Hero worship, we all indulge in it. We all have people we look up to it. People who we think can do no wrong. We place these people on a pedestal. We think very highly of them and are greatly offended if they are spoken against.

Ten years ago the heroes would have been political leaders, war veterans, inventors, scientists, royalty or social workers. Today we worship actors, singers, super models, socialites and anyone else who may be a minor celebrity. Some of these “so called” celebrities are truly not worthy of such worship. They are shallow, tactless and sometimes even lack general intelligence or at least that is the image they like to put across.

Then there are celebrities like Oprah Winfrey who deserve to be looked up to. I do not take issue with the fact that we worship these people, simply because they are famous and live glamorous lives, my concern is that we aren’t worshiping something that is real. I understand that heroes are never really what we think they are. We can never know the real people, but at least the hero’s of yester year had a real core. We could back up the image we created with actual work that they did. Some of the newer batches of heroes seem to have attained their status just for being who they are.

It irks me that most people today cannot find role models that have true achievements to their name. On the other hand, I can’t help but wonder, if a person inspires you, gives you confidence and encourages you to be better, does it really matter who they are and what they have done? Does a hero really need to be heroic to inspire us, or is us simply thinking of him/her as heroic enough for inspiration to come?

Every human being has desires. It’s the way we’re built. We want things. It’s easy for other animals that know what they want and just go for it. It gets much more complicated when humans are concerned. We constantly want new things and we tend to remember things. See, we were given the ability to think; we were given a brain.

As we grow up we go after certain things we want. Sometimes things don’t go so well. We either fail or are made fun of or we get scared or embarrassed. If we didn’t have a brain that remembered, then we would have simply picked ourselves and tried once more. Unfortunately, we do remember and so we don’t just try again. We try to come up with a different way to get what we want or we find a substitute for our desires or we convince ourselves that we don’t want that particular thing.

Another drawback of having a brain is that we attach ideas to people. Sometimes these are good ideas, but most of the time they are just ridiculous. We believe that a person is cool because he acts in a certain way. We think someone is better than us because she already has the things we want. We think that the people we look up to are infallible.

It gets worse. Once we get these ridiculous ideas into our heads, we try to emulate them. We try to act in certain ways and we try to be infallible. We deny ourselves the things we desire because they don’t fit in with an image in our head; an image that we created for ourselves.

In the end most of us are walking around in disguise, wearing masks. Pretending to be someone we are not. We are tied down by our fears and insecurities. I think it is time to unmask ourselves and take a good look at who we really are.

Achieving goals takes perseverance. While some people may think all they have to do is click their heels and say “I believe” to get what they want in life, they’re in for a rude awakening. It takes more than just airy fairy thinking. There’s a lot of hard mental work involved in achieving your goals. You will face challenges along the way – not only challenges from situations and other people, but challenges from yourself.

Yes, sometimes we are our own worst enemy. We buy into the quick fix notions that if we just visualize what we want in a positive way, and then put it out into the universe, that our work is done. Not so. This isn’t a one way street. The universe isn’t a big vending machine in the sky; we have a responsibility to do our part. We must concentrate on what we want and focus on achieving our goals several times a day.

Achieving goals takes a lot of perseverance, which can be difficult to sustain. Keep your eyes on the prize, as they say, and that means not letting up. Keep believing, keep dreaming, keep positively affirming that your goals and desires are manifesting themselves. Persevere through the biggest challenge: negative thinking. You’ve probably lived a lifetime with the pattern of worry and negative thinking. You need to change that; when the least little negative thought crops into your mind, immediately stop and change it to positive thinking. Soon, with much perseverance, you’ll be able to change your negativity and doubt into positive thinking and the manifestation your goals. Work through the challenges your mind throws at you, in order to realize your dreams. Achieving goals takes perseverance. You can do it!

When we see two people together, smiling, laughing and holding hands, we assume they are a happy couple. When we see a woman crying, we assume she has had her heart broken. We do not think of the pain behind the smiles; we do not think of the fact that the hand holding may be for show; we do not think that the tears may be of joy. We like to think we know the world around us; we like to think that the world is exactly how we think it is. We do not realize that our thoughts are our own. The world around us is the way it is, because we think of it, in that way.

