Sales and Market Analyst 114 West 64th Street, New York, New York
Worry caused me to lose ten years of my life. Those ten years should have been the
most fruitful and richest years of any young man's life-the years from eighteen to twenty-
eight.
I realise now that losing those years was no one's fault but my own.
I worried about everything: my job, my health, my family, and my feeling of inferiority. I
was so frightened that I used to cross the street to avoid meeting people I knew. When I
met a friend on the street, I would often pretend not to notice him, because I was afraid
of being snubbed.
I was so afraid of meeting strangers-so terrified in their presence-that in one space of
two weeks I lost out on three different jobs simply because I didn't have the courage to
tell those three different prospective employers what I knew I could do.
Then one day eight years ago, I conquered worry in one afternoon-and have rarely
worried since then. That afternoon I was in the office of a man who had had far more
troubles than I had ever faced, yet he was one of the most cheerful men I had ever
known. He had made a fortune in 1929, and lost every cent. He had made another
fortune in 1933, and lost that; and another fortune in 1937, and lost that, too. He had
gone through bankruptcy and had been hounded by enemies and creditors. Troubles
that would have broken some men and driven them to suicide rolled off him like water
off a duck's back.
As I sat in his office that day eight years ago, I envied him and wished that God had
made me like him.
As we were talking, he tossed a letter to me that he had received that morning and said:
"Read that."
It was an angry letter, raising several embarrassing questions. If I had received such a
letter, it would have sent me into a tailspin. I said: "Bill, how are you going to answer it?"
"Well," Bill said, "I'll tell you a little secret. Next time you've really got something to worry
about, take a pencil and a piece of paper, and sit down and write out in detail just what's
worrying you. Then put that piece of paper in the lower right-hand drawer of your desk.
Wait a couple of weeks, and then look at it. If what you wrote down still worries you
when you read it, put that piece of paper back in your lower right-hand drawer. Let it sit
there for another two weeks. It will be safe there. Nothing will happen to it. But in the
meantime, a lot may happen to the problem that is worrying you. I have found that, if
only I have patience, the worry that is trying to harass me will often collapse like a
pricked balloon."
That bit of advice made a great impression on me. I have been using Bill's advice for
years now, and, as a result, I rarely worry about anything.
Times solves a lot of things. Time may also solve what you are worrying about today.
I Was Warned Not To Try To Speak Or To Move Even A Finger
By