Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?
 
Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India 's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources, but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.
 
By 1979, I think the month was August, we thought we were ready.. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts, I had four or five of them with me, told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine.. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.
 
That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference, where journalists from around the world were present, was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India ]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure, he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.
 
The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite, and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today."
 
I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.
 
(Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic forum, Philadelphia , March 22, 2000
 
Ref: http://www.citehr.com/114662-apj-kalams-one-experiences.html
 

 
An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem science has with God, The Almighty.
 
He asks one of his new Studs to stand and.....
 
Prof : So you believe in God?
 
Stud : Absolutely, sir.
 
Prof : Is God good?
 
Stud : Sure.
 
Prof : Is God all-powerful?
 
Stud : Yes.
 
Prof : My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. How is this God good then? Hmm?
 
(Stud is silent.)
 
Prof : You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fellow. Is God good?
 
Stud : Yes.
 
Prof : Is Satan good?
 
Stud : No.
 
Prof : Where does Satan come from?
 
Stud : From...God...
 
Prof : That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?
 
Stud: Yes.
 
Prof : Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct?
 
Stud: Yes.
 
Prof : So who created evil?
 
(Stud does not answer.)
 
Prof : Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? ß All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?
 
Stud : Yes, sir.
 
Prof : So, who created them?
 
(Stud has no answer.)
 
Prof : Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God?
 
Stud : No, sir.
 
Prof : Tell us if you have ever heard your God?
 
Stud : No, sir.
 
Prof : Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?
 
Stud : No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.
 
Prof : Yet you still believe in Him?
 
Stud : Yes.
 
Prof : According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?
 
Stud : Nothing. I only have my faith.
 
Prof : Yes , Faith ! And that is the problem science has.
 
-----
 
Stud : Professor, is there such a thing as heat?
 
Prof : Yes.
 
Stud : And is there such a thing as cold?
 
Prof : Yes.
 
Stud : No sir. There isn't.
 
(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)
 
Stud : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat..
 
But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.
 
(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)
 
Stud : What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?
 
Prof : Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?
 
Stud : You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light.... But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness is n't. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?
 
Prof : So what is the point you are making, young man?
 
Stud : Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.
 
Prof : Flawed? Can you explain how?
 
Stud : Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one.
 
To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing.
 
Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it.
 
Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach your Students that they evolved from a monkey?
 
Prof : If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.
 
Stud : Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
 
(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)
 
Stud : Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?
 
(The class is in uproar.)
 
Stud : Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?
 
(The class breaks out into laughter.)
 
Stud : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir , how do we then trust your lectures, sir?
 
(The room is silent. The professor stares at the Student, his face unfathomable.)
 
Prof : I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.
 
Stud : That is it sir... The link between man & god is FAITH. That is all that keeps things moving & alive.
 
 
WANT TO KNOW WHO THAT STUDENT WAS?
 
I believe you have enjoyed the conversation... and if so... you'll probably want your friends/colleagues to enjoy the same... won't you? So do forward them to increase their knowledge... this is a true story.
 
And the Stud was none other than... Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, Former President of India.
 
Ref: http://www.dignityfoundation.com/pdfs/18-19-8-06.pdf
 

 
A biology teacher was teaching his students how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly.  He told the students that in the next couple of hours, the butterfly would struggle to come out of the cocoon, but no one should help the butterfly.  Then he left.
 
The students were waiting and it happened.  The butterfly struggled to get out of the cocoon, and against the advice of the teacher, one of the students took pity on it and decided to help the butterfly out of the cocoon.  He broke the cocoon to help the butterfly so it didn’t have to struggle anymore.   But shortly afterwards the butterfly died.
 
When the teacher returned, he was told what happened.  He explained to this student that it is a law of nature that the struggle to come out of the cocoon actually helps develop and strengthen the butterfly’s wings.  By helping the butterfly, the boy had deprived the butterfly of its struggle and the butterfly died.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
Professor began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it.
 
He held it up for all to see & asked the students,'How much do you think this glass weighs?'
 
'50gms!' .... '100gms!' .... '125gms' .... the students answered.
 
'I really don't know unless I weigh it,' said the professor, 'but, my question is: What would happen if I held it up
 
like this for a few minutes?'
 
'Nothing' the students said.
 
'Ok what would happen if I held it up like this for an hour?' the professor asked.
 
'Your arm would begin to ache' said one of the students.
 
'You're right, now what would happen if I held it for a day?'
 
'Your arm could go numb, you might have severe muscle stress & paralysis & have to go to hospital for sure!' ventured another student & all the students laughed.
 
'Very good. But during all this, did the weight of the glass change?' asked the professor.
 
'No'
 
'Then what caused the arm ache & he muscle stress?' The students were puzzled.
 
'Put the glass down!' said one of the students.
 
