There is something intoxicating about fear. We all face it every single day. We face the fear that the people we encounter will instinctively judge us because of how we look. We face the fear of making a poor first impression. We face the fear that we will not, at every moment, be our best and that this will somehow cause us to fail.

All of this fear can choke us, stopping us in our tracks. We intellectually know that we shouldn’t let it. But somehow, it sneaks in and can strangle the creativity in our lives.

The core lesson in this chapter is based on one you learned as a child: “If you don’t have anything nice to say about somebody, don’t say anything at all.” We only have to modify this adage a little so that “somebody” includes yourself and the situations in which you find yourself.

The idea is, very simply, to reach for a positive feeling before you speak, whether it’s in your head or out loud. If you can learn to do this one thing, you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel and, consequently, how much your relationships and your life will improve as well.

Over the years i have had a lot of feedback on this book. Most of it has been very good; many of the stories about what people have done after reading this book are what I call miracle stories.

One woman woke her husband up at 3:00 in the morning after she finished Visionary Business and told him, “I’m going to double our sales in three months.” She was working on her dream, her own retail shop, selling the things she loved, but it had been a struggle every step of the way. She knew if she doubled her sales, she would be cruising along profitably and would be able to do substantial profit sharing with all her employees. Within three months, she had doubled her sales.

Over the years I have had a lot of feedback on this book. Most of it has been very good; many of the stories about what people have done after reading this book are what I call miracle stories.

One woman woke her husband up at 3:00 in the morning after she finished Visionary Business and told him, “I’m going to double our sales in three months.” She was working on her dream, her own retail shop, selling the things she loved, but it had been a struggle every step of the way. She knew if she doubled her sales, she would be cruising along profitably and would be able to do substantial profit sharing with all her employees. Within three months, she had doubled her sales.