FW: Non Biz | Club Mahindra Membership is - biggest Financial Mistake

One of the blogs I read regularly, had this article on Club Mahindra. Hence thought of sharing this is for the benefit of those who are contemplating to take this membership. You could read this blog and analyze before taking it.

- http://www.tflguide.com/2012/07/club-mahindra-membership-fees-review.html

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Club Mahindra Membership is my biggest Financial Mistake

by Hemant Beniwal

Upfront I am accepting that buying Club Mahindra Membership was my biggest financial mistake. Readers may be thinking “biggest is a comparative word – that means there must be few more”. Yes Why not. I am also a human and allowed to make some mistakes. Each day one takes 4-5 financial decisions and if not more, there is a fair chance that few of them will prove to be wrong. Sometime money involved can be small for eg going for new released movie. If your family likes the movie – than fine. But what if opposite happens? (If decision was wrong – cost Rs 1500-2000 if tickets bought in Royale or Rs 500-1000 if bought tickets for Executive class and additional loss of Rs 200-300 if buying Pepsi or eatables – even choosing large or small Pepsi is a financial decision – impact Rs 100 on budget)

Let me also share that one decision which is blunder for one person can be a small mistake for other & for third person it may also prove to be right – again financial planner’s favorite line “it depends on person to person”. So why I am saying Club Mahindra Membership is MY biggest mistake (in short) – because:

• Amount & time involved is huge.
• It doesn’t suite my type of person, who doesn’t want to sit & enjoy – I want to explore the places in & around the city that I am visiting.
• It was mis-sold – lots of things were hidden & misrepresented.
• I am frugal when it comes to food on a trip & they charge me bomb for that
• There is big difference between what Club Mahindra promise, what people expect & what they deliver.

Club Mahindra Holidays Membership Features

If you want to know about membership, quickly glance through the presentation. Its bit old but hardly there are some changes – one important change is now bookings can be made in 6 months advance. [Note: Its not lifetime its for 25 years - earlier it was for 33 years]

Please click on this link for the presentation - http://www.tflguide.com/2012/07/club-mahindra-membership-fees-review.html

Club Mahindra Membership Fees

Before looking at the Club Mahindra Holidays Membership Fees we have to understand – criteria on what this fee is based on.

First is type of Rooms

• Studio Apartment – is a room for 3 adults or 2 adults & 2 kids.
• 1 Bed Room (BR) – room for 4 adults
• 2 BR – room for 6 adults

Second is Type of Seasons

Club Mahindra has divided 52 weeks in 4 Seasons/Colors.  (Check Season chart here)

• Purple:  This is period like New Year, summer holidays or Diwali holidays.
• Red: Its second best category which covers all major long holidays & peak season for a particular location.
• White: Normal Season
• Blue: It’s off season

Membership is also divided in these categories where you can utilize holiday in your season or lower. So Purple Members can have holidays in any season but white can only go for White & Blue. Holiday in higher season is also possible but there are limitations like bookings can only be made 15 days in advance & you can jump only one season so White can think of going in red but not in purple.

Onetime Club Mahindra Membership Fees (2010-11)

No data is available about Club Mahindra Membership latest Fees. But in December 2011 I got a mail from them, which quoted these prices.

• Red Studio - Rs. 389855
• Purple Studio – Rs. 592908

Club Mahindra Membership Annual Subscription Fees (ASF)

Club Mahindra Claims their membership is Inflation Free but other than one time fees members have to pay annual subscription fees (irrespective of usage), depending on type of room they own. They charge ASF on type on rooms so Studio will pay lowest ASF & 2 Bed Room will pay highest. But at the time of booking you can choose any room so I am having Studio but can book 2 BR & pay 50% less ASF. (You people will be feeling pity about me & I am feeling same for people who have bought 1 BR & 2 BR) This fees is not fixed – it increase every year according to urban inflation numbers.

ASF Charges in 2010-11 (including service tax)

• Studio Rs 8,994
• 1 BR Rs 12,629
• 2 BR Rs 17,717

Club Mahindra Membership Cancellation Policy

They have a very transparent membership cancellation policy that there is 10 days free-look period – where the whole amount can be refunded but I was not allowed to use that. After 10 days you can cancel the membership but there will be no refund – sounds similar to our favorite endowment plans. But after that if you want you can sell your membership in open market – but there are no buyers. Check sites like Quikr or Olx and you will find lot of sellers but no buyers.

