I received an email recently from a young man whom I had met once in 1986!  He was a college student at the time; I was part owner of a minor league baseball team in Connecticut, and just starting out in the speaking business.  He was interviewing me for a paper he was writing for his Sports Management class.  

In his email he wrote, “While I barely remember anything you said regarding professional baseball (nice to see that my baseball expertise really stayed with him), I do remember you talking to me about the power of dreams, goals and positive thinking.”  

He then went on to say, “Mr. Greshes you were the first person I ever met who gave me the belief that I could achieve anything I set my mind to….Yesterday I was talking to a friend about the power of belief and she asked me how I developed such conviction. I told her it has been a process, but the light went on during my conversation with you twenty years ago. Since then I have set and attained many goals that truly stretched me.”

Now before you start to wonder, “What’s the point of this?” I’ll tell you.  What I did for that young man was not nearly as much as what that young man has done for himself over the past 20 years.  I just planted the seed and got him started.  He’s the one that made it happen.  

For me, I’m not looking for credit.  What I get is the satisfaction of knowing that I was able to impact someone else’s life in a positive way and maybe, because of my actions, he will influence others in that same positive way (Which I suspect he may have already done in the aforementioned conversation he had with a friend of his).

The power of belief is one of the best gifts you can give a person.  It’s something that can stay with them for the rest of their lives and enable them to do things they never thought possible.  

Every one of us has the power to influence others.  Now while it may be much easier to knock the ideas, dreams and goals of others, or just say, “What are you, crazy; that can’t be done,” believe me, it’s a lot more satisfying to encourage others that the sky is the limit and the only thing holding them back is their own self-imposed limitations.
It’s probably the only thing holding you back too.