Thinking >> Behaviour >> Consequences

A man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs was hard of hearing, so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes, so he read no newspapers. But he sold good hot dogs. He put up signs on the highway advertising them. He stood on the side of the road and cried, "Buy a hot dog, Mister?" And people bought his hot dogs. He increased his meat and bun orders. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade.

He finally got his son to come home from university to help out. But then something happened. "Father, haven't you been listening to the radio?" his son said. "Haven't you been reading the newspaper? There's a world recession and war has erupted in the Middle East. People are losing their jobs" Whereupon the father thought, "Well my son's been to university, he reads the papers and listens to the radio, and he ought to know".

So the father cut down his meat and bun orders, took down his signs and no longer bothered to stand out on the highway to sell his hot dogs. His sales fell overnight. "You're right, son" the father said to the boy. "We certainly are in the middle of a big recession" Every day we receive news that is less than uplifting. We all know people who can hardly wait for the future so they can look back at regret. Negative thinking and living does many detrimental things in our life.

• It creates doubt at critical decision times.
• It is contagious.
• It everything out of proportion.
• It limits our potential.
• It keeps us from enjoying life.
• It hinders others from making a positive response.

As long as the father was oblivious of all the negativity around, his business kept on flourishing.

Moral: "Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway"