A Salesman Who Needed Surgery on His Thoughts Rather Than His Nose

A young salesman had made up his mind to quit his job when he consulted me about an operation on his nose. His nose was slightly larger than normal, but certainly not "repulsive" as he insisted. He felt that prospects were secretly laughing at his nose or repulsed because of it. It was a "fact" that he had a large nose. It was a "fact" that three customers had called in to complain of his rude and hostile behavior. It was a fact that his boss had placed him on probation, and that he hadn't made a sale in two weeks. Instead of an operation on his nose, I suggested he perform surgery on his own thinking. For thirty days he was to "cut out" all these negative thoughts. He was to completely ignore all the negative and unpleasant "facts" in his situation, and deliberately focus his atten­tion upon pleasant thoughts. At the end of thirty days he not only felt better, but he found that prospects and cus­tomers had become much more friendly, his sales were steadily increasing, and his boss had publicly congratu­lated him in a sales meeting.