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.Nonetheless, the executive decided to put the check in his safe first. Just knowing it was there, would give him the strength to work out away to save his business, he thought.
With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and got extended terms of payment from creditors. Soon he could close some big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.
Exactly a year later, he returned to the park with that uncashed check. The old man did not appear for some time yet the business executive decided to wait for a while more. A while late
the old man came along the way but seemed to be unmindful of the business executive. He stopped the old man and was about the hand over the cheque with a few words of thanks as well as share his success story.
At the same time, he saw a nurse come running up and grabbing 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 new found self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after. He understood that Confidence is nothing but the distant vision held positively no matter what comes in between. It comes from one's own commitment and dedication and entirely internal.
"Our duty is to encourage everyone in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the truth"
- Swami Vivekananda
