What the Young Man Heard

In the latter half of the 1800s, when the telegraph was still "high tech," a young man in Baltimore, Maryland, woke up one summer morning giddy with excitement. In fact, it had taken him half the night to get to sleep at all.

Today was the day he'd apply for his first job! But what was really exciting was that, if he were lucky enough to be chosen for the position, he'd actually be getting PAID for something that absolutely enthralled him. He'd be a real, bona fide telegraph operator!

His mind was so filled with wonderful pictures of himself sending and receiving important messages, communicating with people miles away - even clear across the country - that the possibility of NOT getting the job couldn't get a foot in the door.

He didn't even mind wearing a stiff collar and tie. After all, this was an important job, and he liked the idea of looking the part. Giving his shoes one last buffing, he dashed out the door and raced downtown to the telegraph office.

Inside, the office was already bustling with activity and noise, including the sound of the telegraph clattering away in the background. Several other applicants were seated in the waiting area, hunched over paperwork. Our young man saw a stack of job applications with a sign instructing candidates to take one, fill it out, and then wait to be called into the Director's office for an interview. So he eagerly grabbed one and sat down.

The form itself took only a few minutes to complete, and as he finished and started to look around at the other job hopefuls in the room ...

... the young man suddenly jumped from his chair and with his paperwork in hand, marched over to the Director's office door and went right in without even knocking!

"Did you see that?" one of the other jobseekers snorted. "We're supposed to wait until we're called, and that rube barges in like he owns the place."

"Yeah, that's some nerve, but it just cuts down the competition," said another, and they all laughed.

Moments later the laughter and comments stopped as the Director's door opened and both he and the beaming young man came out into the waiting area.

"Gentlemen," the Director said, "thank you for coming, and I wish you all well. The job has been filled."

Stunned into silence, no one said anything for a moment. Then, the fellow who had started the derisive comments sputtered, "Now wait a minute. This isn't fair! We were here first but we never even got a chance, and he gets the job just like that?"

The others grumbled in agreement, but the Director put up his hand. "Here's the thing," he said.

"All this time you were sitting here, the telegraph has been clicking away, saying: 'If you can understand this, come on into the office right now. You've got the job.'

As he clapped his hand on the young man's shoulder, he smiled broadly and said, "This young fellow was the only one of you who heard or understood the message."

Why did this young man alone hear and understand the message?

Listen to what Scottish psychologist R. D. Laing had to say on this subject:

"The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change - until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds."

You'll probably need to read that a couple of times. (I sure did!) Then just let it sink in a bit.

Now, wouldn't it be great if you could just put on a special pair of glasses that would magically cause all the opportunities that come your way every single day to stand out from all the background "noise?" To jump into sharp relief against what Mr. Wattles calls "mere appearances" so that you could notice them?

Just imagine that for a minute. Everything looks normal one moment - all the everyday hassles, the BIG problems, the regular stresses and frustrations, and so on. life going on all around, as usual.

And then you put on your magic specs (which, by the way, are extremely cool and you look fabulous in them!), and - wow! - the entire world looks SO different!

Suddenly you see connections you hadn't noticed before. Suddenly what previously looked like a HUGE problem you were trying to put off dealing with has magically morphed into a lucky break.

And people look different, too - even some of the grumpy, disagreeable ones are starting to shape up.

Yeah, wouldn't it be great if you could do that?

Well, you can!

And you don't need magic glasses any more than the young man in our story above needed a special hearing aid.

Why did he, and he alone, hear opportunity knocking?

It couldn't be because he was the only one interested in the job. There were other applicants sitting ther