THE TRAMP MAN

Once upon a time in the United States, the barbers and hairstylists wanted to give Americans a better image of their profession. So they hired a young public relations executive to handle the job. The public relation executive went to work immediately and here is what he did: He went to the slums of New York City to pick up a young man who was tramped with soil and tattered clothes. His hair was unkempt and his beard was dirty. After listening to the executive officer, the tramp agreed to a deal since there was some cash to the bargain.

The young executive took the tramp straight to a photographers shop and had some snaps of him the way he was; dirty and unkempt. Then he gave him a face-lift: A steam bath, a shave and a hair cut, and took him to the photographer for another round of snaps. But he was not finished. The PR executive took the young man to town and got him professionally made suits, shirts, ties and shoes. Then he had a third round of photographs snapped.

On the day the convention started, the young executive positioned three life-size photographs of his subject at the lobby of the hotel. And he wrote at the top of those pictures, “See what the barbers and hairstylists of America can do to a man.” The story immediately hit the headlines across America. For effect, the well-suited tramp was positioned at the hotel lobby to shake hands with the people as they came in for the convention. The gambit worked. The campaign was a success.

Now, the assistant hotel manager was touched and decided to do something. He gave the young man a job, and waited for him to resume work. But the young man did not show up. What happened? The young man was changed outwardly; inwardly he was the same old tramp. So, he had gone to his old slum lifestyle.

The barbers and hairstylists of America may change a man’s exterior, but until the man is changed inwardly, that change is the wrong type.

Dear reader, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. A man cannot rise above the level of his thoughts. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

This verse simply states that we alter our lives only to the degree to which we alter our thoughts. Thoughts are powerful. Whether a man succeeds or fails, rises or falls, depends basically on the use of his mind. A man’s life will always move in the direction of his dominant thoughts.

As a man thinks, so is he. As he continues to think, so he remains poor. If he thinks things are difficult for him, they remain difficult. If he thinks anything is impossible, it remains impossible for him.As long as a man thinks he is the victim of circumstances, he will be harassed by those circumstances. The day he takes control of his mind and exercises his power to create new circumstances, he breaks free.

                 Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are right.  (Henry Ford).

                               Drafted from the book “Think and Succeed” by Sam Adeyemi