HELL HAS BENEFITS???

Perspective is an amazing concept. It affects our view of the world, our lives and even our impression of other’s lives. For this reason alone, we should be very careful to try to judge others without taking a change in perspective into consideration.

Case in point is a recent interview I read recently that changed my perspective of YOU…the reader. It was an article in this month’s Entrepreneur magazine regarding the difficulties of Oded Brenner, the founder of Blue Stripes, a specialty chocolate cafe. After being sued for breach of contract, he went broke fighting a lawsuit and was banned from creating anything chocolate-related or putting his name or face on any brand for five years. In the article, he opened up about how he came to view that devastating time in exile as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

I won’t go into the details, but you may want to look it up at entrepreneur.com. Maybe I could entice you with this short take on how it affected my own perspective. So, the guy creates a dream concept and company. He sells to a bigger company to help the concept grow. It does. He’s the Dude! Then he wants to change something. Big company doesn’t like it. They sue…they go to court…the dude gets squashed. He’s broke, unemployed, and stuck doing nothing he loves for five years. It took him a while, but he is back in the cafe game and doing well enough to be interviewed by the magazine. PERSPECTIVE POINT #1: There are a lot of ‘failures’ out there who got back up, got back in, and got back on top.

So here’s the question he answered that started this whole perspective thing for me:

”What do you know now about pulling yourself up from rock bottom?”

I won’t paraphrase what he said. I can’t. It is really powerful. If you’ve ever been knocked down hard, you’ll feel this answer. Here is what he said:

”At a certain point, you just want to collapse. You’re angry at the world, angry at God, angry at everyone. You ask, HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN TO ME? Even though you know that part of it is probably your fault. But hopefully – and this is what I told myself – this is a one-time experience. I would say it even stronger: This is a one-time opportunity. Hell has benefits. It has benefits on your ego, and ego is a very destructive element in our personalities. Hell has benefits in the way you talk to other people and how you think about business. Mostly, hell makes you think a lot. It can change your personality. It is not there coincidentally, and this may sound maybe a little bit too spiritual and mystical, but I would say listen to it very carefully. Give it all the room and time it needs. Feel sorry for yourself be angry. But use this period to build yourself for the next stage in your life, which can be unbelievable… you will be able to come back and do it again, and the next thing will be better.”

BOOM!! Mic drop!

What did this speak to me? Did you read my last few blogs? Did you feel the pain? The desperation? The loneliness? I was visiting hell. This man says he was there too, and he said the very same things I wish I could be smart enough to speak. Hell has benefits? Wow. If I had just changed my perspective a bit, I might be able to understand the takeaway like he did. And here’s the amazing thing…he wasn’t in prison, but he sounded to me like he had been. PERSPECTIVE POINT #2: There are real prisons like the one I’m in and then there are other prisons that people on the outside deal with daily…just like me. You, my reader, may be dealing with a time in prison of your own. You just don’t necessarily see the fences.

If that is you, I apologize for being one-sided in my pain. Today I’ll just say that I share your pain. Maybe this guy’s pain, suffering, and resurrection of sorts can be an inspiration to both of us. It helped to change my lenses to the world I see every day. This change in my perspective has allowed me to change my attitude. The attitude change has helped me see that this is part of a process and I really need to trust the process.

Hell has benefits. Before you leave, get everything you can out of it. Make it an opportunity of a lifetime. Make it a part of your awesome story. I know I will.