Everything in life responds positively to attention. People, objects, stocks of
inventory, and money are but a few examples. For example, the best way to give attention
to money is to account for it very accurately and promptly. Keeping accurate and
up-to-date accounts of money is a powerful mechanism for attracting more of it from life.
There are endless examples we have witnessed demonstrating this power. Here's one:
One small business owner decided to give
attention to his accounts, balanced eight months of back bank statements, and miraculously
received $5000 from nowhere the next day.
If you bring your personal or business
accounts fully and accurately up to date, you'll be able to watch the money flow to you!
Money is not the only thing that responds to attention. So do ordinary objects and
things. Consider this example:
A businessperson was unable to make any
substantial sales. He was told that he should give attention to and evaluate his remaining
current stocks, and then make a full effort to sell them off. After making an effort
of selling but a few of the minimal stocks, an order arrived equal to six months of normal
sales!
We have often seen this phenomenon where
a business owner concerned by low sales or cash made the effort to sell off remaining
unsold stocks, and life responded by bringing more sales. This is a powerful example
of the power of attention to objects and things.
One way we give attention is by adopting
the personal value of maximizing the way you use your current resources, such as money,
materials, and time. Here's an example of how one manufacturer applied the value of
maximum utilization of a limited resource, which resulted in a very favorable situation
for the company:
"In the manufacture of welding
electrodes, Low Carbon Ferro Manganese is one of the main raw materials. The manufacturer
who was supplying us suddenly informed that their plant is shut down for maintenance and
that there will not be any supply from them for the next two months. It is an expensive
material so the stock holding was minimum. There are only very few manufacturers of this
item and they are all located at far away places. We had little time to arrange supply
from other sources. The stock on hand was sufficient for 5 days of production only. We
decided that not a particle of LCF should be wasted and alerted all the workers to be
extra careful. The shop floor was swept thoroughly and all the spilled material were
collected, screened and used.
Within two days, Managing Director of a company
manufacturing LCF in Orissa (which is about 1300 kilometers away from Pondicherry) visited
our unit, over the phone (from Pondicherry) he instructed his plant to dispatch material
to us. From the previous supplier we were buying the material against payment. Where as
this company offered us a credit of 30 days. We did not negotiate any terms with them.
They themselves agreed to supply at the same price. We were frank in telling them the
precarious situation we were in. In spite of knowing our weak situation, they did not take
any undue advantage. We are continuing with them."
Here's a closely related example of the
power of attention to things through the application of the value of maximum utilization,
and life response:
X, the proprietor of a
company, engaged Y as his consultant to improve his business. Y, the
consultant, noticed a machine, which X deemed not useful to his present business, kept in
a sorry state. Y requested X to repair and repaint it and keep it ready for
production. X laughed and said, "This machine is idle for last many years
without any order. I can not spend money on it. As soon as I get orders, I
will repair and repaint the machine." Y thought X was looking at things in the
wrong way.
Y told X, "If you keep machine ready for production and if you genuinely wish that
this machine should yield profits, you will get orders. Life will favorably
respond."
X followed Y's suggestion. After a day or two, X's cousin, an engineer, came to his
factory. The newly painted machine gained his attention. He took interest in
the machine. He told X that he was interested in starting a new factory. If X
could give the machine to him, he could earn profit from the first month onwards and a
share of the income would go to X.
An agreement was struck and the machine
became a cash cow.
So all sorts of things respond to
attention; animate and inanimate!
One final example will show how the power
of attention is tied in to organizing things one level higher than it is
currently organized.
A company had just launched
a new product, yet did not yet have any sales on the product, despite considerable effort.
One day the manager decided to go through the operations manual to update it to the latest
information, including procedures related to the new product. He did this late in the work
day. Early the very next morning he saw the first order for the product come in through
the company's web site.
Finally, let's not forget to mention that
people also, of course, respond to attention. Every person wants to be attended to
and be the object of others attention. When you give deserving people attention, they
can blossom in front of your eyes.
An instructor noticed that whenever he
gave a little added attention and encouragement to a slower student, the student
brightened, became more enthusiastic about what was being learned, and gave the instructor
a perfect score at the end of the day.
SELF-ANALYSIS Think of 3-5 areas of life or work where you can give more attention (e.g. to money,
objects and things, people, etc.). Then give the required attention. Watch life
respond!
For
additional Growth Online thoughts on the power of attention, click
here.
