When you get what you want, it isn't always what you bargained for.

Consider the story of the badly spoiled child who was having one of his frequent tantrums.

Hearing his cries, his mother said to the nanny. "Alice, go out in the yard and give him whatever he wants." The nanny went outside and conferred with the child, but the volume of his cries only increased.

When the nanny returned, the mother said, "What's going on now? Didn't I tell you to give him whatever he wanted?"

"Yes," replied the nanny. "It was a bee he wanted, and he got it."

If you want to go into politics, make sure that when you run for something, you stand for something.

BEN FRANKLIN was not always the wise and restrained man we now picture him as being. When he was young he was often brash, rude and tactless. To Franklin's credit, however, he learned the folly of his actions, and set out to change them.

One of Franklin's youthful faults was intolerance of the weaknesses and foibles of others. He was often bluntly critical and would tell people to their faces what was wrong with them. Naturally, he created many enemies.

Later in life, though, Franklin became so adroit at handling people that he was made Ambassador to France. There he was greatly admired for his diplomatic talents.

Someone once asked Franklin the secret of his success in getting along with others. "I will speak ill of no man," he answered, "and speak all the good I know of everybody."

Carlyle put it another way: "A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men."

IN EACH AGE, people of genius undertake the ascent. From below, the world follows them with their eyes. Geniuses go up the mountain, enter the clouds, disappear, reappear. People watch them, mark them. They walk by the side of precipices. They daringly pursue their road. Seeing them aloft, see them in the distance; but they are but black specks. On they go. The road is uneven, its difficulties constant. At each step a wall, at each step a trap. As they rise the cold increases. They must make their ladder, cut the ice and walk on it, hewing the steps in haste. A storm is raging. Nevertheless they go forward in their madness. The air becomes difficult to breathe. The abyss yawns below them. Some fall. Others stop and retrace their steps; theirs is a sad weariness.

The bold ones continue. They are eyed by eagles; the lightning plays about them; the hurricane is furious. No matter, they persevere.

When you're under pressure to make a decision and you're not sure which way you want to go, the best answer is "No."
It's easier to change "No" to "Yes" than it is to change "Yes" to "No."

Make it a point to do something every day that you don't want to do. This is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.

IN HIS BOOK ABOUT CREATIVITY, A Whack on the Side of the Head, Roger von Oech tells us about a major oil company's concern with the lack of creativity among some of its research and development people.

To deal with the problem, top management brought in a team of psychologists to determine the difference between the creative R & D people and the less-creative ones. The hope was that their findings would stimulate the less-creative people.

The psychologists asked the scientists all kinds of questions. They asked about educational backgrounds, about the environment in which their favorite colors were. After three months, the psychologists found that the biggest difference between the two groups was that the creative people thought they were creative and the less-creative people did not. As a consequence, those who thought they were creative acted like it. They ignored old methods and hatched new ideas. The less-creative people did things as they had always been done.

Some "I'm not creative" people stifle themselves because they think creativity belongs only to people like Beethoven, Einstein, and Shakespeare. These are some of the super luminaries of the creative world, but by and large, these people didn't get their big ideas out of the blue.

On the contrary, most of their big ideas came from paying attention to their small ideas, playing with them, and making them big ideas.

One of the major factors that differentiate creative people from less-creative people is that creative people pay attention to their small ideas. They know that a small idea can lead to a big breakthrough, and they believe that they are capable of making it happen..

People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights.