perspective is everything

perspective is everything---kathy panuuw
I first learned of Clement Stone in 1977, when I attended Interlochen Arts Academy for my senior year of high school. Mr. Stone had given money to the school to fund some scholarships, and I was one of the recipents of his generosity. After I graduated from high school,I decided to write and thank Mr. Stone for enabling me to attend this prestigious academy my last year of high school. I was quite surprised to receive a long handwritten response from him, in which he thanked me for taking the time to write and encouraged me to follow my dreams.
Clement Stone was a self-made man. He was selling newspapers on street corners at the age of 6. By the time he was 13 years old he had his own newsstand. He started selling insurance at the age of 16. He dropped out of school to work full time, finishing high school in night classes. During the Depression, when others believed that insurance would be impossible to sell, Stone saw tremendous possibilities. Soon he signed up salesmen to work for him, eventually building his own company. By 1979,Stone's insurance company exceeded 1 billion dollar in assests.
I recently heard a stor that paralleled Stone's own success story. As the story goes, two shoe salesmen were sent to Africa. The first reported a problem--all of the natives went barefoot--and thus he believed that there was no market in Africa for shoes. The second salesman reported an opportunity--all of the natives went barefoot--and thus he believed that Africa held a tremendous market for shoes.
Problems vs. Opportunities
We live in an unuasual time with corporate downsizing, restructuring, and an increase in global competition. Some view these times as problematic; others see the incredible opportunities created by such change.
In the last decade there has been a huge growth in service-industry businesses.These businesses have been started by individuals with the courage to pursue their dreams.
Yet, for every idea that is implemented, thousands of ideas never get beyond the conceptual stage...from the imagination to a plan of action.
What holds people back from pursuing their dreams and acting on their great ideas? I believe it's fear of failure. Someone once said "there are a lot of ways to become a failure, but never taking a chance is the most successful way." I've also heard it said that "people don't plan to fail...they fail to plan."
Companies these days must be willing and able to change constantly. Sometimes companies change course to survive, and sometimes they do so because an opportunity is too good to resist. I know of a small company that provided a messenger service several years ago. A sudden major increase in corporate use of fax machines nearly put this small company out of business. Fortunately, the owner of the company was clever enough to realize other global corporate trends happening at the same time. As those companies were acquiring fax machines, square footage of office space was decreasing, generating a need for more offsite storage space. The owner shifted from offering a messenger service to providing an offsite records storage service, and soon business was booming once again.
It all comes down to perspective. When there was a down-turn in the economy, some people said to themselves,"This is terrible! With the downturn in the economy, nobody will have a budget for my services." Others thought, "This is great! With the tightening of budgets and the loss of support staff, there's an even greater need for executives and professionals to be more productive and effective, which is percisely what I'm here to help them do!"
As important as positive mental attitude is, Stone says that" there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren't enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to fulfill their dreams."