Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

It was not written by me, but I thought it was so meaningful that couldn't help publishing it for you:

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day,
while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help
coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.

There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy,
screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad
from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse
surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced
himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

'I want to repay you,' said the nobleman. 'You saved my son's life.'

'No, I can't accept payment for what I did,' the Scottish farmer
replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son
came to the door of the family hovel.

'Is that your son?' the nobleman asked.

'Yes,' the farmer replied proudly.

'I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education
my own son will enjoy If the lad is anything like his father, he'll
no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.' And that he did.

Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time,
graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went
on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander
Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog
was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill .. His son's name?

Sir Winston Churchill.

Someone once said: What goes around comes around.
Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

Some business...

A week ago I went to Kazakhstan on a business trip. It was my first time there. We stayed in Astana all the time. I liked the city: it seemed very spacious and bright and clean.

Since I've not been able to make it to Ukraine for this or that reason for quite some time already, it appeared to be a very nostalgic trip as well. It's been a long time since I saw the "width of the Russian soul" reflected in the urban architechture (no sarcasm implied).

But talking business, it was a curious trip. I realized that the countries have made incredible changes, which I know did not come easily after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but at the same time there's such a long way to go yet. And I realized that the root to these further changes is no more in financial or political or fiscal reforms. It is in the mentality of people. And now it's the hardest part: how to open it up to the rest of the world, how to make them think they are just the same - not worth or not better (the latter being the prevailing point of view among the locals themselves, which stretches itself to quite scary circumstances) - that they can achieve the same once they respect the world and want to be an EQUAL part of it..? Is it an achievable goal..?