What is your faith?

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work", said Thomas Edison, he also said "I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward". Edison had the most important quality any businessman should have at any time; that is: "faith". He truly believed in what he was doing; he tried, failed, and kept going to reach his goal. How many great businesses were unsuccessful because of strategists’ lack of faith? Market researchers suggest that only two businesses out of five available today will survive in 10 years, the other three businesses will just fail to believe and get discouraged with the ups and downs of our lives. Strategists should always keep an attitude of optimism when businesses are falling, because that is only what will make them rise again and grow fortunes.

Is that not convincing enough? Here is a true story that will help clear the smoke on this complicated and important subject: The place was Chicago, the year was 1923, eight of the world's wealthiest and most successful men gathered for a meeting at the city's Edgewater Beach Hotel. Almost anyone living in that day would have loved to exchange places with any of those well-known executives. They were powerful and rich. The world was their oyster. They sipped champagne and enjoyed a nice dinner while praising their wealth and conquest. If you were a waiter or the dish washer, secretly, you would have wished to be in the shoes of any of those men.

But that was then, and now for the rest of the story. Twenty-five years later, their days at Edgewater were a dim memory and all but two were dead. None had lived the easy life their tremendous resources seemed to promise. Charles Schwab, the president of the nation's largest independent steel company, lived on borrowed money the last five years of his life and died bankrupt. Samuel Insul, the president of a giant utility company, died a penniless fugitive from justice in a foreign country. Gas Company executive Howard Hopson suffered from insanity. Wheat speculator Arthur Cotton died destitute. Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange, was released from Sing Sing prison. Albert Fall, a member of the president’s cabinet, was released from prison so that he could die at home. Wall Street's greatest bear, Jesse Livermore, committed suicide as did Ivan Krueger, the head of a great monopoly. Bank president Leon Fraser also took his own life.

What happened to these great men? They simply didn't believe, they were overwhelmed with money and power that they couldn't take life easily anymore, they were stressed out and burned their nerves in day to day activities, in his book "Think and grow rich", Napoleon Hills studied the lives of 500 successful people to come up with one simple conclusion: "Faith is the first step in all accumulation of riches". He knew faith in something bigger than oneself is the key to success; by that people learn to let go. Living at a no stress level gives you faith; many people believe that stress gives them energy to move forward in life, but energy comes from our bodies as we live, eat, and love! Stress just pushes us to make emotional and subjective decisions. Blessed is he or she who can make stress-free decisions, but more frequent than none, people in working environments brag about their ability to work under pressure. The real problem here is if those people are motivated by pressure to work harder, because stress and pressure will eventually break them!

Find your faith; embrace it and that is the real motivator. Walt Disney had faith in a dream, he once said: “If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse”. If you find your faith, you will find an invincible supply of power that will carry you in your life. Just a few months ago, we all witnessed the stock market crash down in the Middle East, stories were told about people blacking out at the Saudi stock market for they lost some, or all, their investments; for many of them that was the worst time ever! And like them, we are often overwhelmed with pessimistic outlook at life, but the truth is: we are better fed, better clothed, and better housed than any other time in history! Statistics suggest that after each global economy crash, market always rise again and prosperity reaches all, businesses are actually getting better not worse, no matter how the media tries to darken the picture.

In my opinion, one of the greatest movies ever made was “Signs”/2002, it had a fantastic message: everything is happening for a good reason, you just have to let go and enjoy life. Businesses will always have their ups and downs; you should always live with an attitude of optimism towards life. Starve the problem and feed the opportunity, if you fail and feel too bad for a long time, you will be really scared to stand up and try again. You don’t have to be a victim to circumstances, keep your nerves when all others are losing theirs. Edison believed and had faith in his work, he had such an amazing attitude of optimism, this article will not find a better way to end than to quote Edison again, this outrageous businessman: “I shall make electricity so cheap that only rich can afford to burn candles”.