In last financial year there were 4000 membership cancellation – I assume that as they don’t have proper cancellation policy, these are the people who have not paid Annual Subscription Fees (ASF) & there membership was automatically cancelled.

44% members are not utilizing their holidays

Club Mahindra Holidays can advertise “Happy Families” but truth is 44% of members are not availing their holidays. Why?

First & biggest reason is there is a gap between number of members & inventory (number of units) available in the resorts.  They proudly say that there membership is increased by 26% Compounded annualized growth rate but their Inventory was not able to keep pace & just grown by 22%. Gap was 9% in 2005, which has now grown to 26%.  (You can check the below table – Club Mahindra Members Vs Inventory)

Second, Club Mahindra gives resorts on rental to nonmembers, even in the peak season. So members compete with nonmembers. There annual report show earning of Rs 15 Cr from rental they have received from nonmembers. If I assume Rs 4000 per night room rent – it turns to 3% of the total available inventory.

Third, when there is big gap in available inventory & some competition from nonmembers; few people will definitely be disappointed because they will not get what they desire. Club Mahindra expect that people should plan there holidays 6 months in advance – I think I can do it but it’s not possible for people who are in jobs. There annual report shows that occupancy was at 77% & if we adjust even 2% that was utilsed by nonmembers so member occupancy is at 75%. If we compare that with number of members, it turns out to be 44%. (check below graph – Club Mahindra Yearly Membership Unutilised)

I don’t think I again have to tell you that Club Mahindra charges Annual Subscription Fees (ASF) irrespective of you go for holidays or not. In addition they don’t allow members to accumulate more than 3 years (21 days) holidays. If member don’t pay ASF, his membership will seize.

My Story 

I am passionate about traveling – I bought Club Mahindra Red Studio in Feb 2008. Just after my sisters marriage we were having some cash in our account & coincidentally we were also planning to buy LCD TV. Then came THE SUNDAY & I saw advertisement in local newspaper, where Club Mahindra also shared about FREE Sony Bravia TV. My mind stopped working something similar to when people see emotional ads of child plans. I called up the number & executive reached my door step in 2 hours. In next 5 days we finished all formalities & were part of Club Mahindra roller coaster rides.

There are lot of bitter experience with Club Mahindra – starting from purchasing to doing bookings to services in resorts to checkouts but I must appreciate they have good properties.

My Mistakes – from which you should learn

They say “Learning from your mistakes is smart, learning from the mistakes of others is wise.” But learning from own mistake is really expensive….

I have not analysed my requirement: I am passionate about travelling but they have resorts at limited locations. When I go to some place I try to explore other good places which are close to that city – I don’t like sitting on pool side throughout the day. 31^st Dec 2010 I visited Jim Corbett – I had bookings for 4 nights. You won’t believe we spent very little time in resort – we were more interested in visiting Nanital & Ranikhet. Even we spent one night in some other hotel because we thought rather than going back to resort to sleep let’s directly go from Nanital to Ranikhet. : (

I have not researched the product before buying: I have not researched the product & matching it with my requirement. I believed on brand Mahindra, limited information that was shared by executive & my gut feeling. After buying the product I started searching about how existing members feel about it & I was shocked.  But that was too late.

I agreed for the things that were not documented – I was interested in Red Studio because that was most flexible in usage as I can go in Red, White or Blue & even purple if there is some chance in last 15 days (purple weeks were not available at that time for purchase). I can choose any type of room & that too with lower ASF.

But the executive said FREE TV is only available with 1 BR so first you buy White 1 BR & we can later convert it in Red Studio. It took me 7 months in conversion & that too after lot of threatening calls & what not.

There are lot more things to share about Club Mahindra Membership but I will try to share that in comment section. If you are member of any such time share resort or planning to buy one or approached by someone, please share your views in comment section.

A cold winter - A Share Market analogy !

It was autumn, and the Red Indians asked their New Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild.

Since he was a Red Indian chief in a modern society, he couldn't tell what the weather was going to be.

Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his Tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared.

But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked 'Is the coming winter going to be cold?'

'It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed,' the weather man responded.

So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood. A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. 'Is it going to be a very cold winter?'

'Yes,' the man at National Weather Service again replied, 'It's definitely going to be a very cold winter.'

The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.


Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again.

'Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?'

