The most important thing we have to do with people is understand that pain is a part of life. Things won’t always go your way. You will have more disappointments than you will ever begin to imagine. You will have more disappointments than victories. But eventually, if you stick with it, you will fail your way to success. So one of the first things I teach people is to be thankful when things happen to you and begin to look for developing an appreciation for the possibilities.
I learned this important lesson when the home I purchased for my mother was foreclosed on. I neglected to do a title search on the property and found out the previous owner owed over $50,000 on the home. And when I couldn’t come up with the money, we had to pack up and go back to the roach-infested house that I just moved my mother out of in Liberty City, Fla.
I remember when I was unloading the truck and the neighbors were looking and they said to my mother, “What happened, I thought your boy got you a home?” And she said, “He did, but he didn’t do a title search, so we lost it.” And there I was defeated, crying, feeling stupid with my head hanging low. And when my mother saw me she came by the side of the truck, put her hand on my chin and thrust my head up and said “Hold your head up. We still have each other.”
Even though we were going through what I thought was a tragic situation, she wasn’t focused on that. She was focused on us still having each other and on looking at the possibilities ahead. Whatever you focus on the longest becomes the strongest.
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