IT IS NOT WHAT YOU HAVE BUT IT IS HOW YOU THINK
HAS A PROFOUND EFFECT ON YOUR LIFE
A 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.
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 un-cashed 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 un- cashed 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.