We all think in set ways. We like to put things in boxes, black and white. Good and evil. The problem is that anyone who’s been on this planet for more than a decade, knows that the world is full of shades of grey. So what do we do when things don’t fit into neat little boxes? We either force them to fit or we ignore them. We turn to denial.

All of us live lives in boxes. We set parameters for the world around us and make everything fall into its own category. If someone is rude, they are bad people. If you get fired, it’s the end of the world. We need to realize that sometimes, to make things better, all we need to do is, step out of our box. All we need to do is, have a fresh outlook. We need to shake things up. If they are rude, they have had a bad day. Got fired? It’s a chance to do something new!

A 26-foot-long dying shark washed ashore Tuesday on a Long Island beach. I’m sure the first reaction to this news will be fear and worry. After all 26 feet packs a lot of bite; but there is no need to fear, the basking shark is not a threat to humans as it feeds on plankton. There is cause for worry though. The cause of death of this mighty beast is still unknown; but the lack of any obvious outer injuries to the fish, raises some very troubling questions. We cause so much destruction to the planet, even by simply carrying out day to day tasks, that we can no longer tell if something is our fault. It is very possible that authorities will discover, some kind of human interference is the cause of the shark’s death.

There was a time when we would pray to God for rain. After all a drought was an effect of the environment, we had no hand in it. Today we blame our governments for water shortage. We cause the droughts. We have even started cloud seeding and cloud farming. Though these are environmental issues they have a very profound effect on our society and hence on our businesses. We leave such large footprints on the environment these days that it would be disastrous for any business to not be environmentally conscious.

For all the harm we do to our environment there is a price to pay, If not by us then by our children. Every time there is no rainfall in India, the price of cotton worldwide goes up and clothes get more expensive. Today our environment affects our economy and our actions affect the environment. It is time each person thought of the consequences of his actions. Ask yourself ‘What have you done?’

A single drop of water is not even enough to quench your thirst, but keep adding drop after drop and you could end up with enough to fill an ocean. You don’t have to be a genius to realize that there is strength in numbers, and that two heads are better than one. This holds true even in business.  This is why business organizations have grown from sole proprietorship’s to the gigantic joint stock companies of today. Not all businesses can become corporate giants.  Does this mean that they cannot achieve the same amount of success nor have the same impact as their much larger peers? Alone it would be near impossible for any small business to compete with corporate entities but by collaborating with other small businesses it could be as easy as a walk in the park.

In todays market every businessman faces keen competition against dozens of other organizations. There are very few takers for the services being provided by many. So instead of acting like a pack of hungry dogs fighting over a scrap of food it makes a lot more sense to pool resources and share revenue.

Instead of spending significant amounts to out shine a competitor the smarter thing to do would be to make that competitor a partner and collaborate on business activities. Instead of trying to beat each other why not join each other? Gone are the days of cutthroat competitiveness. There are new rules to this old game. It is a lot more beneficial for all involved to collaborate and co-operate in business activities. By pooling resources we can increase our strength and attract more clients, and by sharing revenue we ensure steadier and greater gains not to mention we significantly reduce competition.

Two brothers were put in charge of separate villages located close to one another. Both brothers were highly ambitious and hardworking, unfortunately the elder lacked foresight and patience. Both brothers wanted to see their village flourish. The elder brother, in his quest to acquire energy, had the villagers cut down half the forest. Soon they had enough wood and energy to partake in numerous business activities. Money flowed in and the people prospered.

The younger brother ordered his people to recycle waste, to make compost and bio gas. They were told to work hard in the fields and plant more crops. The people were content.  They did not have in abundance but they had enough.

Over time more and more people came to the elder brother’s village to be a part of his success. Unfortunately the village had run out of trees to cut. The air was polluted and the land barren. The money dried up and the people became depressed and angry. The younger brother’s village, on the other hand, continued its sure and steady progress. The people went from being content, to being happy and never had any cause to complain. One day the elder brother asked his younger sibling the secret of his success. He replied “I never earn only for profit. I earn for the planet and its people as well.”

Today success cannot be measured solely in monetary terms. Conscious Business principles teach us, the importance of having a clean environment and a populous of satisfied, happy people. These people will work harder and live longer to partake in business activities, thus ensuring that everyone gets  what they want, If not in abundance in sufficiency at least. The success of a business today is measured by its business values and impact on the environment along with profit.