Secret of Success

It was a beautiful morning. The students were waiting for the Physics lecture to begin. After five minutes, the professor entered without his usual paraphernalia. Instead he brought with him a glass jar, some sand, some pebbles (big ones and small ones as well), a cup and some tea in a thermos flask. The students were bewildered at this strange assortment of goods. They animatedly chatted and wondered what the professor was going to deliver to them.

Finally, the professor spoke.

"Friends, I didn't feel like teaching the subject today. Instead I would wish you to explain me the reason for bringing these things."

He filled the jar by putting some sand and then small pebbles and then the big ones. No space was left for some of the big ones.

Then, again he emptied the jar. And this time he filled the large pebbles first, then the small ones and finally some sand. This time the contents fitted in easily.

"Does this make any sense?", he asked. He listened to students and encouraged them to give their viewpoint. He got many interesting explanations. Towards the end of the lecture, he explained to them the reason for this strange assortment:

"The whole task of filling in the contents represents the way of living life. The large pebbles represent the top priority jobs like your dreams, goals and long term success plans. The smaller ones represent jobs second in order of importance. And the sand represents the peripheral jobs. Peripheral jobs may mean the routine mundane tasks and other trivial things."

He further added, "So, we should perform the large pebble jobs (top priority ones) followed by small pebble ones and then the trivial jobs will automatically follow without much stress. However, if we follow the reverse procedure and invest too much time, money and energy on trivial jobs then at some point in our lives we are sure to realize that we wasted ourselves and didn't leave time for important jobs."

"Then what does the cup represent?", asked a student.

At this, the professor poured some tea from the thermos flask into the cup and then poured the contents of the cup into the already filled jar. The tea quickly seeped in without overflowing.

"However busy we might be with our lives, we must always have a few minutes to share a cup of tea with our friends", replied the professor.

If (Rudyard Kipling)

The poem which I like the most:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!


(Rudyard Kipling)