Life's like a see-saw. Up or down, which is lucky?

The other day, I was travelling with a friend when he told me of a venture which almost went broke. He started the business six years ago and due to inexperience then, the factory was floundering after just two years.

He carried on despite the problems he faced. Then, just as the camel's back was almost broken, the recession came. Business everywhere was bad. Almost every business had problems keeping afloat. Some closed shop.

The price of petrol dropped to an all time low. his factory was in a business which had to do with petroluem. So when the price of petrol went down, so did the price of the plastic products. Factories producing plastic products suffered great losses. The less capable ones went broke and closed shop. There was less competition. The remaining few, more established factories weathered the recession and when the recession gradually receded, his company managed to recover and with less competition, the factory planned to buy machines to prepare for the demand which will come with the world financial situation more stable.

Thus, a recession can be bad for some people while there are some who see it as a blessing in disguise. For this friend, it was a blessing as with less companies around to compete and the demand improving, his company can recover.

When he told me his story, I remember a time when I attended motivational speaker, Lawrence Chan's seminar for Holiday Magic cosmetics sometime during the 1970's. You know, I took out every cent of my savings to attend that seminar. Lawrence Chan proved himself a very captivating speaker. I was enthralled by his talk and I remember very well this story about two salesmen who were sent to Africa.

These two salemen were sent to look for the propect of stting up a branch in Africa. So, off they went and saw the same thing there. They saw that the people did not wear shoes. So, after noticing that, both of them went home to their shoe company. What do you think they told their manager?

One salesman went gloomingly into the manager's office, slumped into a chair without any enthusiasm or hope in his face. When asked how he would like to manage a branch there, he sadly shook his head and said," Sir, sending me there would be a waste of time and energy as the people there do not need shoes. They don't wear shoes."

Next, the other salesman was summoned to the office. this salesman strode confidently into the office with a cheerful smile on his face.
"Well, what do you think of a branch of our company inAfrica?" the manager asked.
"That would be great. It's fantastic. We will be the first to go into that market and everyone of them will need at least a pair of shoes as they have none at present," his words rushed out with the excitement of the propect of so many customers for the company.

Again, the situation is the same but the attitude towards a knowledge is different.
One salesman saw no customers for the company but the other one saw everyone of the people there as prospective customers.

The minds think differently. Here lies the difference. just as some people see the recession as bad luck, others see it as a blessing.

Well, it is just like people who buy shares. When the market crashes, people rush to get their money out and wait for the market to go up again. For some, however, they are so happy to see the market collapse as it would mean that the price of the shares will reach a all-time low, at which point they feel it is an opportune time to enter and pick up the shares at their lowest price. Well, unless the company goes bankrupt, the price has no way else to go but up.

So, here again, what can be a tragedy for some, is a blessing for others. it just depends upon how you look at it.