close
| Listening to who? |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by Ryan |
| Wednesday, 17 June 2009 09:51 |
|
Sign up for Ryan's informative Free e-newsletter on Leadership-Team-High Performance
He stood on the side of the road and cried: "Buy a hot dog Mister?" And people bought. He increased his meat and bun orders. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade. He finally got his son home from college to help him out.
But then something happened. His son said, "Father, haven't you been listening to the radio and watching TV? There's a big depression. The foreign situation is terrible. The domestic situation is worse."
Whereupon the father thought, "Well, my son's been to college, he listens to the radio and watches TV and he ought to know."
So the father cut down on his meat and bun orders... took down his signs and cancelled his newspaper ads and no longer bothered to stand on the highway to sell his hot dogs.
And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight. "You're right son" the father said to the boy. "We certainly are in the middle of a great depression." (-Author unknown) Some of us have heard this type of story before, but it’s a great reminder to be careful about what and who we listen to. I remember that the surgeon who operated on my decimated right knee (when I was 16 years old) told me and my folks that with all of the damage done on my knee “I would probably not skate again.”
Now most Doctors have to give you the down-side along with the up-side. Here’s the key question... what if I would have listened to him more than listening to my dream of playing in the NHL. After rehabilitating that right knee and wearing a brace for another 19 hockey seasons... I finished my career by playing over 1000 NHL games.
The 80/20 rule tells us that 80% of people are going to sit on the side-line and tell us that what we are doing can’t and won’t happen. They are risk adverse or hope that you can have a little success with-out getting hurt.
20% of the people see the vision (or opportunity) for you independent of the circumstances (opposition out there) and encourage you to go for it.
Life’s grand question is “which group will you choose to listen to?” |