I Learnt Today…

2008-11-23

Yesterday I bought this new book “How to get what you want from almost anybody” today I could read the introduction of the book and thought to put what I learnt from that as today’s post.

The author explains one of his experiences at air port. The guy who was before him in the queue to get the plane booked after a flight got cancelled. The guy was a straight guy or in other words who simply says what he feels to the face.

The guy had asked for a well placed seat from the first class. Since he was a frequent flyer, he was well respected and recognized from the airline.

When the author went to the counter, after a gentle chat, he asked the person in the counter how hard his job was and he found that the bags of that tough guy has been put in a different (wrong) plane by the person in the counter willingly.

The author has approached the scenario in a different method. He was very gentle with the guy in the counter. When the counter guy asked him what seat he wants, he told the guy he would take any seat from any section of the flight and asked guy to keep the good seats to deal with tough guys.

However, when he got into the plane, surprisingly he was asked to sit in a very good window seat in the first class (the author himself also was a frequent flyer and well recognized).

The first guy is not wrong, he was upset because his flight was cancelled and he had lost his booked nice seat and had to settle for any available seat. So his anger would be justifiable in certain angles.

What he specifies at the end is…

” What do you want most? Is it the thrill of knowing that you are absolutely right, or would you be willing to sacrifice a bit of righteousness in exchange for pleasant, hassle-free service? “

I would not agree with what the author says because it’s not easy to stand silence and be calm when you lose something for some others mistake or problem.

I also have many experiences where I have acted the role of both the tough guy and the nice guy. I also believe that the nice guy approach makes people happy but yes, you may not feel comfortable leaving without talking against the wrong…

But at least it gets the work done which is considered as most important by most of the people of this era …

Cassian Menol Razeek

2008-11-22

Today I went to a party at my dad’s office. There I met this wonderful person who is 57 years old now.

Let me tell something that I found about him:

He’s 57 years old now and married. His wife still works abroad as a house maid and his all sisters are abroad in Australia.

Even though he’s married since a long time ago, he was not blessed with children. His father has already passed away and his mom is healthy but she lives in Australia with his sisters.

His sisters have tried many times to take him to Australia but at all those times authorities had rejected him due to his age.

Once he was even rejected to visit his sisters EVEN for a short period!

From this smal job he gets a very small salary about 100 US $ and his sisters sends him 200 Australian dollars once a month by which he manages to pay his bills and get other needs.

Even though he’s getting a very low salary, he bears a great deal fo responsibilities. Once, as he explained me, he had to go and buy things for few Indians who were hired to assemble a automatic plant.

When he was going to attend that, the waste removal truck has appeared which is also his responsibility. So he has waited for that to finish before go for the other work. But a manager has told him to go and get things while the truck was doin its job.

While he was away, the truck have accidently dumped a large amount of trash on a pipe which then made a huge leak in the glue storage tank making a loss of 40,000 Sri Lankan Rupees (Like 400 US$). Since the manager did not accept he instructed my friend to go, my friend had to pay the loss! 400 US $ may be not a huge some for you but for his salary this was huge.

And I forgot to mention that he once have also had a heart attack….!

So ….

When he was talking like this, you may think that he was a poor guy with a very unhappy life, just the way I thought.

But for my surprice, he was the most happy guy there and there was a genuine smile in his face all the time and it was very pleasent to talk with him.

The best thing is….

He told me that he beleives a lot in God and told me that he has a secret prayer which keeps him so happy and makes lord give him a very successful life and told me that since we are friends, he’d send that prayer to me through my father.

This reminded me a lesson on PARADIGMS….

It’s all about the way we see things that keeps us and people around us happy. He did not complain about those countless problems he had. He told those as challenges that he has faced and he told those things to me in a way as giving a lecture to a younger person.

He did not say God let him get an heart attack, He said, God saved me from that heart attack while many people die from their first heart attack…!

He did not worry because he had to pay a large sum of money for another guys fault eventhough he was upset for that guy’s dishonest behaviour. He was happy because his prayers had been answered and God has tought a lesson to the management though a huge loss on the company (in millions of rupees) due to another irresponsible decision work of the same manager.

What I learnt…

We should not see the worst side of anything that happens to us. Doing that does not solve that problem but only puts us to a even worse level.

We should change our lenses and try through different angles and I do think that we certainly can win the main objective of our life…

which is … HAPPINESS!!!

Cassian Menol Razeek

2008-11-21

As an IT professional, I go through many problems, challenges and new stuff everyday.

Every challenge I face teaches me a new lesson. Every problem shows me a new path.

Also I come across new stuff daily through various methods.

The interesting thing is that someday somehow we meet the same problem again and I have experienced it. In many times, I have remembered that I have faced a similar situation in the past.

The problem is that I don’t remember how I faced it!

So I thought to start a blog and write down everything I learn in a day.

I expect several things from this:

1. To keep a reference to things that I learn on a daily basis
2. To help the world; If anyone faces the same problem after I did and searches the Internet for a solution, I would be pleased if my past experience could help that person.
3. Someday, use this as a way to turn back and see the challenges I have faced in the past.

God, help me to keep the enthusiasm and continue this endeavor !

Cassian Menol Razeek