The Magic of Confidence

A Businessman was deep in debt and could not see any way of coming out of it.

Creditors and Suppliers were demanding payments. He sat in the park, deep in thought, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.

Suddenly an old man appeared before him and asked, "I can see that something is troubling you seriously".

The businessman said, "My whole business is ruined, I am a financial wreck, deeply in debt. There is not even a single ray of hope for me."

After listening patiently about the  the old man said, "I believe I can help you".

He asked the man his name, wrote out a cheque and put it into his hands 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 businessman saw in his hands a cheque for one million dollars, signed by Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world.

The businessman was elated. "I can erase my worries instantly" he realized. But instead, the man decided to put the uncashed cheque in his safe, knowing that it might give him the strength to rescue his business in case of a dire emergency.

With changed thinking he went back to business, started negotiating better deals, restructured his business and worked rigorously with full zeal and enthusiasm and got several small and big successes.

Within few months, he was out of debt and started making money once again. Exactly one year later he remembered to return to the park with the unused cheque. He wanted to surprise his benefactor with the revelation that he did not have to use the monetary help at all. The moral support did the trick.

As agreed, the old man appeared at the same spot. But just as the businessman was about to hand him 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 much.He always escapes from the mental hospital and tells people that he is Warren Buffet", saying this she took the old man away.

The surprised man just stood there, stunned!

All the year long he had believed that he had a million dollars to back him that he can use any time.

Moral of the story? It is not the money, real or imagined that turns our life around. It is our confidence in ourselves that gives us the power to achieve anything and everything that we want.