I was reading Warren Buffett's yearly report to his shareholders the other day. They're always an interesting read, and this year's letter wasn't any exception. For example, there's this little quip: "Remember: Anyone who says money can’t buy happiness simply hasn’t learned where to shop."
But there was also this testimony for the future: "We are not natively smarter than we were when our country was founded nor do we work harder. But look around you and see a world beyond the dreams of any colonial citizen. Now, as in 1776, 1861, 1932 and 1941, America’s best days lie ahead."
I realize this weekly edition is read by people outside the United States, and I hope you'll extend this sentiment to whatever land you'll call home, for we're not going to use it to talk about America, but rather to talk about the need for the successful person to be hopeful of the future.
"Hope springs eternal" is the well-worn sentiment, and for many people it's true. For others, perhaps countless others, hope has ceased springing at all. They are bound down by their fears and worries about the future, and they have ceased believing in the future at all. Hope, for them, like the future is dead.
But to the positive person -- the positive investor, if you will, hope is a requirement. It's something that all of us need, and for those people, the future is a marvelous feast of bounty and opportunity, ready to be partaken.
What's the difference between these two widely disparate outcomes? The difference is merely in the viewer's point of view. Physics teaches us that much of physical science depends on our reference point, and it extends to every part of our life.
Two people can look at a cloud. One sees the silver lining, the other sees an impending storm. Two can look at an impending storm. One sees life-giving water, the other sees dreariness, cold, and isolation. One sees new snow and sees skiing opportunities; another sees shoveling and heart attacks.
One sees the opportunity in every problem. The other sees the problem in every opportunity. One sees the obstacle, the other the stepping stone.
Warren Buffett, being a man who has looked for every opportunity, and seized each one anew, sees the opportunity in every problem. And here's the thing: we can learn to see it as well. It takes hope for the future, and if we don't have it, here's a good way to get it: count the blessings you have right now. By doing so, we'll realize how blessed we truly are, and how our future has such hope and such a chance for excellence.
We may never make the money that Buffett has made in his life -- but we can look for each opportunity that may come along.
Copyright, 2011, by Daryl R. Gibson. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial redistribution of this document as long as it remains intact with this copyright and all other lines. This license does not extend to the use of this material in a compilation, whether for profit or non-profit use. Join us at http://www.Weekdaywisdom.com.