'Absolutely,' The man replied. 'It's going to be one of the coldest winters ever.'

'How can you be so sure?' the Chief asked.

The weatherman replied, 'The Red Indians are collecting wood like crazy.'

This is how stock markets work!!!

Wooden Bowl

  A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year grandson. The old man's hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together at the table. But the elderly grandfather's shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth. The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess.

  "We must do something about Grandfather," said the son. "I've had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor." So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner.

There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner. Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl.

When the family glanced in Grandfather's direction, sometime he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food.

The four-year-old watched it all in silence. One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, "What are you making?" Just as sweetly, the boy responded, "Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food when I grow up." The four-year-old smiled and went back to work.

The words so struck the parents that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done. That evening the husband took Grandfather's hand and gently led him back to the family table. For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled.

 Care and love your Parents as you would expect your children to love and care for you.

Remember, as you sow, so shall you reap, and regardless of your relationship with your Parents, you will miss them when they are gone.

The 4 Wives

Once upon a time there was a Prince who had four wives.

He loved the 4th wife the most and adorned her with expensive clothes, and treated her most delicately. He took great care of her and gave her nothing but the best.

He also loved the 3rd wife very much. She was very beautiful and he always enjoyed showing her off to his friends, but was always afraid that she may run away with some other men.

He loved his 2nd wife too. She was very considerate and patient. Whenever he faced any problems, she would always help him out.

His 1st wife was very loyal and contributed a great deal towards his success and also took care of the household. However he never paid much attention to her although she loved him deeply.

One day he fell sick and was finally on his death-bed. He thought that although he had 4 wives but when he dies, he will be all alone. So he asked his 4th wife, ' I loved you the most, gave you the finest clothes and took great care of you. Now I am dying, will you follow me and keep me company.' The 4th wife replied 'No way" and walked off without any further word.

In came the 3rd wife and he asked her ' I loved you so much all my life. Now that I am dying, will you follow me and keep me company.' She also replied 'No way', and further remarked that life was so good that she would re-marry after he dies.

He then asked the 2nd wife, ' You always helped me with my problems, I need your help again for one last time. I am dying, will you follow me and keep me company.' The 2nd wife replied that I am sorry but this time I cannot help you, at the most I can go up to your grave.

Then he suddenly heard the voice of his 4th wife saying that I will go with you and keep you company. As he looked up he realized that she was so skinny as if due to malnutrition. He told her with great sorrow in his heart that I should have taken better care of you while I could have.

The fact is that we all have 4 wives in our lives.

The 4th wife is our body: No matter how much time and effort we devote in making it looking good, it will leave us when we die.

The 3rd wife is our possessions, status and wealth: When we die they all go to others.

The 2nd wife is our family and friends: No matter how close they had been to us when we were alive, the furthest they can go is up to the grave.

The 1st wife which we cannot see is our soul itself: We often neglect it in our pursuit of material wealth and sensual pleasures, but it is the only thing which follows us wherever we go. So it won't be a bad idea at all to cultivate and strengthen it now, taking better care of it while we can with good noble deeds, than to wait until we are on our death-bed!!!

Barefoot - The other side of life

Can anyone really live on Rs. 26 a day, the income of the officially poor in rural India? Two youngsters try it out.

Late last year, two young men decided to live a month of their lives on the income of an average poor Indian. One of them, Tushar, the son of a police officer in Haryana, studied at the University of Pennsylvania and worked for three years as an investment banker in the US and Singapore. The other, Matt, migrated as a teenager to the States with his parents, and studied in MIT. Both decided at different points to return to India, joined the UID Project in Bengaluru, came to share a flat, and became close friends.

The idea suddenly struck them one day. Both had returned to India in the vague hope that they could be of use to their country. But they knew the people of this land so little. Tushar suggested one evening — “Let us try to understand an ‘average Indian', by living on an ‘average income'.” His friend Matt was immediately captured by the idea. They began a journey which would change them forever.

To begin with, what was the average income of an Indian? They calculated that India's Mean National Income was Rs. 4,500 a month, or Rs. 150 a day. Globally people spend about a third of their incomes on rent. Excluding rent, they decided to spend Rs. 100 each a day. They realised that this did not make them poor, only average. Seventy-five per cent Indians live on less than this average.

