Expert Feature: Who Are You Listening To? What Are You Looking For?
The latest news that’s out seems to be that the economy is strengthening.
That’s great, but I know many small business owners still feel like things are rough out there.
There’s a story I share in the introduction to volume 1 of my ebooks called, “How You Can Survive And Prosper In A Recession” that I want to share with you today.
It’s a story about the power of people hearing what they want to hear.
You Hear What You Want To Hear
A Native American man lived in a big city.
One day his cousin from the reservation came to visit him.
They were walking downtown, in the middle of the city, when the cousin suddenly stopped. He said, “Do you hear that?”
The man that lived in the city said, “Hear what?” The cousin said, “I hear a cricket.” The man laughed and said, “You’ve gotta be joking! It’s so loud with all the cars and people you can’t possibly hear it!”
The cousin from the reservation didn’t answer he just kept listening.
Finally he walked over to a planter, bent over, reached down, and picked up a cricket.
The man was amazed! He said, “I can’t believe you heard that cricket with all this noise!”
The cousin from the reservation said, “People hear what they want to hear. I’ll prove it to you!” He then reached into his pocket, pulled out some change and dropped it on the ground.
At that moment, people all around him stopped what they were doing and began looking down!
You Find What You’re Looking For
Steve Goodier once told a story with a similar moral. But it wasn’t about what we hear. It was about when we see.
Goodier was quoted in Reader’s Digest from a story he told in Quote Magazine.
He said, “Both the hummingbird and the vulture fly over our nation’s deserts.
“All vultures see is rotting meat, because that is what they look for. They thrive on that diet.
“But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, they look for the colorful blossoms of desert plants.
“The vultures live on what was. They live on the past. They fill themselves with what is dead and gone.
“But hummingbirds live on what is. They seek new life. They fill themselves with freshness and life.
Then he says something very powerful.
He says, “Each bird finds what it is looking for. We all do.“
Listen And Look For Opportunities
These days you need to learn to “hear” and “see” the opportunities that surround you!
You need to begin to train yourself to “listen” and “look” for opportunity.
Don’t look to the past and what was. Look to the present and what could be.
Two people can look at the same situation–one will see an obstacle and one will see an opportunity!
Which person are you?
Photo by coolmikeol
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