Dr. Robert H. Schuller is founder and senior minister of the famed Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. His book, Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do has helped many people to hold on to hope and faith in the face of adversity during these rough economic times. Following is an excerpt from Part II of the book, entitled: Here’s How You Can Be Tough Too!

Don’t surrender leadership to faults. A lot of people do that. Somebody comes along with a good idea only to have someone else say, “Oh, but it will take too long, or it will cost too much.” They find fault with a good idea and annihilate it, surrendering leadership to the faults instead of to the potential. There are problems with every idea. But problems call for polishing, not for demolition. I once counseled with a young person who had a problem. She said, “Everything is going wrong with my life. I’ll never be able to amount to anything. It’s all my parents’ fault, really - they broke up. My family fell apart. Dr. Schuller, if you had my problems you’d be where I am too.

I said to this young person, “Listen, I understand you have had problems. But let me tell you something. Never let a problem become an excuse.”

When you let the problem become an excuse, you’ve surrendered leadership. Accept the faults, the shortcomings, and the imperfections. And then rise above them. You can if you have the right attitude. This leads me to the next principle.

Don’t surrender leadership to facts. The problems you are facing today may be fact, not just theory. The unemployment statistics are factual, but don’t surrender leadership to it. Facts, statistics, interest rates can definitely influence your life, but you can choose whether or not the influence will be beneficial or detrimental.

Dr. Karl Menninger, one of the great psychiatrists, made one of the wisest statements I’ve ever heard: “Attitude is more important than facts.” Your attitude needs to remain positive and in the control position. Never let yourself be defeated by the facts.

Don’t surrender leadership to frenzies. A lot of people maintain control and they make the right decisions until they get into a frenzy, a frantic situation. This past week, as I was flying east, a gentleman on the plane waved at me as if he recognized me. I asked, “Do we know each other?” He said, “You don’t know me, but I know you. I watch “Hour of Power” all the time.”

He was Bob McClurek, an airline captain. He said, “I fly the L1011. I’ve been a pilot for twenty-seven years.”

I said, “If you’ve been a pilot for twenty-seven years, must have a good story. What is the most unusual thing that’s ever happened to you?’

He said, “During the second World War, I was a solo fighter of an F6 Hellcat. I was on a first-bombing, strafing mission over Tokyo Bay. I took off from the aircraft carrier. I was to come in at a high elevation and make a deep, strafing dive leveling out at three hundred feet above the bay.” He said,, “I was coming down at an astronomical speed and just as I started to level off, the left wing took a direct hit,. It tipped my plane completely upside down.”

I said, “Did you know that you were upside down?”

Oh, yes,” he said: “I knew I was upside down when I saw the ocean was my sky. Do you know what saved me?”

“I was taught that when something terrible happens, don’t do anything. Just think. So I did nothing - I never touched a control. Otherwise I would have instinctively lost the horizontal position that I had and I would have tipped into the water and been killed.” He added, “I still remember, when something catastrophic is happening. Don’t do anything – just think.”