confidence
The business executive was deep in debt and could see no way
out. Creditors were closing in on him.
Suppliers were demanding payment.
He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could
save his company from bankruptcy.Drowning
Suddenly an old man appeared before him.
'I can see that something is troubling you,' he said. After listening
to the executive's woes, the old man said, 'I believe I can help you.'
He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his
hand saying, 'Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from
today, and you can pay me back at that time.' Then he turned and
disappeared as quickly as he had come.
The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by
John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world! 'I can
erase my money worries in an instant!' he realized.
But instead, the executive decided to put the uncashed check in his
safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work
out a way to save his business, he thought. With renewed optimism, he
negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed
several big sales.
Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.
Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the uncashed
check.
At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the
executive was about to hand back the check and share his success
story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man.
'I'm so glad I caught him!' she cried. 'I hope he hasn't been
bothering you. He's always escaping from the rest home and telling
people he's John D. Rockefeller.'
And she led the old man away by the arm. The astonished executive just
stood there, stunned.
All year long he'd been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling,
convinced he had half a million dollars behind him. Suddenly, he
realized that it wasn't the money, real or imagined, that had turned
his life around.
It was his newfound self-confidence that gave him the power to
achieve anything he went after.
Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:16 pm by tjp
Subject: ~~ confidence ~~