We have a story for you today!
There was a business man who happened to be very deep in debt and he just couldn’t see anyway out at all. He had creditors demanding their money back and his suppliers were demanding that he paid them.
He decided to take a seat on a park bench and he had his head in his hands and he was just racking his brains to see if he could come up with anything to save his company from bankruptcy.
While sitting on this bench an old man came up to him and said “I can see that something is troubling you.”
The executive told the old man to sit down and he told him all about his problems. After listening to his problems, the old man said to him “I believe that I can help you.”
He then asked the executive for his name and he then wrote out a check and pushed it into his hands, saying “Take this money and one year from today I want you to meet me at this same spot and you can pay me back.”
Before the businessman could say anything, the old man had disappeared.
The business executive took a look at the check in his hand and saw that it was for $500,00 and it was signed by John D. Rockefeller, who at that time was one of the richest men in the world.
Straight away he realized that he could be relieved of his money worries in an instant. Instead however of using the money to pay off his debts, he decided to put the check in his safe, knowing that with it there it might just give him the strength that he needs to work out a way to save his business.
It goes without saying that the business man had renewed optimism and with that he negotiated better deals and talked to the people he owed money to in order to extended the terms of payment. It wasn’t long before the man was no longer in debt and he was making a lot of money again.
Exactly one year later, with the un-cashed check in hand, he returned to that exact same park and met the old man but as soon as he was about to give the check back to him and tell him of his success story and give his thanks, a nurse came running up towards them and she grabbed the old man.
She turned to the business man and said to him “I’m so glad I caught him! I hope he hasn’t been bothering you. He happens to always be escaping from the home and telling people he’s John D. Rockefeller.”
Before he could say anything, the nurse turned around and led the old man away by the arm.
The business man just stood there, totally stunned. All this year he had been working his hardest, 100% convinced that he had half a million dollars to fall back on.
That shock though soon turned to a realisation. A realisation that it wasn’t the money that had turned his life around, instead it happened to be the new-found self confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.
Does it matter if this story is true or not? Does it, really? 🙂
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