The young men moved into the tiny apartment of their domestic help, much to her bemusement. What changed for them was that they spent a large part of their day planning and organising their food. Eating out was out of the question; even dhabas were too expensive. Milk and yoghurt were expensive and therefore used sparingly, meat was out of bounds, as were processed food like bread. No ghee or butter, only a little refined oil. Both are passionate cooks with healthy appetites. They found soy nuggets a wonder food — affordable and high on proteins, and worked on many recipes. Parle G biscuits again were cheap: 25 paise for 27 calories! They innovated a dessert of fried banana on biscuits. It was their treat each day.

Restricted life

Living on Rs.100 made the circle of their life much smaller. They found that they could not afford to travel by bus more than five km in a day. If they needed to go further, they could only walk. They could afford electricity only five or six hours a day, therefore sparingly used lights and fans. They needed also to charge their mobiles and computers. One Lifebuoy soap cut into two. They passed by shops, gazing at things they could not buy. They could not afford the movies, and hoped they would not fall ill.

However, the bigger challenge remained. Could they live on Rs. 32, the official poverty line, which had become controversial after India's Planning Commission informed the Supreme Court that this was the poverty line for cities (for villages it was even lower, at Rs. 26 per person per day)?

Harrowing experience

For this, they decided to go to Matt's ancestral village Karucachal in Kerala, and live on Rs. 26. They ate parboiled rice, a tuber and banana and drank black tea: a balanced diet was impossible on the Rs. 18 a day which their briefly adopted ‘poverty' permitted. They found themselves thinking of food the whole day. They walked long distances, and saved money even on soap to wash their clothes. They could not afford communication, by mobile and internet. It would have been a disaster if they fell ill. For the two 26-year-olds, the experience of ‘official poverty' was harrowing.

Yet, when their experiment ended with Deepavali, they wrote to their friends: “Wish we could tell you that we are happy to have our ‘normal' lives back. Wish we could say that our sumptuous celebratory feast two nights ago was as satisfying as we had been hoping for throughout our experiment. It probably was one of the best meals we've ever had, packed with massive amounts of love from our hosts. However, each bite was a sad reminder of the harsh reality that there are 400 million people in our country for whom such a meal will remain a dream for quite some time. That we can move on to our comfortable life, but they remain in the battlefield of survival — a life of tough choices and tall constraints. A life where freedom means little and hunger is plenty...

Plenty of questions

It disturbs us to spend money on most of the things that we now consider excesses. Do we really need that hair product or that branded cologne? Is dining out at expensive restaurants necessary for a happy weekend? At a larger level, do we deserve all the riches we have around us? Is it just plain luck that we were born into circumstances that allowed us to build a life of comfort? What makes the other half any less deserving of many of these material possessions, (which many of us consider essential) or, more importantly, tools for self-development (education) or self-preservation (healthcare)?

We don't know the answers to these questions. But we do know the feeling of guilt that is with us now. Guilt that is compounded by the love and generosity we got from people who live on the other side, despite their tough lives. We may have treated them as strangers all our lives, but they surely didn't treat us as that way...”

So what did these two friends learn from their brief encounter with poverty? That hunger can make you angry. That a food law which guarantees adequate nutrition to all is essential. That poverty does not allow you to realise even modest dreams. And above all — in Matt's words — that empathy is essential for democracy. 
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Source: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Harsh_Mander/article2882340.ece

If You Don't Prioritize Your Life, Someone Else Will

A 'no' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble." So said Mahatma Gandhi, and we all know how his conviction played out on the world stage. But what is less well known is how this same discipline played out privately with his own grandson, Arun Gandhi.

Arun grew up in South Africa. When he was a young boy, he was beaten up twice: once for being too white and once for being too black. Still angry, Arun was sent to spend time with his grandfather. In an interview with Arun, he told me that his grandfather was in demand from many important people, yet he still prioritized his grandson, spending two hours a day for 18 months just listening to Arun. It proved to be a turning point in Arun's life.

I had the opportunity to apply Gandhi's example of prioritization to my own life, hours before one of my daughters was born. I felt pressure to go to a client meeting the next day. But on this occasion, I knew what to do. It was clearly a time to be there for my wife and child. So, when asked to attend the meeting, I said with all the conviction I could muster...

"Yes."

To my shame, while my wife lay in the hospital with my hours-old baby, I went to the meeting. Afterward, my colleague said, "The client will respect you for making the decision to be here." But the look on the clients' faces mirrored how I felt. What was I doing there?! I had not lived true to Gandhi's saying. I had said "yes" to please.

