single word.

Wanamaker’s employees used to say that one cheery “Good morning!” from the boss was enough to make them enjoy a week’s work. Their joy in working translated into booming success for the store. People talk about serving society, but nothing does so much to make the world a happier place as a smile and a cheerful hello. Like a street performer, Wanamaker brought hope and cheer to all around him.

The worst skinflints are those who are stingy with smiles and hellos. All it takes to make others happy is a twinkle in the eye and a word or two, so don’t hoard them. The Anglican clergyman Sydney Smith (177-1845) said, “When you rise in the morning, form a resolution to make the day a happy one to a fellow creature.” By doing this for ten years, he pointed out, one could make 3,650 people happy – the equivalent of making a charitable donation to an entire town. That would indeed be an act of charity in keeping with Akyamuni’s teaching to “have a smiling face and speak words of kindness.”

How do I know grand intentions benefit no one – been there – done that!

In my past I was or maybe in the eyes of others wasn’t – fortunate enough to be in a position where I could present my grand intentions as if they were reality and that success and financial riches were just around the corner.

Now don’t get me wrong, we all made good money, but I wasn’t able to sustain the growth and longevity of the company and I certainly never reached the lofty expectations that I had planted in the minds of my employees. Needless to say all my long term promises went up in smoke and all the people that had put faith it my grand intentions ended up walking away wondering, “Who sold me that car?”

The kicker is that I did care – or I thought I cared. Over the past 6 years I have done some serious soul searching – in search of my own inner truths. What I have come to realise is that my grand intentions were an attempt to cover up my personal insecurity that I simply wasn’t good enough. So I created an image of grandeur that I felt others would appreciate and respect. A short term resolve for a long term problem.

Now that doesn’t mean everything I did was bad, I learned to set goals and that once goals are set they become attainable. I helped a lot of people earn good money and master their crafts and probably most importantly our company brought a lot of happiness into the hearts of millions of people.

But today I am a different guy -why because today I’m 83.4 % honest. (Got your attention didn’t I.) My grand intentions have been replaced by constructive, flexible, attainable goals, based upon the principle – “We need to do the right things for all the right reasons.”

Today I know I am flawed and I can accept it and when I error, I do my best to admit it immediately and ask for forgiveness. And from all of that I now know – it’s ok to me!