Ducks Quack, Eagles Soar

This is a very inspiring story indeed. It is also could be used as teaching material for topic like ‘Total Customer Service”. Read on and get inspired.

No one can make you serve customers well. That's because great service is a choice.

Harvey Mackay, tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point.

He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey.

He handed my friend a laminated card and said: 'I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement.'

Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said:

Wally's Mission Statement:
“To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.”

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, 'Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.'

My friend said jokingly, 'No, I'd prefer a soft drink.'

Wally smiled and said, 'No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice.'

Almost stuttering, Harvey said, 'I'll take a Diet Coke.'

Handing him his drink, Wally said, 'If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.'

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card. 'These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio.'

And as if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him.

Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

'Tell me, Wally,' my amazed friend asked the driver, 'have you always served customers like this?'

Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. ' No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day.
He had just written a book called You'll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, 'Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don't be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.''

'That hit me right between the eyes,' said Wally. 'Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.'

'I take it that has paid off for you,' Harvey said.

'It sure has,' Wally replied. 'My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.'

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I've probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting.

Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

How about us?

-Anonymous

How much can a pro-blogger earns via Google Adsense Ads?

While I am growing my blogs content in the organic way (maybe the phrase “not so aggressive” is more appropriate to be used here), it has been always a question of my mind that wonder how much could a blogger earns from Adsense program.

This doubt of mine was answered lately where I came to know that there is one of the pro-blogger in Malaysia who earns as much as USD 2700 monthly income from Google Adsense on-line advertising alone.

This amount is equivalent to a corporate managerial level monthly basic salary, and the beauty part of it is the Google Adsense pay check is exempted from income tax.

I have then further analyzed this pro-blogger’s blog contents; it was some total of 3000+ articles/posts in total.

Getting to know the benchmark has enabled me to gauge how far could I go as all the bloggers agreed that contents is the main driver of traffics, and then lead to the click through of the Googles Adsense Ads.

The bad news is there is still a far distance for me to achieve either 3000 blog posts or USD 2,700 Adsense monthly income looking at my current number of posts and earning.

But the good news is if one really put in effort with passions, to make some handsome earning via blogging is possible and it is proven.

Save Money Tips: Change Lifestyle Our Way

With the price of fuel going up, you can expect the prices of other goods to go up too. With politicians and economist s advising us to change our lifestyles, the problem is always where to start.

TheSun newspaper has several ideas (some better than others) on ways to save money while still being able to have fun.

1. Instead of ordering several different newspapers a day, cancel all but one or pick up theSun free paper! You can also switch to reading e-papers. You’ll save trees as well as money.

2. Keep very short hair. Opt for the bald look. Less styling products and shampoo means more cash for other things. And hats can be cool.

3. Limit your visits to those designer coffee cafés. A coffee or tea from local roadside stall can be just as satisfying and way cheaper. In fact, why not make it yourself at home and pack a flaskful to the office?

4. Check out the bargain bin in stores for basic clothing items. Second hand clothing stores are also good place for fashion at a fraction of its original price. You can alter old clothes and add accessories to turn them into ‘new clothes’. Swap clothes with friends of the same size.

5. Forget your gym membership and get your exercise elsewhere. Take long walks around your neighbourhood or local park. Take the stairs instead of the lift. Learn yoga or aerobics from videos or books that you can practice at home.

6. Switch to generic brands at your local hypermarket. Whether it’s coffee or shampoo, some generic brands work just as well as international brands, and at just cost of fraction of the price.

7. Watch more terrestrial television. Trust us- the programs have improved. If you must subscribe to cable TV, pick only the channel packages you will really watch. Visit friends who subscribe to the other packages.

8. Watch movies on weekdays when tickets are cheaper. If you can wait, rent your movies from the video store or borrow off friends.

