Love of a Little boy...!!

I was walking around in a Target store, when I saw a Cashier hand this little boy some money back.

The boy couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old.

The Cashier said, 'I'm sorry, but you don't have enough money to buy this doll.

Then the little boy turned to the old woman next to him: ''Granny, are you sure I don't have enough money?''

The old lady replied: ''You know that you don't have enough money to buy this doll, my dear.''

Then she asked him to stay there for just 5 minutes while she went to look around. She left quickly. The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand.

Finally, I walked toward him and I asked him who he wished to give this doll to…

'It's the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for Christmas…

She was sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her.

I replied to him that maybe Santa Claus would bring it to her after all, and not to worry.

But he replied to me sadly. 'No, Santa Claus can't bring it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to my mommy so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there.'

His eyes were so sad while saying this. 'My Sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says that Mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister.''

My heart nearly stopped.

The little boy looked up at me and said: 'I told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the mall.'

Then he showed me a very nice photo of himself. He was laughing. He then told me 'I want mommy to take my picture with her so she won't forget me.'

'I love my mommy and I wish she didn't have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister.'

Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly.

I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. 'Suppose we check again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll!''

'OK' he said, 'I hope I do have enough.' I added some of my money to his without him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money.

The little boy said: 'Thank you God for giving me enough money!'

Then he looked at me and added, 'I asked last night before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that mommy could give it to my sister. He heard me!''

'I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn't dare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and a white rose.''

'My mommy loves white roses.'

A few minutes later, the old lady returned and I left with my basket. I finished my shopping in a totally different state of mind from when I started.

I couldn't get the little boy out of my mind. Then I remembered a local news paper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a truck, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl. The little girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-sustaining machine, because the young woman would not be able to recover from the coma.

Was this the family of the little boy?

Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the news paper that the young woman had passed away.

I couldn't stop myself as I bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home where the body of the young woman was for people to see and make last wishes before her burial.

She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest.

I left the place, teary-eyed, feeling that my life had been changed for ever.. The love that the little boy had for his mother and his sister is still, to this day, hard to imagine.

And in a fraction of a second, a drunk driver had taken all this away from him.

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno: 'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, 'Are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'

I am touched with this – and thought to share with you all – I believe that the value of a man or woman resides in what he or she gives, not in what they are capable of receiving = Give it a thought!

How to face Traumatic Situations…!!!

I recently came across a traumatic situation where my communication skills got challenged. I was speaking with one of my client and during our conversation he says – Varun I have news to share, I am getting divorced tomorrow…!!

Since I had never faced such situation before, I went blank for sometime – thinking how to respond and how to take this conversation ahead. Somehow I managed that time, but this conversation made me think to explore more on how we should face traumatic situations at professional end.

I believe that our communication plays crucial role in our professional growth and due to this we generally know what to say and speak when it comes to discuss topics like – Sales presentation, meetings, birthdays, anniversaries, interviews, requesting for referrals, business plans etc. I have learnt to speak on these topics from my seniors, supervisors and others.

However, I never saw anyone facing situations like, death in a family, house fires, divorce, serious illness, bankruptcy etc. I remember how I felt during my conversation – awkward and unqualified to help him. I just told that I am sure you are going through tough time - unfortunately I wouldn’t know what to say – just be calm!

But that was not the right answer and to be honest, till now I actually don’t know what to say. I am sure some of you also have faced the similar situation, which have not - here are few tips which I came across during my search.

1) We don’t need to creative words while responding – sometimes your presence will says enough! I am sure – that person is not going to remember you after you hang up or leave that place. Your presence is what will be remembered!

2) Stay in touch with them - It’s not just that you paid your respect on that day and its over. If you stay in touch – there is lot of meaning to that - as I said before, your presence will do more than your words!


3) Listen to the person – don’t rush to talk and share the similar incidents or any thing. Be a listener – that will be more than enough for that person to be comfortable. We should encourage the person to talk more so as they wont go in stress mode.

4) Offer help – but not for the sake of showing your concern – be practical and specific. A person in stress will welcome all help. For example – Feel free to call me if you need me!

If you face such situation – try these tips – I am sure these will work for you and you will be able to take your relationship that you have been building to next level.

Recession Pricing Do's and Don'ts...!

I have been hearing news that in this recession time/period companies are trying to revise their pricings. Though this is very natural for companies to think in to this direction – however I feel that revising the pricing strategy in this economic downturn would be very tricky and risky. There are cases when companies only cut the prices to gain more market share and attract new customers – but right approach can help a company to compete and sustain in recession time.

During my search for what should we do and we should not when it comes to revise the pricing strategy – I came across different articles and views of different experts. Below are few tips – which I found are useful:

We may like to consider:

• Analyze the value we are offering to our customers: Customers always feel comfortable if we educate them about the value we are delivering which in turn helps us to be more confident on our pricing.

• Categorize our value offerings: We can bundle our products & services and establish their prices accordingly, which will allow us to appease both cost and value conscious customers without cutting prices.

• Improving internal processes: The best way to adjust in this period is to streamline our company's processes and expenses. We can’t get very far in this competition with just a price cut.

• Innovate our offerings: Personally – I would like to invest a bit more on R&D. This step will surely help us to offer our products and services in a different way and will also allow us to negotiate flexibility with customers. It has been proved that innovation gives us an edge over competitors when customers are looking for something new.

We may not like to consider:

• Giving discounts on our products or services: In this economic downturn it would not be wise to get in to a price war with our competitors, especially without analyzing the value of the product or service. If we get in to this way – that too in this scenario, we can’t survive for a long and most importantly no body is going to win in this.

• Cutting prices on our high-value products and services: It wouldn’t be wise to touch our high value products during economic downturn. The better approach would be to focus on marketing our low value products and services.

• Give importance to price-driven customers: Ws should never encourage customers who threaten to take their business elsewhere especially in recession time. If scenario arises, either – share the unique value that our product and service offers, which justify the price we are charging confidently or let the customer take their business to our competitors and watch them going nuts.