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Explore Possibility Thinking
“Nothing is so embarrassing as watching someone do something that you said could not be done.”
—SAM EWING
People who embrace possibility thinking are capable of accomplishing tasks that seem impossible because
they believe in solutions. Here are several reasons why you should become a possibility thinker:
1. Possibility Thinking Increases Your Possibilities
When you believe you can do something difficult—and you succeed—many doors open for you. When
George Lucas succeeded in making Star Wars, despite those who said the special effects he wanted hadn’t
ever been done and couldn’t be done, many other possibilities opened up to him. Industrial Light and Magic
(ILM), the company he created to produce those “impossible” special effects, became a source of revenue to
help underwrite his other projects. He was able to produce merchandising tie-ins to his movies, thus bringing in
another revenue stream to fund his movie making. But his confidence in doing the difficult has also made a
huge impact on other movie makers and a whole new generation of movie goers. Popular culture writer Chris
Sale-wicz asserts, “At first directly through his own work and then via the unparalleled influence of ILM, George
Lucas has dictated for two decades the essential broad notion of what is cinema.” 11 If you open yourself up to
possibility thinking, you open yourself up to many other possibilities.
2. Possibility Thinking Draws Opportunities and People to You
The case of George Lucas helps you to see how being a possibility thinker can create new opportunities
and attract people. People who think big attract big people to them. If you want to achieve big things, you need
to become a possibility thinker.
3. Possibility Thinking Increases Others’ Possibilities
Big thinkers who make things happen also create possibilities for others. That happens, in part, because
it’s contagious. You can’t help but become more confident and think bigger when you’re around possibility
thinkers.
4. Possibility Thinking Allows You to Dream Big Dreams
No matter what your profession, pos-sibility thinking can help you to broaden your horizons and dream
bigger dreams. Professor David J. Schwartz believes, “Big thinkers are specialists in creating positive
forward-looking, optimistic pictures in their own minds and in the minds of others.” If you embrace possibility
thinking, your dreams will go from molehill to mountain size, and because you believe in possibilities, you put
yourself in position to achieve them.
5. Possibility Thinking Makes It Possible to Rise Above Average
During the 1970s, when oil prices went through the roof, automobile makers were ordered to make their
cars more fuel efficient. One manufacturer asked a group of senior engineers to drastically reduce the weight of
cars they were designing. They worked on the problem and searched for solutions, but they finally concluded