As it turned out, exactly nothing came of the client meeting. And even if the client had respected my choice, and key business opportunities had resulted, I would still have struck a fool's bargain. My wife supported me and trusted me to make the right choice under the circumstances, and I had opted to deprioritize her and my child.

Why did I do it? I have two confessions:

First, I allowed social awkwardness to trump making the right decision. I wasn't forced to attend the meeting. Instead, I was so anxious to please that even awkward silent pauses on the phone were too much for me. In order to stop the social pain, I said "yes" when I knew the answer should be "no."

Second, I believed that "I had to make this work." Logically, I knew I had a choice, but emotionally, I felt that I had no choice. That one corrupted assumption psychologically removed many of the actual choices available to me.

What can you do to avoid the mistake of saying "yes" when you know the answer should be "no"?

First, separate the decision from the relationship. Sometimes these seem so interconnected, we forget there are two different questions we need to answer. By deliberately dividing these questions, we can make a more conscious choice. Answer the question, "What is the right decision?" and then "How can I communicate this as kindly as possible?"

Second, watch your language. Every time we say, "I have to take this call" or "I have to send this piece of work off" or "I have to go to this client meeting," we are assuming that previous commitments are nonnegotiable. Every time you use the phrase "I have to" over the next week, stop and replace it with "I choose to." It can feel a little odd at first — and in some cases it can even be gut-wrenching (if we are choosing the wrong priority). But ultimately, using this language reminds us that we are making choices, which enables us to make a different choice.

Third, avoid working for or with people who don't respect your priorities. It may sound simplistic, but this is a truly liberating rule! There are people who share your values and as a result make it natural to live your priorities. It may take a while to find an employment situation like this, but you can set your course to that destination immediately.

Saying "yes" when we should be saying "no" can seem like a small thing in the moment. But over time, such compromises can create a life of regrets. Indeed, an Australian nurse named Bronnie Ware, who cared for people in the last 12 weeks of their lives, recorded the most often-discussed regrets. At the top of the list: "I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me." Next on the list: "I wish I hadn't worked so hard" and "I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings."

We may not develop Gandhian levels of courage immediately, but surely we can do better than having to look back on our lives and regret that we lived by someone else's priorities.

Is Bottled Water really that good?

The Educators.. Nice one

Somewhere in the world a certain private school was facing a unique problem...

A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick, they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.

Every night the maintenance man would remove them, and the next day the girls would put them back.

Finally the principal decided that something had to be done.

She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night.
(You can just imagine the yawns from the little princesses).

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.

He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it.

Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

There are teachers ... and then there are educators.

Investing / Warren Buffett

Only invest what you can afford to lose and for most people (9/10, I think) a low cost tracker fund is probably the best vehicle for them. For others who want to invest for the long term themselves, Warren Buffett is a very good guide. He writes in his 2007 shareholder letter:

“Charlie [Munger] and I [Warrren Buffett] look for companies that have a) a business we understand; b) favorable long-term economics; c) able and trustworthy management; and d) a sensible price tag. We like to buy the whole business or, if management is our partner, at least 80%. When control-type purchases of quality aren’t available, though, we are also happy to simply buy small portions of great businesses by way of stock-market purchases. It’s better to have a part interest in the Hope Diamond than to own all of a rhinestone.

A truly great business must have an enduring “moat” that protects excellent returns on invested capital. The dynamics of capitalism guarantee that competitors will repeatedly assault any business “castle” that is earning high returns. Therefore a formidable barrier such as a company’s being the low-cost producer (GEICO, Costco) or possessing a powerful world-wide brand (Coca-Cola, Gillette, American Express) is essential for sustained success. Business history is filled with “Roman Candles,” companies whose moats proved illusory and were soon crossed.

Our criterion of “enduring” causes us to rule out companies in industries prone to rapid and continuous change. Though capitalism’s “creative destruction” is highly beneficial for society, it precludes investment certainty. A moat that must be continuously rebuilt will eventually be no moat at all.

Additionally, this criterion eliminates the business whose success depends on having a great manager. Of course, a terrific CEO is a huge asset for any enterprise, and at Berkshire we have an abundance of these managers. Their abilities have created billions of dollars of value that would never have materialized if typical CEOs had been running their businesses.

