Filtering Times

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Reproducing a brilliant article from a magazine called Frozen Thoughts....but just eliminating a few religious interpretations to make the message more universal in acceptance

This really has to be the most down to earth way of explaining the link between macro economic developments to the micro aspects of our daily life.
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Though the epicenter of an earthquake is somewhere else, the tremors are always felt way beyond. Though the epicenter of the present economic-quake is in that 'land of opportunities' the rest of the world is feeling the tremors of the failures of their economic systems.

Games are always played by certain rules. You can always question why only eleven players in a team for football or why the cricket pitch has to be exactly 22 yards or why is it 15-luv, 30-luv and suddenly 40-luv instead of 45-luv in tennis. The passionate game-lovers do not think the rules are foolish but will call you a fool for questioning them. Rules are meant to establish a framework to constantly test you and challenge you.

Life too is a game with strange rules that are defined by a force beyond all of us.

What matters in a game as well as life is that you played the game till the end with the same hunger for winning and not even whether you won or lost.

Derive strength from knowing this and play the game courageously.

We had enjoyed good times. We have to endure these tough times. We will experience wonderful times. Falling is not failing. Years of inadequacies in global systems cannot be set right in a day. The rise is always time-consuming and the fall is always instantaneous. The game of life is tough but it isn't a game that cannot be won. Don't call these as bad times but see them as FILTERING times.

What is cultivated is called a crop. What grows by itself is a weed. The crop is a result and effect of human sweat. In a good economy everybody makes money. In a bad economy only the good make money. It is in times like these that you will know whether you are a crop or a weed.

To put things in a macro economic perspective. Investments were yielding more than what work could. So work was beginning to lose its dignity. Work Plus Investments is very good for an economy. But when Investments start replacing work it is the doom for any economy. Money was making so much money that the expressions of human spirit like ability, competence, education, cultivated leadership, experience, expertise and systematic development of organizations were all beginning to lose their value.

What we were going through was a credit card economy, a borrowed economy - an economy where the common man was borrowing disproportionate to what he was capable of earning and returning. It was an economy of FALSE money. An economy of IMAGINARY money. A correction was required and a correction is happening.

Just like the economy, humanity has also been built on certain virtues like commitment, resilience, determination, honesty, loyalty, integrity and the willigness to sweat to arrive.

There was a time when management exploited employees. That was wrong. We have just gone through times when employees used organizations to enhance their resume and trade higher pay packets. This too is wrong. The one who is providing the bread and the one earning it should have to always work in a win-win setting. A correction was required and a correction is happening.

Good times shield the non productive. Bad times filter them. Filtering is happening. More than ever, this is the time for you to be strong and to believe in yourself. So keep moving. Even if you have to slowdown, keep moving. Tire need be, but do not stop.

By refusing to accept life's reverse gear, we throw ourselves into Top Gear.