The blind man and the advertising storyAN old blind man was sitting on a busy street corner in the rush-hour begging for money. On a cardboard sign, next to an empty tin cup, he had written: ‘Blind - Please help’.No-one was giving him any money.A young advertising writer walked past and saw the blind man with his sign and empty cup, and also saw the many people passing by completely unmoved, let alone stopping to give money. The advertising writer took a thick marker-pen from her pocket, turned the cardboard sheet back-to-front, and re-wrote the sign, then went on her way.Immediately, people began putting money into the tin cup.After a while, when the cup was overflowing, the blind man asked a stranger to tell him what the sign now said.“It says,” said the stranger, “ ‘It’s a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot.’ ”*****************************The shoes story (positive thinking, negative thinking, attitude, perspective, mindset)You will perhaps have heard this very old story illustrating the difference between positive thinking and negative thinking:Many years ago two salesmen were sent by a British shoe manufacturer to Africa to investigate and report back on market potential.The first salesman reported back, “There is no potential here - nobody wears shoes.”The second salesman reported back, “There is massive potential here - nobody wears shoes.”This simple short story provides one of the best examples of how a single situation may be viewed in two quite different ways - negatively or positively.We could explain this also in terms of seeing a situation’s problems and disadvantages, instead of its opportunities and benefits.When telling this story its impact is increased by using exactly the same form of words (e.g., “nobody wears shoes”) in each salesman’s report. This emphasises that two quite different interpretations are made of a single situation.*****************************The mechanic and the surgeon story (perceptions, the devil is in the detail, the nature of big differences)A heart surgeon took his car to his local garage for a regular service, where he usually exchanged a little friendly banter with the owner, a skilled but not especially wealthy mechanic.“So tell me,” says the mechanic, “I’ve been wondering about what we both do for a living, and how much more you get paid than me..”“Yes?..” says the surgeon.“Well look at this,” says the mechanic, as he worked on a big complicated engine, “I check how it’s running, open it up, fix the valves, and put it all back together so it works good as new.. We basically do the same job don’t we? And yet you are paid ten times what I am - how do you explain that?”The surgeon thought for a moment, and smiling gently, replied,”Try it with the engine running..”
