1) There was a man who made a living selling balloons at a fair. He had all colors of balloons, including red, yellow, blue, and green. Whenever business was slow, he would release a helium-filled colorful balloon into the air and when the children saw it go up, they would wanted to buy one. They would come up to him, buy a balloon, and his sale would go up again. He continued this process all day.

One day he felt someone tugging at his jacket. He turned around and saw a little boy who asked, "If you release a black balloon, would that also fly?" Moved by that boy concern, the man replied with empathy, "Son, it is not the color of the balloon, it is what is inside that makes it go up."

2) Someone once approached Blaise Pascal, the famous French philosopher and said, " If I had your brains, I would be a better person." Pascal replied, "Be a better person and you will owned my brains."

Maybe some of us already knew about the story of David and Goliath. There was a giant who was bullying and harassing the children in the village. One day, a 17-year-old shepherd boy came to visit his brothers and asked, "Why don't you stand up and fight the giant?" The brothers were terrified and they replied, "Don't you see he is too big to hit?" But David said, "No, he is not too big to hit, he is just too big to miss."

The rest is history, in the end, David did killed the giant with a sling. Same giant, but with different perception.

Moral of the story:

Our attitude determines how we look at a setback. To a positive thinker, it can be a stepping stone to success. To a negative thinker, it can be a stumbling block.

When our attitude is right, we realize that we are all walking on acres and acres of diamond. Opportunity is always under our feet. We don't have to go anywhere. All we need to do is recognize it.

When people don't know how to recognize opportunity, they complain of noise when it knocks. the same opportunity never knocks twice. The next one may be better or worse, but it is never going to be the same one.

[Adapted from "You Can Win"- Shiv Khera]