How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life pdfdrive com

2. Stay Away from the “Experts”
So-called experts do more to shoot down people’s dreams than just about
anybody else.
Possibility thinkers are very reluctant to dismiss anything as impossible.
Rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun said, “I have learned to use the word
impossible with the greatest of caution.” And Napoleon Bonaparte declared,
“The word impossible is not in my dictionary.” If you feel you must take the
advice of an expert, however, then heed the words of John Andrew Holmes, who
asserted, “Never tell a young person that something cannot be done. God may
have been waiting centuries for somebody ignorant enough of the impossible to
do that thing.” If you want to achieve something, give yourself permission to
believe it is possible—no matter what experts might say.

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3. Look for Possibilities in Every Situation
Becoming a possibility thinker is more than just refusing to let yourself be
negative. It’s something more. It’s looking for positive possibilities despite the
circumstances. I recently heard Don Soderquist, former president of Wal-Mart,
tell a wonderful story that illustrates how a person can find positive possibilities
in any situation. Soderquist had gone with Sam Walton to Huntsville, Alabama,
to open several new stores. While there, Walton suggested they visit the
competition. Here’s what Soderquist said happened: 
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We went into one [store], and I have to tell you that it was the worst store
I’ve ever seen in my life. It was terrible. There were no customers. There
was no help on the floor. The aisles were cluttered with merchandise, empty
shelves, dirty, it was absolutely terrible. He [Walton] walked one way and
I’d walk the other way and we’d kind of meet out on the sidewalk. He said,
“What’d you think, Don?”
I said, “Sam, that is the absolutely worst store I’ve ever seen in my life. I
mean, did you see the aisles?”
He said, “Don, did you see the pantyhose rack?”
I said, “No, I didn’t, Sam. I must have gone on a different aisle than you.
I didn’t see that.”
He said, “That was the best pantyhose rack I’ve ever seen, Don.” And he
said, “I pulled the fixture out and on the back was the name of the
manufacturer. When we get back, I want you to call that manufacturer and
have him come in and visit with our fixture people. I want to put that rack
in our stores. It’s absolutely the best I’ve ever seen.” And he said next, “Did
you see the ethnic cosmetics?”
I said, “Sam, that must have been right next to the pantyhose rack,
because I absolutely missed that.”
He said, “Don, do you realize that in our stores we have four feet of
ethnic cosmetics. These people had 12 feet of it. We are absolutely missing
the boat. I wrote down the distributor of some of those products. When we
get back, I want you to get a hold of our cosmetic buyer and get these
people in. We absolutely need to expand our ethnic cosmetics.”
Now, Sam Walton didn’t hit me on the head and say, “Don, now what
lesson did you learn from this?” He had already hit me on the head by

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looking for the good, looking how to improve, striving for excellence. It’s
so easy to go and look at what other people do badly. But one of the
leadership characteristics of vision that he showed me, and I’ll never forget
it, is look for the good in what other people are doing and apply it.
It doesn’t take a genius IQ or twenty years of experience to find the
possibility in every situation. All it takes is the right attitude, and anybody
can cultivate that.

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