The 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.
Two men went fishing. One man was an experienced fisherman, the other wasn't. Every time the experienced fisherman caught a big fish, he put it in his ice chest to keep it fresh. Whenever the inexperienced fisherman caught a big fish, he threw it back. 
