Seven Management Principles of an ‘Eagle’ to live by:

(1) Eagles fly alone and at high altitudes. They don’t fly with sparrows or other small birds.
Stay away from sparrows and ravens, those that bring you down. Eagles fly with Eagles. Keep good company.

(2) Eagles have an accurate vision. They have the ability to focus on something as far as 5km. No matter the obstacles, the eagle will not move his focus from the prey until he grabs it.
Have a vision and remain focused no matter what the obstacle and you will succeed.

(3) Eagles do not eat dead things. They feed only on fresh prey.
Do not rely on your past success, keep looking for new frontiers to conquer. Leave your past where it belongs, in the past.

(4) Eagles love the storm. When clouds gather, the eagles get excited. The eagle uses the storm’s wind to lift it higher. Once it finds the wind of the storm, the eagles uses the raging storm to lift him above the clouds. This gives the eagle an opportunity to glide and rest its wings. In the meantime, all the other birds hide in the leaves and branches of the trees.
Face your challenges knowing that these will make you emerge stronger and better than you were. We can use the storms of life to rise to greater heights. Achievers are not afraid of challenges rather they relish them and use them profitably.

(5) When a female eagle meets a male and they want to mate, she flies down to earth with the male pursing her and she picks a twig. She flies back into the air with the male pursuing her.
Once she has reached a height high enough for her, she lets the twig fall to the ground and watches it as it falls. The male chases after the twig. The faster it falls, the faster he chases until he reaches it and has to catch it before it falls to the ground, then bring it back to the female eagle. The female eagle grabs the twig and flies to a much higher altitude, and then drops the twig for the male to chase. This goes on for hours, with the height increasing until the female eagle is assured that the male eagle has mastered the art of picking the twig which shows commitment, then and only then, will she allow him to mate with her!
Whether in private life or in business, one should test commitment of people intended for partnership.

(6) Eagles prepare for training. They remove the feathers and soft grass in the nest so that the young get uncomfortable in preparation for flying.
Leave your comfort zone, there is no growth there.

(7) When the Eagle grows old, his feathers become weak and cannot take him as fast as he should. When he feels weak and about to die, he retires to a place far away in the rocks. While there, he plucks out every feather on his body until he is completely bare. He stays in this hiding place until he has grown new feathers, then he can come out.
We occasionally need to shed off old habits, things that burden us, or add no value to our lives.

Patience

“Patience is a bitter plant that produces sweet fruit.”
– Charles Swindoll

Heights of excellence and achievement are an embroidery work. Next time you see someone doing embroidery, sit and watch the quality of patience he displays. The same applies to artists engaged in producing a master piece. They need a lot of patience. They have an excellent piece of art in their mind. They meticulously work for it, slowly and steadily. They are fully focused and they forget that there is a world around them. They may be restless inside, but very steady inside them.

Life is like that. You need a lot of patience. Getting irritated will not help you to produce the result. Getting angry with others will prove to be counterproductive. In fact hard presupposes that you have the patience to persevere when others give up. I recall a powerful quotation by Muhammad Ali: `Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.’

It is the absence of a dream, desire and vision which depletes your patience. As long as you are obsessed on your dream, you will have patience.

Like you develop your muscles, you should also develop patience. Do something which will require patience. Try spinning a thread from a spindle. Remember doing it in your school days! Try intricate embroidery. Clean your car once a week. Write one to ten thousand without losing legibility and focus. Observe silence for a complete day once every month. Do this exercise for a period of six months and see if the plat of ‘patience’ grows!