Gabriel Garcia Marquez

How You Can Harvest More Blessings

You know how old I am?

Here’s a hint: My first computer monitor wasn’t black and white. It was green.

And the only real popular computer game in my time? Pacman. It was a green round character with a big mouth that ate everything in sight. Like greedy politicians of the Philippines.

If your dictionary was published before 1980, throw it away. Thanks to the computer, the English vocabulary has radically changed.

When I was young, a mouse was a furry animal.

A mouse pad was the house of a furry animal.

A virus caused the flu.

A bug was an insect.

A hard drive was a difficult journey.

An apple was a fruit.

And windows were rectangular holes on the wall.

My friend (whose name I won’t divulge because it’ll be hazardous to my health) has been frozen in time when it comes to computers. She refuses to learn. One day, her boss enters her office and says, “I need new Windows for the office.” He was referring to the computer’s Operating System, but she didn’t have the foggiest idea what he was talking about. Being the bubbly girl that she was, she said, “Cool! Interior design is my specialty.”

 

What is an Operating System? It’s the system that operates the computer. (Man, I’m bright.) Okay, let me try that one more time. The Operating System is the most basic program of your computer. Your various applications—Word, Excel, and Powerpoint—sit atop the Operating System or OS.

Why am I giving you a lecture on computers?

To make a very important announcement.

Friends, I’ve just discovered the Operating System of the universe.

It Answers The Mystery

How did I come to this discovery?

I like to ask a lot.

I’ve always wondered why some people are successful and others are failures. I’ve wondered why some people are happy and others unhappy. I’ve wondered why some people have loving families and others have broken families.

What determines success and failure?

I’ve now come to the conclusion that it’s how we relate to the OS of the universe.

The Operating System of the universe is the Law that governs all of reality. Success and failure hang on this one Law. Follow this Law and you’ll succeed. Disregard the Law and you’ll fail.

So what is the OS of the universe?

Luck

Some people think luck is the OS of the universe.

If good things happen to you, you’re lucky.

If bad things happen to you, you’re unlucky.

So to be successful, just be lucky!

I remember the husband who told his wife, “Sweetheart, when I had a big trial, you were there beside me. When I lost my job, you were there beside me. When I got sick, you were there beside me. When I lost all my wealth, you were there beside me…” His wife was about to cry, so touched was she by his words. And then he said, “I’ve come to realize that you bring me bad luck.”

People who believe that luck is the OS of the universe will wear amulets. They will also knock on wood, follow their horoscope, hang mirrors on their homes, and kill a rabbit and bring along his foot. (I can assure you that rabbit wasn’t lucky at all.)

Luck says that your life is based on how the stars are arranged.

My friend and I were going to have lunch one day. But early in the morning, she called me and said, “I can’t meet with you today, Bo.”

“Why?”

She said, “My horoscope says I can’t leave the house. It says I may have an accident today.”

“I have a suggestion,” I said. “Buy another magazine where your horoscope says you can get out of your house!”

I don’t like my life being controlled by the arrangement of the stars. Because that means my life is totally out of my control.

Because the last time I checked, I can’t seem to control those stars. They’re a bazillion miles away and they’re also bigger than me. Goodness, I can’t even control my kids who are only 2 feet away—and much smaller than me!

I added, “You shouldn’t be superstitious.”

“Why?” she asked.

“It’s bad luck.”

God

Some believe that the Operating System of the entire universe is a capricious, self-centered, immature, insecure God.

They don’t call him by that description, but that’s who their God is. He is a Divine Being who sits on the throne, looking for people to reward because they adore him—or looking for people to punish because they forget him.

So to succeed in life, all you have to do is make this capricious God happy. Don’t anger him. And perhaps, He’ll throw some rewards in your direction.

Plu-eeeeese.  

That’s not my God. That sounds more like the Volcano God in the movie Kingkong. Whenever the volcano rumbled and spewed more smoke then usual, these primitive people imagined their god was angry. To appease him, they would choose a poor guy among them, tie him up, and throw him through the boiling mouth of their volcano god, hoping that this human sacrifice will pay for their sins.

Why would you want to worship such a tyrannical God?

If the OS of the universe isn’t lady luck or a self-centered God, what is it then?

To Be Successful,

Follow the Operating System

Friends, I don’t believe in luck.

I believe in blessing.

Luck is based on chance.

Blessing is100% sure!

What people define as luck, I define as getting ready to be blessed.

My belief is simple: When the soul is ready, the blessing will appear.

Are you ready for the truth? Right now, you’re swimming in an ocean of blessings. You don’t see this ocean, but it’s there all around you.

If you lack blessings, it simply means you lack readiness to receive the blessings. There’s no shortage of blessings. There’s only a shortage of your readiness.

The key? Get ready.

How? By planting seeds.

Let me now tell you the Operating System of the Universe.

Friends, the Operating System of the universe is the Law of the Harvest.

This is what governs the world.

And this is what governs your life.

The Law of the Harvest states:

What you plant, you harvest.  What you don’t plant, you don’t harvest. The more you plant, the more you harvest. The less you plant, the less you harvest.

If you plant mango, you get mangoes.

If you plant bananas, you get bananas.

And if you plant love, you harvest love.

If you plant hatred, you harvest hatred too.

Experiment

Try this out tomorrow.

Put a permanent smile on your face and greet everyone you see. Smile at people walking on the streets. Give a cheery “Good Morning!” to the security guard, the janitor, the messenger in the office. And give hugs to the staff in your office.

Though a few would wander if you’ve taken shabu for breakfast, I can assure you that you’ll receive more smiles than you’ve ever received before.

That’s just how the universe works.

Make a decision now to plant today what you want to harvest tomorrow. Or next week. Or next month. Or next year. Or 10 years from now.

