Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The Chicken Nugget Story And Debt



Can you imagine how a person would feel when they have to retire, after running their own business for many years, on just a measly pension?

This is exactly what happened to Colonel Harland Saunders, the Kentucky Fried Chicken guy who, at the ago of sixty, had no alternative but to sell out his business to make way for a new roadway.

After a period of living on his small pension, he decided that he was not going to accept his standard of living in pension poverty anymore and determined that he had to do something.

The idea came to him to sell his unique chicken recipes to other restaurateurs.

With this in mind, he set about approaching them and travelled all over America. He even slept in his car for many of the nights. He called on restaurateurs, day after day, explaining how his recipe would be advantageous for their businesses. But day after day, he was seen off their premises.

He never gave up and called on 1,009 doors throughout America before his offer was accepted.

What perseverance that man had to follow his dream? How many people would have given up after 3 or 4? But he went on and on until he got his Yes!

One of the reasons why I wrote my eBook on debt was because of my own debt. This happened, due to purchasing a retail business just one year before the last recession started. Our business of leather goods and gifts were not the sort of products which people needed in a recession. Expensive leather wallets and briefcases were eventually replaced by cheaper products but still it was impossible to trade successfully, when most of the customers in the locality were struggling with the recession themselves.

After many changes of the types of products we sold and also many burglaries to contend with, the doors were finally closed, at an enormous financial loss. The keys were handed in and the premises left empty. I drove away from there, knowing it would be a long time before I entered that location again.

Returning to college, I retrained and eventually landing up in a career motivating people on starting their own business, I always included the story of Colonel Saunders.

The story of his success was one I very much admired. The students loved to learn of his tenacity and determination.

Some years later, on my last visit to London, I did a detour down memory lane. This was the first time I had ventured back into the area where we had our retail business, as all recollections of it, the consequences of the recession and the financial burden of the closure had purposefully been erased from my mind. As I drove to the location where our retail business had previously been, memories of our debts challenge flooded back but I was happy to see that the new owners were running a very successful business.

There were many customers inside the bright, yet clean, premises.

It was very strange for me to notice, as I looked up at the shop sign, that it was in fact now owned by the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Debt Can Lead To Suicide

How does someone who is living with the sheer panic and desperation of constantly trying to get through each day, because of their debt problems, stop the thoughts of their contemplating suicide?

As mention in my article http://debts-challenge.blogspot.com/2008/03/fear-and-worry-of-being-in-debt.html, these are the thoughts of many people who are living daily with the stress and worry of mounting debts and knowing that they cannot even afford their every day living expenses. Every second, their thoughts are of how they can get out of debt.

As a result of this constant stress and anxiety, they may not be eating or sleeping properly. The consequence of this will be their inability to work at their normal productive level and also to make good judgements. Without realising it, they will have slipped into a severe state of depression.

In this state, not only will they become pessimistic, but they will also become obsessive over their debt problems. Everything will look hopeless and they will eventually reach a point when they will not be able to see a light at the end of the tunnel. They will start to see suicide as their only way out.

Once a person reaches this point it is imperative that they be taken seriously.

If you know someone who is threatening suicide for whatever reason, get them to seek professional help right away. Go with them for support and encouragement, if you can. At the very least direct them to The Samaritans. Talk to them. Give them your time.

Going back to the original question of this article, the way to stop people considering suicide as an option to eliminating debts, is to help them put their debt problems into perspective.

  1. Spend time talking to them positively about their debts solutions. Contact a debt agency and make an appointment for them. Help them prepare for this appointment. You can do this by following the tips listed here.

  2. Encourage them to list all their achievements up until this point in their lives. This will help to reinforce their capability of dealing with their debt problems by way of reminding them of what they have successfully achieved in the past and putting their debt problems into perspective.

  3. Show them that you care by telling them what you like about them as a person. Their confidence will be at their lowest, so truthful but genuine compliments can only help to restore this.

  4. Enlist their family for more support. Some family members, who know nothing about the stress this person is going through, may well be in a position to and also, want to, help.

  5. Encourage them to make an appointment to see their doctor and go with them for moral support. Just the small act of driving them there and waiting for them while they are in their meeting, will help, not only them but also you. You will have knowledge that you have done everything in your power to help this person at a time of great need.

Music is another way of motivating and uplifting a person ...


Monday, March 03, 2008

The Fear And Worry Of Being In Debt


Every day thousands of people are waking up to the immediate thought of how they are going to survive yet another day of mounting debts. Will this be the day that they decide they cannot take it anymore?

People from all walks of life are coming to the conclusion that they have no alternative other than to destroy their own lives by committing suicide.

You just have to do a Google search for debt + suicide and you will come up with some horrendous cases of people of all ages and even in the 70's thinking about committing suicide but concerned with leaving the debts to their families. Cases include a 58 year old Mayor and the Reverend Mr Miller.

They are in such a desperate state of depression that they cannot even comprehend the pain they will be giving to the families that they leave behind – and all because of lack of money.

What a sad indictment on the rest of society that people who are going through this terrible situation, feel that they have no alternative. We have all been guilty at some time in our lives of judging a situation through our own ignorance.

In a lot of cases, they cannot comprehend the stigma of going along to get advice from the appropriate advice agencies, on how to get out of the debt and this can be because of the shame they feel. But, if only they would put their pride aside, because within no time they could be on the road to debt recovery.

A very slight change in the way that a person looks at each problem can make all the difference between life and debt. If people could just detach themselves from the emotions of the pain of being in debt and instead looks at the situation as a temporary challenge, which they can win – how much better life would be?



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