that making lighter cars couldn’t be done, would be too expensive, and would present too many safety
concerns. They couldn’t get out of the rut of their average thinking.
What was the auto maker’s solution? They gave the problem to a group of less-experienced engineers. The
new group found ways to reduce the weight of the company’s automobiles by hundreds of pounds. Because
they thought that solving the problem was possible, it was. Every time you remove the label of impossible from
a task, you raise your potential from average to off the charts.

6. Possibility Thinking Gives You Energy

A direct correlation exists between possibility thinking and the level of a person’s energy. Who gets
energized by the prospect of losing? If you know something can’t succeed, how much time and energy are you
willing to give it? Nobody goes looking for a lost cause. You invest yourself in what you believe can succeed.
When you embrace possibility thinking, you believe in what you’re doing, and that gives you energy.

7. Possibility Thinking Keeps You from Giving Up

Above all, possibility thinkers believe they can succeed. Denis Waitley, author of The Psychology of
Winning, says, “The winners in life think constantly in terms of ‘I can, I will and I am.’ Losers, on the other hand,
concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have done, or what they don’t do.” If you believe you can’t
do something, then it doesn’t matter how hard you try, because you’ve already lost. If you believe you can do
something, you have already won much of the battle.
One of the people who showed himself to be a great possibility thinker in 2001 was New York mayor Rudy
Giuliani. In the hours following the World Trade Center tragedy, Giuliani not only led the city through the chaos of
the disaster, but he instilled confidence in everyone he touched. Afterward, he gave some insight and
perspective on his experience:

I was so proud of the people I saw on the street. No chaos, but they were frightened and confused, and

it seemed to me that they needed to hear from my heart where I thought we were going. I was trying to

think, Where can I go for some comparison to this, some lessons about how to handle it? So I started

thinking about Churchill, started thinking that we’re going to have to rebuild the spirit of the city, and what

better example than Churchill and the people of London during the Blitz in 1940, who had to keep up

their spirit during this sustained bombing? It was a comforting thought.^12

Sixteen hours after the planes struck the buildings in New York City, when Giuliani finally returned at 2:30
A.M. to his apartment for a rest, instead of sleeping, he read the World War II chapters of Churchill: A
Biography by Roy Jenkins. He learned how Winston Churchill helped his people to see the possibilities and
kept his people going. Inspired, Giuliani did the same for his own people six decades later.

HOW TO FEEL THE ENERGY OFPOSSIBILITY THINKING

If you are a naturally positive person who already embraces possibility thinking, then you’re already tracking
with me. However, some people, rather than being optimistic, are naturally negative or cynical. They believe that
possibility thinkers are naïve or foolish. If your thinking runs toward pessimism, let me ask you a question: how
many highly successful people do you know who are continually negative? How many impossibility thinkers are
you acquainted with who achieve big things? None!
People with an it-can’t-be-done mindset have two choices. They can expect the worst and continually
experience it; or they can change their thinking. That’s what George Lucas did. Believe it or not, even though he
is a possibility thinker, he is not a naturally positive person. He says, “I’m very cynical, and as a result, I think the

defense I have against it is to be optimistic.”^13 In other words, he chooses to think positively. He sums it up this
way: “As corny as it sounds, the power of positive thinking goes a long way. So determination and positive
thinking combined with talent combined with knowing your craft... that may sound like a naïve point of view, but

at the same time it’s worked for me and it’s worked for all my friends—so I have come to believe it.”^14
If you want possibility thinking to work for you, then begin by following these suggestions: