12/23/06

Miracles 101



Tri-O's oddities, observations, and opinions
by Herb Kandel


At this time of year we hear of Christmas miracles. Positive outcomes from dire situations with unaccounted explanations as to how they occurred. Credit a higher power or just plain luck for the intervention, however they occurred; but there are those who can attribute their own "miracle" to their own effort or being in the right place at the right time. Here are a few examples.
Henrico Frank was a 37 year old construction worker unemployed for the last six years in Germany, which has four million unemployed (almost 10 percent). The mall at Christmas time in Wiesbaden was busy as he strolled through, " wearing grubby clothes, a pair of nose rings and a thatch of partially bleached, punk-inspired hair." He happened to see the chairman of the Social Democratic Party , Kurt Beck, who was then berated by Frank for the failure of economic reforms to help people like himself to find work and have a better life. Beck responded, "If you would just wash and shave, you'd find a job, too."Two days later Frank called a news conference. He had a different look. A trim haircut, clean shaven, no nose rings. "I am ready to change," the newly chiseled Frank stated, "I’ll take any job." The media picked up on it and he stepped into his 15 minutes of fame as he became the main news feature and his before-and-after makeover photos appeared on front pages. Beck now plans to present Frank with several job offers.
Yu Minhong taught English at Beijing University but he quit this secure position and started up a business to help students develop their English skills. Since then he has helped hundreds of thousands of Chinese students get into U.S. universities."The company, New Oriental Education and Technology Group, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in September, the first private education company to achieve this feat. Yu is thought to be China's richest teacher with about 2 billion yuan (250 million U.S. dollars) of assets." states the Guangzhou web site.It was no easy road for Yu. His father was a peasant and carpenter and Yu watched him collect bits of waste brick and stones and stack them up in the small courtyard of their rural home. Slowly Yu saw his father transform the stones into a small pen to shut in the pigs, hens and ducks. At that time, his family could not afford to buy bricks. He remembers his father telling him, "If a pyramid was dismantled, it would just be a pile of stones. If you live your life without an aim, it's just a heap of days." His father's patient stone-piling lesson had tremendous influence and today Yu's company no longer only teaches English. His business has extended to other foreign language training, preparing students for tests, primary and secondary school education and software as well as on-line education. In 1993, New Oriental had only 30 students today it is China's largest private education service provider with more than three million student enrollments. There is a network of 25 schools and 111 learning centers in 24 cities, an on-line network that has attracted 2 million registered users. Clearly, teaching English can make people rich in China.
She was just 21 when Lisa Renshaw offered to work for free, in exchange for equity, to the owner of a troubled downtown Baltimore parking lot . The owner left town soon after, taking the loan of $3,000 that Renshaw had taken out in her name. She stayed, renegotiated the lease, and bargained to lower the monthly payments in order to achieve breaking even.She built the business by greeting customers daily, handing out fliers, promoting heavily to Amtrak riders who used a nearby station, offering carpooling assistance, and giving free car washes to anyone who parked in her lot for five days. The lot's occupancy rate increased from less than 10% to more than 70% in three years. Of late she employed 300 people, with 68 garages and parking lots, and generating $28 million in annual revenues.This is the same gutsy lady who lived in a 10 x 12 foot room for three and a half years while she built her parking garage into a respectable business.
The people above achieved their goals by taking it upon themselves to create their own destiny. Devine intervention is most welcome and appreciated at any time but a little self initiative and a lot of "stick- to- it-tivity" goes a long way. So while you wait for help from Clarence, Angel-second class, as did Jimmie Stewart in "It’s A Wonderful Life", you may want to give those bootstraps a yank.
End