The Gratitude Visit

Close your eyes. Call up the face of someone still alive who years ago did something or said something that changed your life for the better. Someone who you never properly thanked; someone you could meet face-to-face next week. Got a face?

Gratitude can make your life happier and more satisfying. When we feel gratitude, we benefit from the pleasant memory of a positive event in our life. Also, when we express our gratitude to others, we strengthen our relationship with them. But sometimes our thank you is said so casually or quickly that it is nearly meaningless. In this exercise … you will have the opportunity to experience what it is like to express your gratitude in a thoughtful, purposeful manner.

Your task is to write a letter of gratitude to this individual and deliver it in person.

The letter should be concrete and about three hundred words: be specific about what she did for you and how it affected your life. Let her know what you are doing now, and mention how you often remember what she did. Make it sing! Once you have written the testimonial, call the person and tell her you’d like to visit her, but be vague about the purpose of the meeting; this exercise is much more fun when it is a surprise. When you meet her, take your time reading your letter.
-Martin Seligman

20 Jahre Amazon

It’s easy to forget that in general here in Germany, people think of Amazon primarily as an online bookseller.

Amazon Homepage 1995

Today, as it nears its 20th anniversary, it’s the Everything Store, a company with around $75 billion in annual revenue, a $140 billion market value, and few discernible limits to its growth.

In the past few months alone, it launched a marketplace in India, opened a website to sell high-end art, introduced another Kindle reading device and three tablet computers, made plans to announce a set-top box for televisions, and funded the pilot episodes of more than a dozen TV shows. Amazon’s marketplace hosts the storefronts of countless smaller retailers. 

Amazon Web Services handles the computer infrastructure of thousands of technology companies, universities, and government agencies. 

When you get older, you slow down. That’s not good, and it’s not something you want to encourage; at least that is my experience. It’s easy enough to convince yourself that you ought to take it easy, but that is not a good strategy. Push yourself to your present limit, and then a bit further next time, and keep that up. The result is good.

So, Mr. Jeff Bezos, my main wish for 2014 is that you don't slow down yet!

Nostalgie 2, Finbar Furey and ..

..George Best! 
Fußballzauber von 1968 musikalisch im irischen Stil festgehalten. (Beckenbauer gut, Pele besser, Best best.)

Und Finbar Furey, bereits in den 60'er aktiv, war mit "The Last Great Lovesong" August 2013 wieder Nr. 1 in der irischen Hitparade.
   

Nostalgie, Anfang 2014

Dieses Lied fand ich bereits in 1984 sehr schön, meistens im Auto unterwegs zwischen Trossingen und Altenberge:

For Wolfgang, am 31.12.2013

The show does go on....

Frohe Weihnachten an alle perbit'ler!

Es ist wichtig Anerkennung zu zeigen für alle die dazu beitragen, dass wir erfolgreich im Geschäft bleiben und für die tägliche Anstrengungen unsere Kollegen/-innen die es jeder Einzelne von uns ermöglicht selber gute Arbeit zu leisten. In der tat, wenn Mitarbeiter glücklich sind dann sind die Kunden meistens auch!

It’s important to show appreciation for those who are keeping you in business, and for all the little things that your co-workers do around you that help you do fulfilling work. Remember, if the people inside your company are happy, your customers will be too!

Und einer meiner Leitfäden für 2014, von kein Geringer als Albert Einstein:

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

Englisch für Anfänger, zum mitlesen

Zeitlos! -and for my english readers, his name is Loriot!