But if a business requires a superstar to produce great results, the business itself cannot be deemed great. A medical partnership led by your area’s premier brain surgeon may enjoy outsized and growing earnings, but that tells little about its future. The partnership’s moat will go when the surgeon goes. You can count, though, on the moat of the Mayo Clinic to endure, even though you can’t name its CEO.

Long-term competitive advantage in a stable industry is what we seek in a business. If that comes with rapid organic growth, great. But even without organic growth, such a business is rewarding. We will simply take the lush earnings of the business and use them to buy similar businesses elsewhere. There’s no rule that you have to invest money where you’ve earned it. Indeed, it’s often a mistake to do so: Truly great businesses, earning huge returns on tangible assets, can’t for any extended period reinvest a large portion of their earnings internally at high rates of return. …”

Strangely (although perhaps not so strangely if you look at incentive structures in the industry) few money managers who purport to invest for the long term, actually manage to or manage money anything close to what Buffett advises…

Why some people have all the luck

RICHARD WISEMAN

Why do some people have all the luck while others never get the breaks they deserve?

I set out to examine luck, 10 years ago. Why are some people always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently experience ill fortune? I placed advertisements in national newspapers asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me.

Hundreds of extraordinary men and women volunteered for my research and over the years, have been interviewed by me. I have monitored their lives and had them take part in experiments. The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behaviour are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune. Take the case of seemingly chance opportunities. Lucky people consistently encounter such opportunities, whereas unlucky people do not.

I carried out a simple experiment to discover whether this was due to differences in their ability to spot such opportunities. I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. I had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying: 'Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $50'.

This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it.

Unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected.

As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs.

Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for. My research eventually revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

I wondered towards the end of the work, whether these principles could be used to create good luck. I asked a group of volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person. Dramatic results! These exercises helped them spot chance opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck. One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80 per cent of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier.

The lucky people had become even luckier and the unlucky had become lucky. Finally, i had found the elusive 'luck factor'. Here are four top tips for becoming lucky:

1) Listen to your gut instincts ^ they are normally right.

2) Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine.

3) Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well.

4) Visualise yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone call.

Have a Lucky day and work for it.

The happiest people in the world are not those who have no problems, but those who learn to live with things that are less than perfect.

The author of `The Luck Factor' teaches at the University of Hertfordshire.

Obstacles helped these men earn MEGA success .. From Yahoo Campus

AT age 10, Julio was a little Spanish boy with a dream. He wanted to play football for his favourite club – Real Madrid! He played all day, practised hard and became a very good goalkeeper.
By the time he was 20, the childhood dream was beginning to come true. He was signed up to play for Real Madrid. And most football pundits were predicting that young Julio would soon become Spain’s No.1 goalkeeper.
One evening in 1963, Julio and his friends set out in a car for a night of fun. It turned out to be a night of horror, as the car they were travelling in met with a terrible accident. And young Julio – soon-to-be star goalkeeper of Real Madrid and Spain – found himself in hospital, paralysed from the waist downwards. Doctors were unsure if he’d ever be able to walk again. They were pretty sure he would never play football again.
The road to recovery was long and painful. Julio spent the night thinking about what might have been. His mind was filled with sorrow, anger, regret. To lessen the pain, he took to writing songs and poems at night, with a tear in his eye and a pen in his hand. And to increase the dexterity in his hand, a nurse gave him a guitar. He had never touched a guitar in his life! But soon Julio began strumming the guitar and also singing the songs that he had been writing.
After being bed-ridden for 18 months, Julio gradually picked up the pieces of his life. Five years after the accident, Julio entered a singing competition – and won the first prize - singing a song called “Life goes on the same!”
He never played football again. But with a guitar in hand and a song on his lips, Julio Iglesias went on to become one of the top ten singers in the history of music, selling over 300 million albums. Just imagine. If not for that accident, Julio Iglesias would have probably been just another goalkeeper in Europe!
What happened to Julio that evening in 1963 could happen to any of us. A setback or an accident – or failure - can often appear to be the end of the road. But it seldom is. When one door shuts, usually another one opens. It’s just that we get so busy staring at the closed door and banging our head against it that we fail to spot the other door opening. Learning to cope with failure is often the first – and most critical step – towards success.
Never let failure impact your sense of self-belief. You are a star, with unique talents. Didn’t clear the entrance exam to engineering college? Maybe you weren’t meant to be an engineer. That’s all.
Even Albert Einstein didn’t clear the entrance exam to join a polytechnic. But he didn’t do too badly, did he? Maybe there is a better, brighter career waiting for you. The trick is to move on and like Julio, tell yourself that “Life goes on the same”.
Several years ago, a bright little boy in a government school in Kerala had a dream. He wanted to be a doctor. He did well in school, and everybody was convinced that this little boy would someday become a fine doctor. He wrote the entrance exam – but failed to make the cut! He was devastated.
His parents were shocked. He went on to do a BSc then a Masters degree, worked with an IT firm – and later went on to found Infosys. His name? Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO, Infosys. Just imagine. Had Kris not failed the medical entrance, he may have been in some little town in Kerala today, prescribing antibiotics for a runny nose or a nagging flu. Imagine!
Good lesson to learn from Julio. And from Kris. When one door shuts, another one opens. Just believe in yourself. Next time you are faced with a failure or a setback, look out for the other door. Push it open. And go find your place in the sun!

