A small boy once approached his slightly older sister with a
question about God. "Susie, can anybody ever really see God?"  he asked.

Busy with other things, Susie curtly replied: "No, of course
not silly. God is so far up in heaven that nobody can see him." Time
passed, but his question still lingered so he approached his mom: "Mom, can
anybody ever really see God?" "No, not really," she gently said. "God is a
spirit and he dwells in our hearts, but we can never really see Him." 

Somewhat satisfied but still wondering, the youngster went on
his way. Not long afterwards, his saintly old grandfather took the little
boy on a fishing trip.  They were having a great time together--it had
been an ideal day.  The sun was beginning to set with unusual splendor
as the day ended.  The old man stopped fishing and turned his full
attention to the exquisite beauty unfolding before him. 

On seeing the face of his grandfather reflecting such deep
peace and contentment as he gazed into the magnificent ever-changing
sunset, the little boy thought for a moment and finally spoke hesitatingly:
"Granddad, I--I-- wasn't going to ask anybody else, but I
wonder if you can tell me the answer to something I've been wondering about a 
long time--can anybody--can anybody ever really see God?". The old
man did not even turn his head.  A long moment slipped by before he finally
answered. "Son," he quietly said. "It's getting so I can't see anything else.

    When I was in elementary school, I got into a major argument with a boy in my class. I
    have forgotten what the argument was about, but I have never forgotten the lesson I
    learned that day. 

    I was convinced that "I" was right and "he" was wrong - and he was just as convinced
    that "I" was wrong and "he" was right. The teacher decided to teach us a very
    important lesson. She brought us up to the front of the class and placed him on one
    side of her desk and me on the other. In the middle of her desk was a large, round
    object. I could clearly see that it was black. She asked the boy what color the object
    was. "White," he answered. 

    I couldn’t believe he said the object was white, when it was obviously black! Another
    argument started between my classmate and me, this time about the color of the object.

    The teacher told me to go stand where the boy was standing and told him to come
    stand where I had been. We changed places, and now she asked me what the color of
    the object was. I had to answer, "White." It was an object with two differently colored
    sides, and from his viewpoint it was white. Only from my side was it black. 

    My teacher taught me a very important lesson that day: You must stand in the other
    person’s shoes and look at the situation through their eyes in order to truly understand
    their perspective.

There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a
bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, to
hammer a nail in the back fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into
the fence.

Then it gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to
hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the
day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about
it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each
day that he was able to hold his temper.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his
father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand
and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at
the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say
things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a
knife in a man and draw it out. 

It won't matter how many times you say 'I'm sorry', the wound
is still there."

The greatest saleswoman in the world today doesn't mind if you call her a girl. That's
because Markita Andrews has generated more than eighty thousand dollars selling
Girl Scout cookies since she was seven years old. 

Going door-to-door after school, the painfully shy Markita transformed herself into a
cookie-selling dynamo when she discovered, at age 13, the secret of selling. 

It starts with desire. Burning, white-hot desire. 

For Markita and her mother, who worked as a waitress in New York after her husband
left them when Markita was eight years old, their dream was to travel the globe. "I'll
work hard to make enough money to send you to college," her mother said one day.
"You'll go to college and when you graduate, you'll make enough money to take you
and me around the world. Okay?" 

So at age 13 when Markita read in her Girl Scout magazine that the Scout who sold the
most cookies would win an all-expenses-paid trip for two around the world, she
decided to sell all the Girl Scout cookies she could - more Girl Scout cookies than
anyone in the world, ever. 

But desire alone is not enough. To make her dream come true, Markita knew she
needed a plan. 

"Always wear your right outfit, your professional garb," her aunt advised. "When you
are doing business, dress like you are doing business. Wear your Girl Scout uniform.
When you go up to people in their tenement buildings at 4:30 or 6:30 and especially
on Friday night, ask for a big order. Always smile, whether they buy or not, always be
nice. And don't ask them to buy your cookies; ask them to invest." 

Lots of other Scouts may have wanted that trip around the world. Lots of other Scouts
may have had a plan. But only Markita went off in her uniform each day after school,
ready to ask - and keep asking - folks to invest in her dream. "Hi, I have a dream. I'm
earning a trip around the world for me and my mom by merchandising Girl Scout
cookies," she'd say at the door. "Would you like to invest in one dozen or two dozen
boxes of cookies?" 

Markita sold 3,526 boxes of Girl Scout cookies that year and won her trip around the
world. Since then, she has sold more than 42,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, spoken
at sales conventions across the country, starred in a Disney movie about her adventure
and has co-authored the best seller, How to Sell More Cookies, Condos, Cadillacs,
Computers ... And Everything Else. 

Markita is no smarter and no more extroverted than thousands of other people, young
and old, with dreams of their own. The difference is Markita had discovered the
secret of selling: Ask, Ask, Ask! Many people fail before they even begin because
they fail to ask for what they want. The fear of rejection leads many of us to reject
ourselves and our dreams long before anyone else ever has the chance - no matter
what we're selling. 

And everyone is selling something. "You're selling yourself everyday - in school, to
your boss, to new people you meet," said Markita at 14. "My mother is a waitress: she
sells the daily special. Mayors and presidents trying to get votes are selling... I see
selling everywhere I look. Selling is part of the whole world." 

It takes courage to ask for what you want. Courage is not the absence of fear. It's doing
what it takes despite one's fear. And, as Markita has discovered, the more you ask, the
easier (and more fun) it gets. 

Once, on live TV, the producer decided to give Markita her toughest selling challenge.
Markita was asked to sell Girl Scout cookies to another guest on the show. "Would
you like to invest in one dozen or two dozen boxes of Girl Scout cookies?" she asked. 

"Girl Scout cookies? I don't buy any Girl Scout cookies!" he replied. "I'm a Federal
Penitentiary warden. I put 2,000 rapists, robbers, criminals, muggers and child
abusers to bed every night." 

Unruffled, Markita quickly countered, "Mister, if you take some of these cookies.
maybe you won't be so mean and angry and evil. And, Mister, I think it would be a
good idea for you to take some of these cookies back for every one of your 2,000
prisoners, too." 

Markita asked. 

    The Warden wrote a check.