A Dog's Tale

These lines from Mark Twain's famous book " A Dog's Tale" are so inspiring and show all of us the way in which we must lead our lives.They are reproduced here verbatim, as they have been expressed so succinctly in the author's own words.
"When I was well grown, at last, I was sold and taken away, and I never
saw her again.  She was broken-hearted, and so was I, and we cried; but
she comforted me as well as she could, and said we were sent into this
world for a wise and good purpose, and must do our duties without
repining, take our life as we might find it, live it for the best good of
others, and never mind about the results; they were not our affair.  She
said men who did like this would have a noble and beautiful reward by and
by in another world, and although we animals would not go there, to do
well and right without reward would give to our brief lives a worthiness
and dignity which in itself would be a reward."

HBR Blog

Before you proceed, grab a pen and paper and take a moment to do this quick exercise: Write the name of the best leader, teacher, or coach you've ever had. Write the name of the individual who made a difference in your life, who seemed to care more about you than you cared about yourself.

You'll find that if you're over 40, you are able to name at least one person, and often two or more. Typically, one of these individuals is a former boss. If you're younger than 40, however, you may come up with one name, but it's rarely someone with whom you've worked; you name an athletic coach or a high school teacher. Having administered this exercise to executives of many types and ages in recent years, I can tell you that this is almost always how the answers skew.

We have a vicious cycle operating in many organizations. Senior leaders blame the young MBAs for being naive and entitled, and assume that the younger generation arrives at the company with "negative" attitudes intact. These younger employees, however, form this attitude only because they are in desperate need of someone who cares about them, who communicates that they matter, who lets them know they make a difference. They don't need positive feedback when it isn't deserved. What they need are managers and leaders who are aware that they want to feel significant and who make the effort to communicate this fact in small as well as big ways.

I'm not absolving you of responsibility for finding your own significance in a career or a job. No matter whether you're a young, middle-aged, or older professional, if you're driven to achieve, you also need to be driven to find your place in a work setting. You can't depend on an organization to make a concerted and consistent effort to imbue your work with meaning.

Recognize that the challenges of finding significance are in part based on your age, in part on your social motives and values, in part on your mental makeup (e.g., are you in the midst of divorce or other life crisis?), in part on your work situation (e.g., a massive downsizing or culture change), and in part, on management's approach to this issue. While you can't control some of these factors, you can control your response to them.

You need to define and redefine what type of work you want to do, what type of organization and culture you want to be part of, and what goals you want to strive for. And you need to do this regularly, since what's significant now might not be as significant a year from now. For some of you, working for the leading organization in your field may be of prime significance. For others, working in a smaller, closer-knit culture is what matters.

Finally, if you want to increase the odds that your organization will help you find significance in your work, look for the modern equivalent of the apprenticeship model. Seek work in companies where young people, those new to an organization, and even some veteran employees starting out on new jobs and tasks essentially serve as apprentices to "master craftsmen." This entails a lot of learning on the job — following senior people around, asking questions, being questioned, trying, failing, and then succeeding. Apprentices naturally feel significant, since their master is responsible for them and their education. They receive continuous feedback, their learning and progress is monitored, and when they are ready, they are promoted into positions of responsibility. In this way, they achieve significance.

You want to find an organization where senior people enjoy mentoring rather than resent the time required and billable hours lost. You want to work for a company where your learning and growth is valued, where you are treated as distinct individual rather than a replaceable part. Finding this type of company is more challenging today than years ago, but it's worth the effort, since finding it will go a long way in helping you find the significance you seek.

Copper Prices

A colossal battery of economists and analysts across the globe put in hours every single day fussing over loads of data and charts. What they all try to do is to figure out the best way to predict the future of the global economy. And they often err.

For once leave them aside and instead  try listening to these two metals: gold and copper. If you heard carefully, they say a lot about the health of the economy. Of course, they both have their own areas of specialty. Gold Prices usually gives a prompt diagnosis of monetary disorders and government failures. On the other hand, copper prices are a good barometer of industrial health.

The reason for the same is simple. Copper is widely used in the manufacturing of goods ranging from autos and plumbing pipes to semiconductors and telecom and cable wiring. Hence, a sharp dip in copper prices could mean a slip in industrial demand. Two years ago, when worldwide growth picked up after the crisis, copper had led the rally. And what is happening at the moment? After reaching the peak in mid-February, copper prices have fallen by almost 10%. And guess what? The recently announced US economic data is not really encouraging. And it is not just the US. Surprisingly, China has reported a trade deficit for the month of February. Certainly, this is largely attributable to the Chinese New Year slowdown. However, there are other signs of slowing demand in China as central bankers are nervously trying to combat the rising inflation.

Of course, one should not take metals prices blindly. They cannot be foolproof indicators all the time. There are times when they go to extreme ends. Nonetheless, they can at times predict what humans cannot. Copper especially can be a better indicator than gold because of its early warning signals as compared to the latter.

True Love-Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds	Let me not declare any reasons why two
Admit impediments. Love is not love	true-minded people should not be married. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,	which changes when it finds a change in circumstances
Or bends with the remover to remove:	or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark	Oh no! it is a lighthouse
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;	that sees storms but it never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,	Love is the guiding north star to every lost ship,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.	whose value cannot be calculated, although its altitude can be measured.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks	Love is not at the mercy of Time, though physical beauty
Within his bending sickle's compass come:	comes within the compass of his sickle.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,	Love does not alter with hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.	But, rather, it endures until the last day of life.
If this be error and upon me proved,	If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.	then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly] loved.

The Great Philospher

On Children
 Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.