Do you want to more joy?

Give joy to others. Face it. The happiest people in the world are those who’ve planted the most seeds of happiness to others.

I can share with you an example in my life…

Why Am I So Blessed With A Loving Family?

I’ve got a great family life.

Why? Because for the past 10 years now, I’ve been planting seeds of love into my family. I spend time with the boys. I play with them everyday. In fact, they know my policy that at anytime, my home office is always open to them if they want to play with Daddy.

Everyday, I bike with Francis. Each week, I have a one-to-one breakfast with Benedict. Each week, I have a romantic date with my wife. In fact, this past week, despite being away to Davao and Cebu for a couple of days, I still was able to grab two romantic dates with my wife. (I can’t get enough of her.)

I’ve planted all these seeds of love, and I’m now harvesting!

If you want to harvest love, you have to plant seeds of love.

By the way, do you want more money?

How To Harvest More Money

If you want more money, plant value.

Remember: Money is nothing else but a symbol of value. So the surest way to increase your income is to increase your value—and give that value to others.

My friends own a chain of restaurants in Metro Manila named Trinity.

Visit them in Mall of Asia and you’ll see that they’re always jampacked. How come? Go ahead. Try their food. I recommend Sinigang sa Miso. But before going in, write your name in a small card and put it in your pocket. Because when you start sipping the soup, I promise you that it’s so good that you’ll forget your name. Thus, the card in your pocket. My friends are giving you incredible value.

My other friends own In My Womb Prenatal Ultrasound Clinics.

They too are prospering because they want to serve the customers.

First, they took the ultrasound out of hospitals and into malls. Pregnant women don’t like going to hospitals for their ultrasound. Because they’re not sick and don’t want to be around sick people. Second, the clinics are such a lovely, family-friendly, attractive place. While a doctor is doing your ultrasound, your family can watch your baby’s prenatal videos because they placed a wide-screen, TV set on the wall.   Third, only OB-Gynecologists work on each pregnant woman—not their staff or assistants. That means you get the ultrasound interpreted to you as its being done.

Do you now understand? The wealthiest person (minus Drug Lords, etc.) is the one who can give the most value to the most number of people.

Anyone who has a lot of money but not a lot of value will soon loose all that money. Take a look at LOTTO winners. According to the US Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc, nearly one-third of LOTTO winners become bankrupt within five years of their winning.   Just five years and the money flies away. Why? Because money symbolizes value, and if there’s no value behind the symbol, it won’t last.

Let me close with one last story.

What You Give, You Receive

In Sagada, we visited the Echo Valley.

Standing on the edge of the cliff, I told my 4-year old boy, “Okay son, shout I love you as loud as you can!” So Francis hollered, “I love youuuuu!”

It was a delight to see the surprise on his face when he heard his high-pitched voice bounce back… “I love you, I love you, I love you…”

Being the killjoy that I was, I took him aside and gave him a 2-minute lecture on life.  “Francis,” I said, “life works the same way. The entire universe is a giant Echo Valley. What you give to life, you’ll receive back a hundredfold. Imagine if you said I hate you. You would have heard, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you… Hatred will return to you many times over too. Remember: Whatever you give to the universe, you’ll receive it multiplied.”

“Okay Daddy,” he nodded, “the universe is a giant Echo Valley.”

Of course, that was his polite way of getting rid of me.

As I watched my little boy holler more I love you’s to the universe—and receiving it back—I realized how simple God created the world.

Friend, what do you want to harvest in your future?

Plant it today.

 

May your dreams come true,

 

Bo Sanchez

Nice One

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: 'I am blind, please help.' There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, 'Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?'

The man said, 'I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.'
What he had written was: 'Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it.'
Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?
Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?


Moral of the Story: Be thankful for what you have. Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively.
Invite others towards good with wisdom. Live life with no excuse and love with no regrets. When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile. Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear.
Great men say, 'Life has to be an incessant process of repair and reconstruction, of discarding evil and developing goodness…. In the journey of life, if you want to travel without fear, you must have the ticket of a good conscience.'
The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling…
And even more beautiful is, knowing that you are the reason behind it!!!

Good Answer

young and pretty lady posted this on a popular forum:

Title: What should I do to marry a rich guy?
I'm going to be honest of what I'm going to say here. I'm 25 this year. I'm very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above. You might say that I'm greedy, but an annual salary of $100k is considered only as middle class in New York .
My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married? I wanted to ask: what should I do to marry rich persons like you? Among those I've dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit. If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York City Garden , $250k annual income is not enough. I'm here humbly to ask a few questions:
1) Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)
2) Which age group should I target?
3) Why most wives of the riches is only average-looking? I've met a few girls who doesn't have looks and are not interesting, but they are able
to marry rich guys
4) How do you decide who can be your wife, and who can only be your girlfriend? (my target now is to get married)
Ms. Pretty

Here's a reply from a Wall Street Financial guy:
Dear Ms. Pretty,
I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyze your situation as a professional investor. My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I'm not wasting time here.
From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you. The answer is very simple, so let me explain. Put the details aside, what you're trying to do is an exchange of beauty and money: Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square.
However, there's a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can't be prettier year after year. Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It's not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worried 10 years later.
By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a trading position. If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or leased. Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income. This has better chance than finding a rich fool.
Hope this reply helps. If you are interested in leasing services, do contact me.

Signed,
J.P. Morgan

Business Logics

Father : I want you to marry a girl of my choice
Son : "I will choose my own bride!"
Father : "But the girl is Bill Gate'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 Gate's son-in-law."
President : "Ah, in that case...ok"

This is how business is done!!

Moral : Even If you have nothing, You can get Anything.
But your attitude should be positive.