Kisah Tukang Kayu

Seorang tukang bangunan yang sudah
tua berniat untuk pensiun dari
profesi yang sudah ia geluti selama
puluhan tahun.

Ia ingin menikmati masa tua bersama
istri dan anak cucunya. Ia tahu ia
akan kehilangan penghasilan rutinnya
namun bagaimanapun tubuh tuanya butuh
istirahat. Ia pun menyampaikan
rencana tersebut kepada mandornya.

Sang Mandor merasa sedih, sebab ia
akan kehilangan salah satu tukang
kayu terbaiknya, ahli bangunan yang
handal yang ia miliki dalam timnya.
Namun ia juga tidak bisa memaksa.

Sebagai permintaan terakhir sebelum
tukang kayu tua ini berhenti, sang
mandor memintanya untuk sekali lagi
membangun sebuah rumah untuk terakhir
kalinya.

Dengan berat hati si tukang kayu
menyanggupi namun ia berkata karena
ia sudah berniat untuk pensiun maka
ia akan mengerjakannya tidak dengan
segenap hati.

Sang mandor hanya tersenyum dan
berkata, "Kerjakanlah dengan yang
terbaik yang kamu bisa. Kamu bebas
membangun dengan semua bahan terbaik
yang ada."

Tukang kayu lalu memulai pekerjaan
terakhirnya. Ia begitu malas-malasan.
Ia asal-asalan membuat rangka
bangunan, ia malas mencari, maka ia
gunakan bahan-bahan berkualitas
rendah. Sayang sekali, ia memilih
cara yang buruk untuk mengakhiri
karirnya.

Saat rumah itu selesai. Sang mandor
datang untuk memeriksa. Saat sang
mandor memegang daun pintu depan, ia
berbalik dan berkata, "Ini adalah
rumahmu, hadiah dariku untukmu!"

Betapa terkejutnya si tukang kayu. Ia
sangat menyesal. Kalau saja sejak
awal ia tahu bahwa ia sedang
membangun rumahnya, ia akan
mengerjakannya dengan
sungguh-sungguh. Sekarang akibatnya,
ia harus tinggal di rumah yang ia
bangun dengan asal-asalan.

Inilah refleksi hidup kita!

Pikirkanlah kisah si tukang kayu ini.
Anggaplah rumah itu sama dengan
kehidupan Anda. Setiap kali Anda
memalu paku, memasang rangka,
memasang keramik, lakukanlah dengan
segenap hati dan bijaksana.

Sebab kehidupanmu saat ini adalah
akibat dari pilihanmu di masa lalu.
Masa depanmu adalalah hasil dari
keputusanmu saat ini.

Jangan Hanya Melihat ke Atas!!!

Tidak baik jika kita menutup-nutupi kelemahan dan kegagalan dengan banyak alasan. Terimalah, dan hadapilah kegagalan itu sebagai pengalaman dan pelajaran berharga, agar bisa jadi pedoman dan tuntunan untuk mencapai kemajuan dan keberhasilan yang lebih berarti di kemudian hari.

Kita tahu bahwa dunia ini selalu berputar. Adakalanya manusia ada di bawah, atau sebaliknya ada di atas.Ada orang bertanya kepada saya, bagaimana dengan kenyataan yang sering kita lihat begitu banyak orang-orang yang selalu di bawah? Bukankah mereka juga tinggal di bumi yang sama dengan orang-orang yang mampu dan kuat berada di atas? Sering kita lihat orang-orang yang sudah di atas malah semakin ke atas. Pandangan itu semua hanyalah ironi. Kita tidak pernah tahu apa yang terjadi pada mereka yang sudah ada di atas. Kebanyakan di antara kita melihat mereka yang di atas
selalu dari 'materi' atau jabatan.Namun percayalah, setiap orang mengalami pasang surut. Belajarlah dari orang-orang yang sudah ada di atas, dan orang-orang yang berada di bawah. Jangan hanya melihat ke atas. Banyak pelajaran yang bisa diambil dari keduanya, yang bisa engkau jadikan bekal tuk menjadi pribadi yang luhur bijaksana, sukses lahir dan batin.

