Carrots, Eggs, & Coffee!

thank you to whomever wrote this
and thank you to Paul for popping it in my inbox!

A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee
You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up, She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ‘ Tell me what you see.’

‘Carrots, eggs, and coffee,’ she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, ‘What does it mean, mother?’

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

‘Which are you?’ she asked her daughter. ‘When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can’t go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

May we all be COFFEE!!!!!!!

It’s a BRAND’s New Day – tom Peters

After the layoffs and budget cuts, now what? Are you living up to your brand promises or are you falling short on customer experiences? This edition of the TP Times focuses on sustaining your organizational brand and the power of values and brand. The lead article below is written from the belief that when the focus is only on the bottom line and people are ignored, the organizational brand suffers, as customers lose sight of what you stand for, and they no longer trust what you can deliver.

What About the Brand?

The news is full of stories about downsizing, job evaporations, and budgets being slashed into shreds. After all is said and done, what happens to the brand? Did it survive? Or is it bruised and battered? Leaders in the organization are responsible for the integrity of the brand, and they have to pull their heads out of the financial data long enough to assess the current state of the brand and of their talent.

We know that, when there is a shift in the organization as strong as this economic shift has been for many, the brand can become diluted if no one is asking, “What about the brand?”

Let us not forget that in the center hub of organizations is the talent, and, by the way, the talent is the brand. It is the talent in an organization that brings its brand to life. If the talent are no longer happy, if they are concerned about their own welfare, or they’ve hunkered down to stay out of sight, the brand may be on its last breath as well. And when the brand is struggling to survive, the impact is on the customer experience. The talent may become non-caring and cynical and these attitudes can permeate into how the customers experience the brand.

When there have been strong shifts in the organization, then the organization must recalibrate itself and set the organization back on course. We believe that organizations can best do this by taking these steps:

1. Revisit the ambition or goal of the organization and connect people to it.
2. Managers spend time on the front lines talking to people and getting a handle on the issues.
3. Re-state the brand promise and ensure that everyone knows how his or her job affects the promise.
4. Take a look at the changes in the organization and assess the impact on the brand and the impact on the customer experience.
5. Design a course of action to put the brand back on track.

A brand bruised and battered can have customers headed towards the competition, which is exactly the opposite of an organization’s aims. In tough economic times, it would serve an organization best to focus on keeping their current loyal customers/clients. Now would be the time to re-think how to make the brand truly distinctive in the marketplace.

Excellence can be achieved when the brand, the talent, and the customer experience are in alignment.

If you want to know how your organization is doing, and if it needs some recalibration, take a look at our Excellence Audit.

Valarie Willis
US Keynote Speaker,
Facilitator, Consultant

Tom’s core message: “To put the marketplace customer first, I must put the person serving the customer ‘more first.'”

Tom says: “There is no great ‘external focus’ unless the bedrock great ‘internal focus’ is in place. … I contend that the bedrock of finding and keeping and co-creating with great folks is not about clever tools to induce prospective ‘thems’ to ‘shop [live] with us,’ but a 99% internal effort to create such an exciting, spirited, entrepreneurial, diverse, humane ‘professional home’ that people will be lining up by the gazillions (physically or electronically) to try and get a chance to come and live in our house and become what they’d never imagined they could become!”

Subscribe at http://www.tompeters.com/your_world/join_the_fray/

The 100 Best Business Books of all time

Greetings ChangeThisistas,

We here at 800-CEO-READ, the caretakers of ChangeThis, are pleased to announce the release of our new book, THE 100 BEST BUSINESS BOOKS OF ALL TIME: WHAT THEY SAY, WHY THEY MATTER AND HOW THEY CAN HELP YOU, hitting the street tomorrow.

More than ever, business people are looking for books with solutions to problems. The trouble? Thousands of business books are published every year. Far too many for any reader to sift through single-handedly.

Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten of 800-CEO-READ are the most respected experts on business books, and now they have chosen and reviewed THE 100 BEST BUSINESS BOOKS OF ALL TIME — the ones that deliver the biggest payoff for today’s busy readers. At the end of each review, Jack and Todd also direct readers to more books, both inside and outside THE 100 BEST. And sprinkled throughout are sidebars taking the reader beyond business books, suggesting movies, novels, and even children’s books that offer equally relevant insights.

This book is for anyone, from entry-level to CEO, who wants to cut through the clutter and discover the brilliant books that are truly worth their investment of time and money. This is your guide to the books that can help you weather this uneasy economic climate.

To buy THE 100 BEST, visit us at: http://800ceoread.com/100best. When you buy our book from us, you’ll get a free copy of our annual magazine, IN THE BOOKS, and a CD of us talking about the book and its beginnings.

To learn more about the book, visit 100bestbiz.com to find a free download of the introduction and two reviews, inspirational posters, and a variety of other resources for your use.

Many Thanks & Best of Days,
The ChangeThis Troupe at 800-CEO-READ http://www.changethis.com/

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