Effective leaders encourage their people to question everything. When we begin to question things, we elevate our thinking. When we elevate our thinking, we also expand our possibilities. And when we expand our possibilities, we will come to realize that the facts don’t count. The facts are only the truth as long as we believe them.

We cannot live our lives based solely on facts because facts are changing almost daily. Furthermore, the facts don’t motivate us anyway — the possibilities do! William Faulkner exclaimed, “Facts and truth really don’t have much to do with each other.

“The fact of the matter is, in 1949 when the Federation for the Blind was founded, 99 percent of the blind people in America were unemployed. So, the founders of this organization decided to encourage their members to view blindness as a personality trait rather than a disability.

In other words, the leaders of this organization encouraged their people to rethink what was possible for them. They changed the facts! Because of this paradigm shift, blind people today are succeeding in areas once believed impossible. They now work in almost every field imaginable…teachers, attorneys, mayors, artists, Olympic athletes, professors, entertainers, TV talk show hosts, professional speakers, etc., and the list goes on and on of professions which the blind now occupy.

Are you old enough to remember Allen Funt from Candid Camera? Well, he used to always say that most people don’t question things. They just accept things as they are and invariably go with the flow.

The Candid Camera crew was in Delaware filming a few segments for their television show. They put up a giant sign that read, “Delaware Closed Today.” Mr. Funt commented that what was so amazing about the entire episode was the fact that most of the motorists didn’t even question this outrageous stunt. Some of them just asked, “Well, uh…is Jersey open?”

…Excerpt from Grow Through It & Lead