Cracked pot: Dont be afraid of your flaws.

A water bearer had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream.

"I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you."

"Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?"

"I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said.

The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path."

Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure.

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house."

Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But if we will allow it, the Lord will use our flaws to grace His Father's table. Don't be afraid of your flaws. Acknowledge them, and allow Him to take advantage of them, and you, too, can be the cause of beauty in his pathway.

David Hare: writing tips

1 Write only when you have something to say.

2 Never take advice from anyone with no investment in the outcome.

3 Style is the art of getting yourself out of the way, not putting yourself in it.

4 If nobody will put your play on, put it on yourself.

5 Jokes are like hands and feet for a painter. They may not be what you want to end up doing but you have to master them in the meanwhile.

6 Theatre primarily belongs to the young.

7 No one has ever achieved consistency as a screenwriter.

8 Never go to a TV personality festival masquerading as a literary festival.

9 Never complain of being misunderstood. You can choose to be understood, or you can choose not to.

10 The two most depressing words in the English language are “literary fiction”.

An Excerpt from Goals...The 10 Rules for Achieving Success

Success is the intentional, pre-meditated use of choice and decision. Unless you choose-with certainty-what it is you want, you accept table scraps by default!

The world is plump with opportunity. With boldness and conviction, stick a fork into the goals you want by being decisive.

You are born with great capabilities, but you will not achieve your potential until you call upon yourself to fulfill it. You will rise to the occasion when it presents itself; yet, to assure self-fulfillment, you must provide occasions to rise to. Clearly defined goals allow you to travel toward another horizon that represents the end of one experience and the transition to a new and better existence. The objective is to choose the right goals, and then to create the necessary causes-the effects will follow!

The difference between what one person and another achieves depends more on goal choices than on abilities.

The profound differences between successful people and others are the goals they choose to pursue. Individuals with similar talents, intelligence, and abilities will achieve different results because they select and pursue different goals.

Each decision affects what you become. We form our decisions and our decisions form us.

There is no escaping this; the smallest choices are important because-over time-their cumulative effect is enormous.

Never overlook the obvious: The nature and direction of your life change the instant you decide what goals you want to pursue.

Once you make a decision you start down a path to a new destination. At the moment the decision is made, your decision to pursue a goal alters what you are becoming. A single choice can alter your life, your destiny, your legacy.

Think about it-your goal decisions represent and express your individuality. You seal your fate with the choices you make.

You define yourself by your decisions.

Your dialog with success is ultimately a solo one. Decisions and goals made must be your own if you are to call your life a success.

Always establish the best goals you can. Goals are the seeds of success-you become only what you plant. The quality of your harvest is a direct reflection of the quality of your seeds...your decisions!

Indecision is the big eraser of opportunity and potential. Risks and costs accompany every decision; however, the price of decision is far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. When it comes to decisiveness, squatters have no rights.

Everyone has an official wish list of things they think are "reasonable." What about the unofficial wish list? The one that common sense tells you to ignore? The list that exists deep in your mind, the list that keeps you up at night, the that makes your toes wiggle when you think of it? Why not choose that list for a change?

How long have you dreamed of being, having, and doing what you really want? Think big, as when it comes to your goals, the size of your ambition does matter.

A decision to lose weight and keep it off must be remade every time you feel hungry.

A decision is never made only once.