Got this on my mailbox, and since i have not posted on the jokes for sometime, thought this was an amusing piece.

Before the marriage:
He: Yes. At last. It was so hard to wait.
She: Do you want me to leave?
He: NO! Don’t even think about it.
She: Do you love me?

He: Of course!
She: Have you ever cheated on me?
He: NO! Why are you even asking?
She: Will you kiss me?
He: Yes!
She: Will you hit me?
He: No way! I’m not such kind of person!
She: Can I trust you?

Now after the marriage you can read it from
bottom to the top !!!!

Seriously, folks - there is no reason why you would be less happier after marriage compared to before.  things change, but then you evolve because it is a better arrangement, and it is.

Notes taken from a job interview taken from somebody who have worked both in Google and Microsoft and comparing the environment.  A good study of contrasts and employee perks/policies of two famous companies who compete in attracting talent.

Life at Google - The Microsoftie Perspective « Just Say “No” To Google

Many of you were asking for the feedback I received from my interview with the former Google employee I hired into ABC Development as a Sr.SDE. Here it is. This candidate is also a former MS employee who left the company and founded a “Start-up” called XYZ. XYZ was purchased by Google and he was hired on as a Senior Software Engineer II / Technical Lead. Here is his take on Google’s environment as well as areas Microsoft should consider improving in order to be more competitive.

Related Posts:
-Microsoft vs Google

The best way to succeed in the corporate environment is not only how to succeed yourself, but how to make others succeed.

Best-Selling Author Dr. Stephen Covey Gives Small-Business Owners Tips on Empowering Workers: Key to success includes taking a team approach, inspiring trust and unleashing potential.

Starting and maintaining a small business is not easy. All good entrepreneurs know they are only as strong as their team. The author of “The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness,” Dr. Stephen Covey, recently offered small-business owners advice on how to take their business to the next level through empowering employees and providing the proper management tools.

The tips, which are part of a free Microsoft® Office Live Web Seminar Series, give small-business owners helpful advice and insights on topics critical to success.

If you look at Asian corporations, you will find that most companies have founders and CEOs are one and the same, while in most Western companies, that may not necessarily be so.

Another thing you might notice is that mostly Asian founders start companies for keeps, and probably with the eye to have it manage by their heirs or children, while mostly Western companies are generally more open, and it is not unusual to start companies that are meant to be sold, or to sell companies if the price is good.

The distinction between the Entrepreneur and the manager is more distinct in Western companies, and an analogy is apt. Entrepreneurs create companies and managers manage them. In Asian context, you create companies and whether it is because it is difficult to find the right managers to manage them, or the founders want to manage them, you do have situations where the founders are mostly also the managers.

But it should be always helpful to point out that the entrepreneur (whether Asian or Western) do have a choice. Creating companies is like creating cars. The joy and rewards may be in creating the best cars, but also with the knowledge that other professional car drivers may race the cars better. Of course, you can be the mechanic and the car driver at the same time, but that does not necessarily have to be always the case.

And with business becoming more competitive, you should think that it IS becoming increasingly difficult for one to do both kinds of job and still be ahead ….

So Says Seth Godin.  Maybe he has something up his sleeve — Godin always has.

The little book that says “quit”: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

The central premise of “The Dip — A Little Book That Teaches You When To Quit” (Portfolio) is that in all walks of life — work, leisure, relationships or business — you will encounter what author Seth Godin calls a dip.

A dip is a “common sinkhole that trips up so many people,” he says. It is the long slog between starting and mastery. It is the difference between the beginner technique and the more useful “expert” approach in, say, skiing or fashion design.

Winners quit fast and quit often and only stick when they find the right dip to conquer, Godin says.

 Two years ago, Stanford University, one of the most prominent universities in the United States, and acknowledged as the thought and education center of Silicon Valley, invited Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computers to be their commencement speaker.  His speech, entitled, “ Stay Hungry, Stay foolish”, was a very big hit and it was talked about in various articles, and I received many copies of that through my email where many people thought it was inspiring.  That speech, delivered on June 12, can be found on Stanford website

This month,  June 7, 2007, Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, was invited to be the commencement speaker for Harvard University.  Bill Gates,  who famously dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft, and the last 10 years have been the world’s richest man, as well as the world’s most generous philanthropist, having donated over 30 billion dollars of his wealth to philanthropic causes.

In his speech, Gates lauded the new ideas in economics and politics

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I was just going over the book, ” Why we want you to be Rich”, by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki.  One of the few gems of the book is the acronym focus, which is:

F = Follow
O = One
C = Course
U = Until
S = Successful

It is another adage that being successful should follow the strategy of , ” Keep all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket closely”.

Related Posts:
-Focus on Getting the Product out
-Focus on Solutions
-Focusing on Exceptions
-Focus on Core Competence
-Focus on Management or Technology
-Don’t Major in Minor Things-Focusing on Strength

I am an avid user of Blackberry and Microsoft Push Mail.  Yes, it is invasive, it constantly interrupts, but yes, it is might useful and allows you to spend so much more time outside the office while still keeping in touch.

It is a vital tool especially for entrepreneurs.

France warns officials on BlackBerry use - Yahoo! News

BlackBerry handhelds have been called addictive, invasive, wonderful — and now, a threat to French state secrets.
That, at least, is the fear of French government defense experts, who
have advised against their use by officials in France’s corridors of
power, reportedly to avoid snooping by U.S. intelligence agencies.

Now, as technology  touch every inch of our existence, how much we think and to what extent should we allow them into our lives?

The reason I am reflecting is that I read a book entitled The Giver which  is written by Lois Lowry.  This book actually is for a book for children, and in fact have won a good number of awards, including the John Newbery Medal for most distinguished contribution to American Literature for Children.  It was originally read by my son who told me it was good, and I took it. Incidentally, it is always good to take an active interest in what your kids are reading, and ocassionally won’t harm much if you actually read it as well.  That i believe, always create good talking points with your kids.
The story is quite thought provoking, and basically centers on a community in which the people, years into the future, use technology

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For the last 8 months, I have been contributing an article to a bi-monthly magazine called SME Insights, which focuses on small and medium enterprise management.

My editor in chief, Art Ilano, maintains a blog and talk about being nice.  In this time and age, when people believe they need to show aggressive behavior to avoid being tagged as a pushover, Art illuminates that you can actually advance more if you are wiling to be ‘nice’.

SME Insight - » The Strategy of “Nice”

Next time you think that that nice person you just met is being a pushover, think again. He may be slyer than you think.

Turns out that being nice is actually a strategy. For individuals, it is a survival strategy: by being nice, a nice person accumulates less enemies and even ends up with a larger pool of allies whom he can count on over the long term. He doesn’t get into fights in school, and he ends up with a lot of friends with whom he can share lunch with.