Same Winds, Different Direction

Today's author's insight goes without comment. It's from pages 174-175 of The NEW Think and Grow Rich, talking about reframing, recontexting, and reconceptualizing.

So often you hear me say, this philosophy is not new. You find in my humble opinion, the best, most actionable presentation of the philosophy that's ever been produced… And on this exact point you find Sun Tzu in the oldest military treatise in the world, The Art of War, talking about turning 'misfortune into gain.'

Instead of negative setbacks, they become positive stepping-stones and opportunities. For example, instead of a partner who "ruined you" by embezzling $200,000, you've got a cheap lesson, quick, in disce
ing character so you can achieve all your goals successfully.

Don't you find yourself more jazzed when you're tearing into opportunities than when you're beset by problems?!

Events and conditions just are—the meanings you assign to them are within your complete control. Remember the philosopher-poet who says you are master of your fate?... He's talking about this… You are master of your ship because you can choose how to drive your organism. Same winds, different direction.

You can take the events that discourage and defeat common people, and engineer and condition them to progress and motivate you.

Isn't this what Edison did? Though many unenlightened laughed at his repeated attempts and dissed his consuming interest in the light bulb as a folly, Edison saw nothing of the sort. What Edison saw, with each experiment, was progress.

The lottery of experiments began to talk… There's more than one dimension to any complex problem… Don't forget—Edison was entering entirely new ground at the time. The message of the various elements and methods began to sound a message that Edison finally disce
ed.

Without this effort and experimentation he never would have progressed to the breakthrough point.

The light bulb didn't come about with no thinking. It took massive thinking. A lot of alpha time.

Do you see the absolute and utter difference betwee
Edison's attitude to repeated 'defeat' and the ordinary person's?

I can't remember, do you?... What did those scoffers contribute to society? We do know that through Edison came a quantum leap.

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