A business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out. As he was sitting on the park bench, head in hands, an old man appeared before him and said, “I can see that something is troubling you.”
After listening to the executive’s woes, the old man said, “I believe I can help you.” He wrote out a cheque, 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.”
The business executive saw in his hand a cheque for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world! Instead of using it, the executive decided to put the un-cashed cheque 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 cheque. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the cheque and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man. She told the executive, “I hope he hasn’t been bothering you. He’s always escaping from the rest home and telling people he’s John D. Rockefeller.”
The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. 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 ever imagined.
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