Take Time to Think

Dear Westinians

Sometimes if you have an open mind for ideas and you take time to think synchronicity can occur. "Synchro what you ask.
What's that?" you ask.

Let me give you some examples of synchronicity. Prior to 1914 Clarence Birdseye was scratching out a merge living as a fur
trader in Canada. He noticed when catching fish in sub zero temperatures the fish would freeze had when brought them up
through the ice. He also noted when it thawed out it tasted just like fresh fish. Yes believe it or not that was the beginning of
the now internationally famous Birdseye seafood.

In the 1940's Edward Lowe produced a clay based material to soak up oil and grease. A neighbor asked could if she use the
clay based material for her cat's litter box. He realized he was 'on to something' and began selling the product to pet shops.
Soon he had 40% of $400,000,000 cat box filler market.

Joe Resnick was a TV repair man. His job was to install TV antennae on roofs. Regularly, while grappling with the antennae
on the roof, he'd find pieces missing from boxes in which they were packed. He thought about it and decided to build a pre
assembled antennae. Within three years his company was selling a million dollars worth of antennae.

In 1948 Gene Autry was looking for follow up song to to "Here comes Santa Claus." Song writer Johnny Mark sent
him a song. Autry was ambivalent about it but he thought about it and decided to 'give it a go'. Now "Rudpolph The
Red Nosed Reindeer" has been recorded by 400 artists and has sold in excess of 100 million copies.

So to give yourself the best chance with synchronicity you need be prepared to take time to think and have an
open mind for ideas. Don't make these mistakes.

Ken Olson, chairman of Digital Equipment Corporation didn't have an open mind when, in 1977, he said: "There is
no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

The Western Union Manager who composed this internal memo in 1876 didn't have an open mind when he wrote
"This 'telephone' has too many short comings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The
device is inherently of no value to us."

This Decca Recording Company manager didn't have when, rejecting the Beatles in 1962, he said, "We don't like
their sound and guitar music is on the way out."

oMarechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre didn't have when prior to the First
World War he said: "Airplanes are interesting toys but have no military use or value."

The President of the Michigan Bank didn't have when he said in 1903, "The horse is here to stay, but the
automobile is only a novelty - a fad." He was advising Horace Rackham not to invest in the Ford Motor Company.
Rackham (Ford's lawyer) ignored the advice, bought $5,000 worth of stock which he sold later for $12.5 million.

And finally nor did Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, and U.S. Office of Patents in 1899 when h e said: "Everything
that can be invented has been invented."

"But", I hear you say "I haven't got time!" I think it was Lucy in the Peanuts comics who used to say to Charlie
Brown "Make time!" How do you make time? Well about twenty years ago I discovered if I got out of bed one hour
earlier per day and I did it for fifty two weeks of the year I would give myself and additional fifteen days per year.
WOW! I'd found a way to create an additional two weeks of TIME.

Is time important? To understand the values of ‘a year’ ask a student who has failed a final exam. To understand
the values of ‘a month’ ask a mother who has given birth to a premature child. To understand the values of a
‘week’ ask the Editor of a weekly newspaper. To understand the values of ‘an hour’ ask lovers who are waiting for
each other at an airport. To understand the values of ‘a minute’ ask a person who has just missed a plane. To
understand the values of ‘a second’ ask a person who has been in an accident. To understand the value of
'a mili second' ask the person who won a silver medal at the Olympics.

Is it important to take time to think? What do you think?

Azeem Shah