Mariah Carey

 

Synopsis

Mariah Carey was born March 27, 1970, in Long Island, New York, and began taking voice lessons at age four. At 18 she signed with Columbia records, and her first album had four number-one singles, including "Vision of Love" and "I Don't Wanna Cry." She went on to produce several more albums (later with other studios) and top singles, and is one of the best-selling female artists of all time.

Early Life

Singer Mariah Carey was born March 27, 1970 in Long Island, New York, to Alfred Roy Carey, a Venezuelan aeronautical engineer; and Patricia Carey, a voice coach and opera singer. Has two older siblings: a brother, Morgan, and a sister, Alison. Carey is known as one of the top “pop divas” of the 1990s, having sold more than eighty million albums worldwide. Her voice spans more than five octaves and she writes most of her own music.

Carey's parents divorced when she was 3. She stunned her mother by imitating her operatic singing as early as age two, and was given singing lessons starting at age four. After graduating in 1987 from Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York, Carey moved to Manhattan where she worked as a waitress, coat check girl, and studied cosmetology while writing songs and actively pursuing a music career at night.

Early Music Career

When she was 18, Carey and her friend, singer Brenda K. Starr, went to a party hosted by CBS Records. Starr convinced Carey to bring along one of her demo tapes. She intended to give the tape to Columbia's Jerry Greenberg, but Tommy Mottola, the president of Columbia Records (later Sony), intercepted it before she could hand it to Greenberg. After listening to the tape on the way home from the party, Mottola signed Carey immediately and set her to work on her first album, Mariah Carey (1990) which included four No. 1 singles: “Vision of Love,” “Love Takes Time,” “Some Day,” and “I Don’t Wanna Cry.” Her second album Emotions was released in 1992; the title track became her fifth No. 1 single, and included hits “Can’t Let Go” and “Make it Happen.”

Success on the Pop Charts

In March 1992, Carey appeared on MTV's Unplugged. This performance was released as an album and a home video, resulting in another No. 1 single (a cover of The Jacksons’ “I’ll Be There”). Her next album Music Box (1993) cut back a bit on the lavish studio production techniques heard in her previous albums, and included the No. 1 singles, “Dreamlover” and “Hero.” Her November 1994 release Merry Christmas combined traditional Christian hymns with new songs. In 1995 she released Daydream; the first single “Fantasy” debuted at No. 1. It also included collaborations with R&B and hip-hop artists, such as Wu-Tang Clan and Boyz II Men (“One Sweet Day”).

Her 1997 album Butterfly included eleven compositions written by Carey, and demonstrated her continued interest in hip-hop and R&B, including the Sean “Puffy” Combs produced “Honey,” her twelfth No. 1 hit. #1’s (1998) featured her thirteen previous chart-topping singles as well as the Academy Award-nominated “The Prince of Egypt (When You Believe),” a duet with fellow pop diva, Whitney Houston. Carey is also rumored to be pursuing an acting career.

In June 1993, Carey married Mottola in a spectacular ceremony at Manhattan's St. Thomas Episcopal Church. The couple divorced in 1998. Carey then dated Latin singer Luis Miguel for three years, but their relationship reportedly ended in the summer of 2001. She married rapper-actor Nick Cannon on April 30, 2008, in a secret ceremony in the Bahamas. The couple had been dating for less than two months, their romance having blossomed after he appeared in her music video Bye Bye.

Carey is active in fundraising for The Fresh Air Fund, an independent non-profit agency that has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.6 million disadvantaged New York City children since 1877.

Overcoming Obstacles

In July 2001, Carey was admitted into a New York-area hospital and put under psychiatric care after suffering what her publicists called a "physical and emotional collapse." Carey had been preparing to promote her upcoming feature film debut, Glitter, and its accompanying soundtrack album, but cancelled all public appearances. The release of Glitter was subsequently pushed back from late August to late September 2001. Carey was released from the hospital after two weeks.

In January 2002, Carey and EMI (the corporate owner of Virgin Records, with whom Carey had signed a reported $80 million contract in April 2001) severed their relationship. Though the film and soundtrack for Glitter failed to generate the desired box office and sales totals, Carey reportedly walked away from Virgin with nearly $50 million as part of her severance agreement. In May of 2002, she signed a deal with Universal Music Group's Island/Def Jam Records. In December 2002, Carey staged a comeback with her eighth album, Charmbracelet