A lady who failed in business said she failed because she had to take care of her kids.
Another lady who succeeded said she did so because she had to succeed to take care of her kids!
A man became an alcoholic because he said his father was an alcoholic.
Another man never drank a sip, because he said his father was an alcoholic.
Many businesses decided to cut training, marketing and hiring expenditures during a recession, because they were told that a recession meant their sales would be low. Because they lowered these crucial expenditures, sales were lower anyway and soon they went out of business.
Another businesses did their due research and actually increased spending many folds in crucial areas. They only cut back on spending that had zero impact on revenue. They had saved up cash for such a crisis. Using the same they hired talented sales people laid off from other companies, trained them to increase their productivity/selling/negotiation skills and increased their marketing.
Because they took massive action and maintained consistent market visibility when others were cutting their losses, their sales were not hit as hard compared to everyone else. Eventually when the recession was over, this business had the maximum market visibility, thus experiencing exponential growth and left others far behind.
The same situation can lead to two different results. We have no control over what happens to us but we usually have complete control over how we respond to the situation. Ultimately, it is the compound effect of the responses we go ahead with that dictates our future.
