Which Shoeless Joe are you?

Adventuring in Mindset

Mindset is Key in any game, situation, or business.

Take, for example, the story about the two businessmen. These two expansion scouts worked for prominent shoe companies, let's say one worked for Nike and the other for Reebok.

Years ago, they were both looking at expanding their market. The two companies they each worked for wanted them to go to some of the countries they didn't export shoes to, and check out the possibilities.

So, the first one, a middle-aged man that didn't travel much and was quite hesitant to take this trip, worked for Reebok. He flew in to the crazy busy airport in Bombay, India, and saw there were hundreds and thousands of people, so many people walking around the city, but he saw the majority of them had NO SHOES!

He immediately panicked!

He called his boss and exclaimed, “This is not good news! There are sooo many people here, that is true, However, they are poor and most of them do NOT WEAR SHOES! We're never going to sell our shoes here! This is NOT a very good market for expansion! We will have to look elsewhere, they will not want our shoes!

The other salesman, perhaps a little younger, and a little more eager to travel and explore the world, dressed a little more casual, a little more ease in his hair style, his walk, and a little less stress on his face. He got off his plane and traveled to the center of Bombay, and everywhere he looked he noticed people walking, riding bikes, most of them BAREFOOT!

He was ecstatic! Wow, just look at all of these hundreds and thousands of people without shoes!

He called his boss, and was thrilled! “This is the perfect country to expand to!”he exclaimed! There are SOOO many people, and the majority of them do NOT HAVE ANY SHOES! What a market! There are soooo many people that will want our products!

Now the first man had traveled back to his company and advised them NOT to expand there. He was convinced they wouldn't have any market!

And the second one traveled back to his company and they put together an aggressive campaign to expand their market to India. It was hugely successful and they increased their business 100 fold.

The first one missed the opportunity to add India to their expansion. In fact, their business shrunk that year, and, after a year or two, the business closed down with the impossibilitarian at the expansion post.

So which kind of mindset do you have?

Do you see the possibilities, or do you see the limitations?

If you are creating your reality with each choice, do you choose based on fear or based on positive thoughts, beliefs, and energy?

Do you see only what the problems are going to be, and ask for more problems, perhaps liking to solve problems? Do you make a mountain out of a molehill?

Or are you someone that asks, when met with an obstacle, huh, OK, that exit is closed, I wonder how else we can get to Grandma's house? I wonder how else I can reach my $8,000/month in sales goal. I wonder what else I can do to create more magic in my life?

Mindset is the key.

Do you close yours with negative conclusions......or open yours to positive possibilities?

You may wonder what happened to the two businessmen? The second one that expanded the sales of his company, got a call from the first businessman. See, they happened to be brothers. The one that saw only the problems asked his brother, so, how did you do it? Amazing marketing? How did you convince them they needed your shoes?

His brother responded, we believed it first, we acknowledged some of the problems we saw, and we asked what was possible. We kept our eye on the target and kept plodding along.

The first businessman had some time to think about this, since his company had been downsizing.

I wonder if my brother's company could use the help. He saw how his brother had a lot of money, nice things, and seemed to enjoy his life. Whereas, he had always taken things so seriously. Identified all of the problems and asked what else can go wrong? It was a way of protecting himself, he realized.

After a couple of days, he wondered what it would be like to work for a company that was expanding, that was full of people that were excited about their product and how they could help the world.

He called up his brother and asked if it were possible if they were hiring?

Maybe he could learn something from this baby brother of his after all.