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We can improve our future by just not seeing ‘what is’ in the present but ‘what can’ in the future. We are what we think all the time. If we are thinking big, we are surrounded by big things. And if our thinking is mediocre then, only mediocre things happen around us. Thinking is directly a proposal to our accomplishment.
To be successful in life, many a time we need to focus on future goals rather than focusing on small trivial things of the present. If we are giving too much emphasis on small things in the present, we slowly & unconsciously create a poor and discouraging environment for ourselves.
But at the same time if we see things from the future perspective in a broader way, then things start converting in our favor to support us. Here our subconscious mind plays a mega role. It starts showing us the ways to take action, immediately once we made our decision for a bright future.
The below excerpt is from the outstanding book ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’ written by David J. Schwartz.
Big thinkers train themselves to see not just what is but what can be. Here are three examples to illustrate this point.
1. What gives real estate value?
A highly successful Realtor who specializes in rural property shows what can be done if we train ourselves to see something where little or nothing presently exists.
“Most of the rural property around here,” my friend began, “is run-down and not very attractive. I’m successful because I don’t try to sell my prospects a farm as it is.
“I develop my entire sales plan around what the farm can be. Simply telling the prospect, ‘The farm has XX acres of bottom land and XX acres of woods and is XX miles from town,’ doesn’t stir him up and make him want to buy it. But when you show him a concrete plan for doing something with the farm, he’s just about sold. Here, let me show you what I mean.”
He opened his briefcase and pulled out a file. “This farm,” he said, “is a new listing with us. It’s like a lot of them. It’s forty-three miles from the center of the metropolitan area, the house is run-down, and the place hasn’t been farmed in five years. Now, here’s what I’ve done. I spent two full days at the place last week, just studying it. I walked over to the place several times. Then I looked at neighboring farms. I studied the location of the farm with respect to existing and planned highways. Also, I asked myself, ‘What’s this farm good for?’
“I came up with three possibilities. Here they are.” He showed them to me. Each plan was neatly typed and looked quite comprehensive. One plan suggested converting the farm into a riding stable. The plan showed why the idea was sound: a growing city, more love for the outdoors, more money for recreation, good roads. The plan also showed how the farm could support a sizable number of horses so that the revenue from the rides would be largely clear. The whole riding stable idea was very thorough, very convincing. The plan was so clear and convincing, I could “see” a dozen couples riding horseback through the trees.
In a similar fashion, this enterprising salesman developed a second thorough plan for a tree farm and a third plan for a combination tree and poultry farm.
“Now when I talk with my prospects, I won’t have to convince them that the farm is a good buy as it is. I help them to see a picture of the farm changed into a moneymaking proposition. Besides selling more farms and selling them faster, I can sell a farm at a higher price than my competitors. People naturally pay more for acreage and an idea than they do for just acreage. Because of this, more people want to list their farms with me and my commission on each sale is larger.”
The moral is this: Look at things not as they are, but as they can be. Visualization adds value to everything. A big thinker always visualizes what can be done in the future. He isn’t stuck with the present.
2. How much is a customer worth?
A department store executive was addressing a conference of merchandise managers. She was saying, “I may be a little old-fashioned, but I belong to the school that believes the best way to get customers to come back is to give them friendly, courteous service. One day I was walking through our store when I overheard a salesperson arguing with a customer. The customer left in quite a huff.
“Afterwards, the salesperson said to another, ‘I’m not going to let a $1.98 customer take up all my time and make me take the store apart trying to find him what he wants. He’s simply not worth it.’
“I walked away,” the executive continued, “but I couldn’t get that remark out of my mind. It is pretty serious, I thought when our salespeople think of customers as being in the $1.98 category. I decided right then that this concept must be changed. When I got back to my office, I called our research director and asked him to find out how much the average customer spent in our store last year. The figure he came up with surprised even me. According to our research director’s careful calculation, the typical customer spent $362 in our establishment.
“The next thing I did was call a meeting of all supervisory personnel and explain the incident to them. Then I showed them what a customer is really worth. Once I got these people to see that a customer is not to be valued on a single sale but rather on an annual basis, customer service definitely improved.”
The point made by the retailing executive applies to any kind of business. It’s repeat business that makes the profit. Often, there’s no profit at all on the first several sales. Look at the potential expenditures of the customers, not just what they buy today.
Putting a big value on customers is what converts them into big, regular patrons. Attaching little value to customers sends them elsewhere. A student related this pertinent incident to me, explaining why he’ll never again eat in a certain cafeteria.