9. On a similar note, if you’re a bookworm, share books with friends or rent them from a second hand bookstore.

10. Find alternate ways of family entertainment. Switch off the TV at least once a week and play board games, just like the good old days. Not only will it keep your minds sharp, families will be able and work together.

11. Instead of going out to restaurants with your friends, have potluck parties where everyone cooks something. It’s more fun and casual and friends will have more time to catch up.

12. It has been said many times before, but car pool whenever you can. You’ll save the environment and if everyone does it, there will be less jams on the roads.

13. Invest in energy saving lights for your home, as well as energy saving home appliances. In the long run, it will help lower your electricity bills.

14. Go to cobbler whenever your shoes need repairing instead of buying new ones every time. A little care takes your shoes a long way.

15. Cut down on sugar, alcohol and cigarettes, or better yet, cut them out altogether. If the price of essential good rises, sin taxes will too. Your body will also thank you for cutting back.


In my view, points 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13 and 15 are the practical money saving points to be considered. For point no. 5, … Take the stairs instead of the lift. …, before you try out this measure, please ensure that the stairs of your office premise is secured and it is not a smoking area.

Life Threatening Driving Attitude (MR 4140)

As usual, I was stuck at the Sunway toll along the LDP (Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong) at 7:45am on one of the work day.

Two lanes of vehicles were joining to become single lane before we passed through the Touch and Go pay station. If is the common understanding of all the drivers that each vehicles from alternate lane will take it turns to pass through the single lane of the toll pay station (left-right-left).

While it was my turn to drive in to the single lane pay station, the vehicle with plate number MR 4140 (as picture above) was trying to jump queue and did not give way. At the end, I decided to give way as it is meaningless to be so petty with this kind of people, and secondly by allowing him to be in front of me, I will be able to take the snap shot of the vehicle.

Next time, so happen if you come across a 4x4 jeep with plate number MR 4140, please pay extra caution.

My Second Google Adsense Pay Check & June 08 Adsense Peformance

Until end of June, I have qualified to receive payment from Google. This is my second pay check from Google, and it takes 6-7 months since the first payment.

The overall performance of my Google income of June is moderate as compared to April and May 2008 performance. There is no increase in term of page impressions.

As mentioned at my previous post, I have not been active in blogging in month of June due to career change.

The good news is my new career exposure has allowed me to add value to my most profitable blog namely Industrial Marking & Coding.

Hopefully I will be able to qualify for the third pay check within the period of 3-4 months.

Recession Do & Don't

I have received a forwarded email that tells you "Do and Don’t" during recession. This email sounds abit speculative but the do and don't advise is worth sharing.

My 2 cents: In any time, no matter it is recession or not, always keep yourself healthy as money can't exchange for health. Even during good time and bad time, you need healthy body.

The recession looks very eminent. It is really time to take proactive steps to avoid a painful time in the next two years which is how long the recession is expected to last.

Suggestions:
1. Don't take any loans, buy homes, properties with loans, or even cash. Keep as much cash as possible.
2. Pay off as much of personal loans, private loans, as debt collection will be hastened.
3. Sell any stocks you can even at lower prices.
4. Take money off from Trust Funds.
5. Don't believe in huge sales forecast from customers, be extremely prudent, lowest inventories, reduce liabilities.
6. Don't invest in new capital.
7. If you are selling homes/ properties/ cars , do it now, when you can get good prices, they are going to fall.
8. Don't invest in new business proposals.
9. Cancel holiday plans using credit cards.
10. Don't change jobs, as companies will retrench based on 'last in first out'.

Stay cool, wait, and if you took all of the above actions and more, you probably will be better off then many.

This is not a rumor. Bear Stearns is the first of many banking and financial institutions that will start falling in the not too future. If Bear Stearns can fall, so can JP Morgan, Citibank, HSBC, and the whole world.

US economy falls, the rest will crumble. India and all those self economies will be the most protected, but not gullible. Europe may be a little stronger, but not China , another giant! Malaysia will see significant impact.