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 uncashed 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 uncashed
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.
