A few weeks ago I was reading an article that really caught my attention. This was published on the page of Richard Mogollon and was about a writing by Dr. César Landaeta called “The world of NOT-CAN-BE”. It has been ruminating for a while now: How powerful a YES can be and the limiting power of NO.
Throughout my career I have had to deal with professionals and non-professionals of all levels and would be surprised to know how many I have NOT received from one and the other on the way.
I will share two anecdotes of great NOs that were about to stop me but only managed to help me draw more strength to continue and achieve my purposes.
The impossible loan
I was finishing my house, which had started on a large lot that my dear mother gave me next to hers. The construction had already reached window level thanks to a small savings and a loan of which he had paid less than half. For the rest, I needed more money and I consulted a friend who worked in one of the major banks in my country and he gave me a fabulous idea: you can request a “down payment” which consists of the bank approving a new loan for a total balance of the remaining part of the previous loan and the additional required.
However, " I do NOT believe that you will be approved for that loan because you have not paid half of the other and this is a requirement." That's what my friend told me.
Discouraged but still hopeful, I went to an executive of the company I was working for at the time because his wife was a high official of that same bank and I asked him for help. This was my second NO: "Under these conditions no one will lend you," he said.
My spirits were already lower than the ground, but I did not want to give up my dream and one day I was heading towards the funeral of the mother of a co-worker when an invisible and inexplicable force made me stop at the branch closest to the company of the bank in question and I risked making an appointment with the manager at the suggestion of a friend who worked there.
They granted me the appointment and I explained my case from scratch, she asked me for the papers to submit for approval. In less than a month they lent me the amount I was requesting and thank God I was able to finish my house.
Two years had passed since I sold my Nissan Sentra 83 as scrap metal after a very serious accident that I had suffered with my family. He was already a little tired of walking and had saved more or less $ 1,200. I called a friend in Santiago De Los Caballeros (RD) where they supposedly sell the vehicles at a great price. That was my first "They will NOT finance a vehicle with that amount, you must collect three times that amount " and then I saw myself saving for four more years, what horror!
So I went to the company I worked for for more than 10 years and told them to lend me the money to deduct it for payroll, but there I could only achieve a small increase. Well, it wasn't what I expected but something is something, I thought.
So I decided to try my luck again and went to a vehicle sales company with the clarity of what I wanted: a European, mechanical, fuel-efficient, less than 5-year-old car. It was impressive the positive and decent treatment that people gave me in that company and how they told me not to worry, that they were going to get me just what I was looking for and two weeks later they called me. When I went to the agency, I fell in love with the vehicle since I saw it, I tried it, they fixed the financing in the bank, the insurance, the license plate and I am already 5 years old with an excellent 2-year-old European vehicle with only 3000 km (1864 Miles) that I could buy with only US $ 1200 initial.
As these, I can tell hundreds of anecdotes about people who have told me that it is NOT possible to my wishes and aspirations. Today I want to tell you that IF-YOU-CAN, IF-YOU-LOVE IT and you work to achieve it, if you take risks, if you have faith, everything is possible. You will always be surrounded by people who judge your experience based on theirs and, why not, we do the same with others, limiting their dreams and not letting everyone live their own disappointment or achievement.
Go ahead believing in yourself and helping others to believe in themselves.
Now I share a fragment of the text THE-WORLD-OF-IT-CANNOT-BE:
"Floating in the universe is a world called no-se-
can… Non-se-puedícolas often put obstacles, objections and denials to almost everything…
… On a plane parallel to those pathetic characters that
they walk the streets of their small planet with more hardships than joys, there are those who inhabit the world of yes-is-possible…
… Among them are the innovators, the best artists and many of the well-known thinkers… This is a very high species of human beings, who know that countless possibilities can arise from a new idea to stimulate their lives and enhance their environment… »
Cheer up and go!
