Magic in self confidence

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 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.”

Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come.

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 !

“I can erase my money worries in an instant !” he realised. But

instead, the executive decided to put the uncashed 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 uncashed

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.

“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 realised 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.