THE 99 CLUB
Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neitherhappy nor content.One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked.This fascinated the King: Why was he, the supreme ruler of the land, unhappy andgloomy, while a servant had so much joy in his heart?The King asked the man, "Why are you so happy?"He replied, "Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but, my family and I don'tneed too much - just a roof over our heads and food to fill ourselves."Later in the day, the King sought the advice of his most trusted advisor. After hearingthe King's woes and the servant's story, the advisor declared, "Your Majesty, I believethat the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club.""The 99 Club? And, what exactly is that?" the King enquired.The advisor replied, "Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, place 99 goldcoins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep."This was done. When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When heopened it, he let out a great shout of joy ... so many gold coins! He began to countthem. After several times, he was at last convinced that there were 99 coins.
He wondered, "What could have happened to that last gold coin?
Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!"
He looked everywhere he could, but, that final coin was not to be found.
Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection.From that day, the servant's life was changed.
He was overworked, grumbled a lot and scolded his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin.
He stopped singing while he worked.Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought hisadvisor's help, the advisor concluded, "Your Majesty, the servant has now officiallyjoined The 99 Club."
He continued, "The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy, but, are never contented, because they are always yearning and striving for that extra 1 to round it out to 100!
Moral Of Stories: Avoid being members of that club!We can be happy, even with very little in our lives, but the minute we are givensomething bigger and better, we want even more!
We lose our sleep and our happiness. We even hurt the people around us.
All these are as a price for our growing needs and desires.
That's what joining The 99 Club is all about."


How Business Is Done.Father: I want you to marry a girl of my choiceSon: "I will choose my own bride!"Father: "But the girl is Bill Gates's daughter."Son: "Well, in that case...ok"Next Father approaches Bill Gates.Father: "I have a husband for your daughter."Bill Gates: "But my daughter is too young to marry!"Father: "But this young man is a vice-president of the World Bank."Bill Gates: "Ah, in that case...ok"Finally Father goes to see the president of the World Bank.Father: "I have a young man to be recommended as a vice-president."President: "But I already have more vice- presidents than I need!"Father: "But this young man is Bill Gates's son-in-law."President: "Ah, in that case...ok"
This is how business is done!!
Jack and Max are walking from religious service. Jack wonders whether it would be all right to smoke while praying. Max replies, "Why don't you ask the Priest?" So Jack goes up to the Priest and asks, "Priest, may I smoke while I pray? But the Priest says, "No, my son, you may not. That's utter disrespect to our religion." Jack goes back to his friend and tells him what the good Priest told him. Max says, "I'm not surprised. You asked the wrong question. Let me try." And so Max goes up to the Priest and asks, "Priest, may I pray while I smoke?" To which the Priest eagerly replies, "By all means, my son. By all means."Moral: The reply you get depends on the question you ask.
For Example: Can I work on this project while I'm on leave?



A Nice Story
This story is really worth reading.
Sometimes we spend [waste] time in asking who is responsible or whom to blame, whether in a relationship, in a job or with the people we know.
By this way we miss out some warmth in human relationship.
A boy was born to a couple after eleven years of marriage.
They were a loving couple and the boy was the gem of their eyes.
When the boy was around two years old, one morning the husband saw a medicine bottle open.
He was late for work so he asked his wife to cap the bottle and keep it in the cupboard.
His wife, preoccupied in the kitchen totally forgot the matter.
The boy saw the bottle and playfully went to the bottle fascinated by its color and drank it all. It happened to be a poisonous medicine meant for adults in small dosages.
When the child collapsed the mother hurried him to the hospital, where he died.
The mother was stunned.
She was terrified how to face her husband.
When the distraught father came to the hospital and saw the dead child, he looked at his wife and uttered just five words.
QUESTIONS:
 What were the five words?
ANSWERS:
The husband just said, "I am with you Darling"

The husband's totally unexpected reaction is a proactive behavior.
The child is dead. He can never be brought back to life.
There is no point in finding fault with the mother.
Besides, if only he had taken time to keep the bottle away, this would not have happened.
No one is to be blamed.
She had also lost her only child. What she needed at that moment was consolation and sympathy from the husband.
That is what he gave her.
If everyone can look at life with this kind of perspective, there would be much fewer problems in the world.Moral Of Story: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears. And you will find things are actually not as difficult as you think.



The Seed
A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business.
Instead of choosing one of his directors or his children, he decided to do something different.
He called all the young executives in his company together. "It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO," he said.
"I have decided to choose one of you." The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today - a very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you.
I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO." One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed.
He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story.
She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed.
Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown.
After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.
Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing.
By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure. Six months went by - still nothing in Jim's pot.
He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to 6 his colleagues, however.
He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to grow.
A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot.
But she asked him to be honest about what happened.
Jim felt sick at his stomach. It was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right.
He took his empty pot to the board room.
When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives.
They were beautiful--in all shapes and sizes.
Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed.
A few felt sorry for him! When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.
Jim just tried to hide in the back.
"My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the CEO.
"Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!"
All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot.
He ordered the financial director to bring him to the front. Jim was terrified.
He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!"
When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed.
Jim told him the story.
The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim.
He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, "Here is your next Chief Executive! His name is Jim!"
Jim couldn't believe it.
Jim couldn't even grow his seed.
How could he be the new CEO the others said?
Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed.
I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today.
But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow.
All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.
"When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it.
Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive!"If you plant honesty, you will reap trustIf you plant goodness, you will reap friends.If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentmentIf you plant consideration, you will reap perspective.If you plant hard work, you will reap success.If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.
So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later.