Gerald D'Cunha

T he 16-year-old Manpreet had begun to miss her P.D. sessions suddenly. She had started off very well and I was very happy about the progress. Then came this hiccup… she stopped coming without informing me… When I contacted, she gave me some reasons for her absence and assured me that she wished to continue. But, the next session, she remained absent again… Last night, I sent a message to her: “Manpreet, request you not to drop out. You have been doing well… Please attend at 8 tomorrow morning. G.nt.” Manpreet replied instantly: “Yes sir. Thanks for your concern. I will surely attend tomorrow morning.” She did! When I ushered Manpreet on stage, this morning, I asked her to speak on the topic: ‘Why I did not attend P.D. classes for more than a week’. None of the reasons Manpreet gave us this morning, I was ready to accept. From my experience of nearly three decades, I knew that those who made a clear commitment and stuck to it… yes, they would do it till...

On Monday, Dr. Stephen R. Covey died. He was 79. Just some three months ago, he had been knocked unconscious in a bi-cycle accident. On Monday, he succumbed to those injuries. Dr. Covey was really a great teacher… and, a great man! Yes, much before he became a world-wide sensation, as far as self-development concept was concerned, Dr. Covey was just an ordinary University teacher. And, even after such phenomenal success of his books, DVD’s and training programmes, even after orbiting the globe so rapidly and so often, he still remained a teacher in whatever he did: his writings, speeches, training or counseling.  He remained rooted in simplicity. Dr. Covey reminded all of us this: “Start from inside out.” This meant: our inside success had to come first – as an individual we needed to have tremendous integrity with well-defined values. It was only when we had achieved our inner victory, the success within, that we could go abo...