“For lunch one day,” the student began, “I decided to try a new cafeteria that had just opened a couple of weeks before. Nickels and dimes are pretty important to me right now, so I watch what I buy pretty closely. Walking past the meat section I saw some turkey and dressing that looked pretty good, and it was plainly marked 39 cents.
“When I got to the cash register, the checker looked at my tray and said, ‘1.09.’ I politely asked her to check it again because my tally was 99 cents. After giving me a mean glare, she recounted. The difference turned out to be the turkey. She had charged me 49 cents instead of 39 cents. Then I called her attention to the sign, which read 39 cents.
“This really set her off! ‘I don’t care what that sign says. It’s supposed to be 49 cents. See. Here’s my price list for today. Somebody back there made a mistake. You’ll have to pay the 49 cents.’
“Then I tried to explain to her the only reason I selected the turkey was that it was 39 cents. If it had been marked 49 cents I’d have taken something else.
“To this, her answer was ‘You’ll just have to pay the 49 cents.’ I did because I didn’t want to stand there and create a scene. But I decided on the spot that I’d never eat there again. I spend about $250 a year for lunches, and you can be sure they’ll not get one penny of it.”
There’s an example of the little view. The checker saw one thin dime, not the potential $250.
3. What determines how much you’re worth?
After a training session a few weeks ago, a young man came to see me and asked if he could talk with me for a few minutes. I knew that this young fellow, now about twenty-six, had been a very underprivileged child. On top of this, he had experienced a mountain of misfortune in his early adult years. I also knew that he was making a real effort to prepare himself for a solid future.
Over coffee, we quickly worked out his technical problem, and our discussion turned to how people who have few physical possessions should look toward the future. His comments provided a straightforward, sound answer.
“I’ve got less than $200 in the bank. My job as a rate clerk doesn’t pay much, and it doesn’t carry much responsibility. My car is four years old, and my wife and I live in a cramped second-floor apartment.
“But, Professor,” he continued, “I’m determined not to let what I haven’t got stop me.”
That was an intriguing statement, so I urged him to explain.
“It’s this way,” he went on, “I’ve been analyzing people a lot lately, and I’ve noticed this. People who don’t have much, look at themselves as they are now. That’s all they see. They don’t see a future, they just see a miserable present.
“My neighbor is a good example. He’s continually complaining about having a low-pay job, the plumbing that’s always getting fouled up, the lucky breaks somebody else just got, the doctor bills that are piling up. He reminds himself so often that he’s poor that now he just assumes that he’s always going to be poor. He acts as if he were sentenced to living in that broken-down apartment all the rest of his life.”
My friend was really speaking from the heart, and after a moment’s pause, he added, “If I looked at myself strictly as I am—old car, low income, cheap apartment, hamburger diet—I couldn’t help but be discouraged. I’d see a nobody and I’d be a nobody for the rest of my life.
“I’ve made up my mind to look at myself as the person I’m going to be in a few short years. I see myself not as a rate clerk but as an executive. I don’t see a crummy apartment, I see a fine new suburban home. And when I look at myself that way, I feel bigger and think bigger. And I’ve got plenty of personal experiences to prove it’s paying off.”
Isn’t that a splendid plan for adding value to oneself? This young fellow is on the expressway to really fine living. He’s mastered this basic success principle: It isn’t what one has that’s important. Rather, it’s how much one is planning to get that count.
Way Ahead
Here is how you can develop your power to see what can be, not just what is. I call these the “practice adding value” exercises.
- Practice adding value to things. Remember the real estate example. Ask yourself, “What can I do to ‘add value’ to this room or this house or this business?” Look for ideas to make things worth more. A thing—whether it be a vacant lot, a house, or a business—has value in proportion to the ideas for using it.
- Practice adding value to people. As you move higher and higher in the world of success, more and more of your job becomes “people development.” Ask, “What can I do to ‘add value’ to my subordinates? What can I do to help them to become more effective?” Remember, to bring out the best in a person, you must first visualize his best.
- Practice adding value to yourself. Conduct a daily interview with yourself. Ask, “What can I do to make myself more valuable today?” Visualize yourself not as you are but as you can be. The specific ways for attaining your potential value will suggest themselves. Just try and see the transformation of your future.
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”— Henry David Thoreau
The Wealth Code: Volume 1 is a personal development and financial education book written by Vinod Singh. It is designed to empower readers by teaching them principles of wealth creation, financial freedom, and personal growth. The book offers practical strategies to achieve financial success, with a vision to uplift and transform the lives of millions by promoting financial literacy and entrepreneurial thinking. Singh’s approach is rooted in inspiring individuals to take control of their financial destinies while cultivating a mindset focused on long-term success and abundance.