'Exactly!' said the professor.'Life's problems are something like this. Hold it for a few minutes in your head & they seem OK. Think of them for a long time & they begin to ache. Hold it even longer & they begin to paralyze you. You will not be able to do anything. It's important to think of the challenges (problems) in your life, but EVEN MORE IMPORTANT to 'put them down' at the end of every day before you go to sleep. That way, you are not stressed, you wake up every day fresh & strong & can handle any issue, any challenge that comes your way!'
 

 
We all know the story of David and Goliath. Goliath was a giant of a man. He struck fear in every one’s heart. Oneday, a 17-year old shepherd boy came to visit his brothers and asked, “Why don’t you stand up and fight the giant?”   
 
The brothers were terrified of Goliath and they replied, “Don’t you see he is too big to hit?” But David said, “No, he is not too big to hit, he is too big to miss.” The rest is history. We all know what happened. David killed the giant with the slingshot. Same giant, different perception.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
A man spoke with the Lord about heaven and hell. The Lord said to the man, "Come, I will show you hell." They entered a room where a group of people sat around a huge pot of stew. Everyone was famished, desperate and starving. Each held a spoon that reached the pot, but each spoon had a handle so much longer than their own arm that it could not be used to get the stew into their own mouths. The suffering was terrible.
 
"Come, now I will show you heaven," the Lord said after a while.
 
They entered another room, identical to the first -  the pot of stew, the group of people, the same long-handled spoons. But there everyone was happy and well-nourished. "I don't understand," said the man. "Why are they happy here when they were miserable in the other room and everything was the same?"
 
The Lord smiled, "Ah, it is simple," he said. "here they have learned to feed each other."
 
by Ann Landers from A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul
Copyright 1995 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
 

 
A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit.  When they saw how deep the pit was, they told the unfortunate frogs they would never get out.
 
The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead.  Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and simply gave up. He fell down and died.
 
The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could.  Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and suffering and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out.
 
When he got out, the other frogs asked him, "Why did you continue jumping? Didn't you hear us?" The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.
 
This story teaches two lessons:
 
1. There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day.
 
2. A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill them. Be careful of what you say. Speak life to those who cross  your path.
 
The power of words ... it is sometimes hard to understand that an encouraging word can go such a long  way. Anyone can speak words  that tend to rob another of the spirit to continue in difficult times.
 
Special is the individual who will take the time to encourage another.  Be special to others.
 

 
A man asked Socratics, What is Success ? He then asked the to man to come near a river and both were walking in the river. Once the water was up to the level of the neck then Socratics pushed the other man's head into the water and was holding him for few minutes, the man under the water was struggling to come out. Then Socratics released his hand from his head and then the man came out and took a depth breath..

Socratics asked him what were you trying to do when you are under the water? He said I was looking for air to breath. Then Socratics said the air you breathed is the success for you, you were trying very hard only for the air other than anything for you at that moment. 

When the need for success is as deadly as the breath was for you, you will get it.

by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
As we know the aim of database designing must be making it normalized to its greater extent but some time the data retrieval becomes pathetic.  Consider the following table, which is well designed to maintain data hierarchy in a tree structure.  But to build the tree may not be that much easy.
 
The Store Procedure Written will enable all sub level IID of a selected one and also display the data in a tree structure. Its parameters will make it more useful
 
 
Input Table ITEM_HIERARCHY
 
  IID PIID    INAME
    3    0    Europe
    5    0    Asia
    2    0    South America
    1    0    North America
    4    0    Africa
    6    0    Austrailia
    7    0    Antarctica
    8    5    India
    9    5    China
    10   5    Pak
    11   5    Afgan
    12   8    Andhra
    13   8    Orissa
    14   8    Chhattisgarh
    15   13   Sambalpur
    16   13   Barahmpur
    17   13   Rourkela
    18   13   Bhubaneshwar
    19   15   Khetrajpur
    20   15   Sasan
    21   15   Rengali
 
Output Data
 
   INAME                   HIR    HID              IID

   Europe                    1    101                3
   Asia                      1    102                5
      India                  2    102101             8
         Andhra              3    102101101          12
         Orissa              3    102101102          13
            Sambalpur        4    102101102101       15
               Khetrajpur    5    102101102101101    19
               Sasan         5    102101102101102    20
               Rengali       5    102101102101103    21
            Barahmpur        4    102101102102       16
            Rourkela         4    102101102103       17
            Bhubaneshwar     4    102101102104       18
         Chhattisgarh        3    102101103          14
      China                  2    102102             9
      Pak                    2    102103             10
      Afgan                  2    102104             11
   South America             1    103                2
   North America             1    104                1
   Africa                    1    105                4
   Austrailia                1    106                6
   Antarctica                1    107                7
 
 
And ..........
 
The Store Procedure