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!

Ten Commandments of Possibility Thinking. Possibility thinking. What is it? In essence it is the management of ideas. Some people have never learned to manage time. Some people have never learned to manage money. Some people have never learned to manage people or themselves. Possibility thinking focuses not on the management of time, money, energy or persons, but on the management of ideas. What do we mean by management? Management is control. Management is the control of a resource in order to minimize waste and maximize the development of latent possibilities.

I am told that 10,000 ideas flow daily through the average mind. A vast majority of the ideas are negative. Possibility thinking is the disciplined separation of negative thoughts from positive thoughts by this criterion: Positive thoughts are those that hold undeveloped potential for good. Impossibility thinkers are people who instinctively react negatively to a possibility-laden idea. They impulsively look for reasons why it can’t be done. They quickly abort an idea and forget about it. The possibility thinker looks at every idea to see if it has possibilities. If it does, he takes an option out on the idea. He does not let it slip by.

I consider myself a possibility thinker. I have pursued many ideas that initially appeared humanly impossible. The results have always amazed me. But, I must confess that there have been many other ideas that were so ludicrous that I quickly rejected them. I never gave them a chance.

Today I was given the keys to a brand-new Lincoln. The car is mine free of charge for 12 months. This gift was the result of an impossible dream that I was tempted to discard.

The idea first occurred to me when I was with my wife at the Honolulu airport. We were inquiring about a rental car when the clerk informed us, “We have a special bargain going right now. We have brand-new Lincolns, fully equipped and fully computerized. Normally they rent for $60 a day. We can let you have one for only $35!”

My wife was so enthusiastic she convinced me to rent the car. It was beautiful! It handled like a dream. That was when I got the idea: “Wouldn’t it be great to get a car like this for Arvella (my wife)? After all, she has nearly 80,000 miles on her old car.”

My idea was a good one. It was a positive idea. It could bring comfort and safety to someone I love. However, when I realized how much a car like that one might cost, I quickly dismissed the thought. No sooner did I say to myself, Forget it, Schuller. It’s too expensive, then this next thought came to me: Why don’t you practice what you preach? You just gave a lecture last week at a sales conference. There you told thousands of people how important it is to manage ideas You said: “never throw away an idea just because it is impossible. Give it a chance.”

So I decided to give it a try. I thought that I should at least find out what it cost. Maybe it would be less than I imagined. Even if it was as much as I expected, perhaps I could get one on sale. If not, I could try to increase my income somehow. I decided I would try to work it out. As soon As I made a sincere commitment to try, the breakthrough came! I suddenly recalled meeting a man named Bob Eagle who was introduced to me as “head of Eagle Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Dallas – one of the nation’s largest.”

I called Bob who said, “Dr. Schuller, you’ve helped me through your television show. Now I’d like to help you. Let me see what I can do.” A few minutes later he called back. “There’s someone I’d like you to talk to. He’s Gordon MacKenzie, vice-president of Ford Motor Company.”

Then, by way of a three-way conference call, I met Gordon and accepted an offer to visit the Ford assembly plant later that week. As I was leaving the plant I turned to MacKenzie and said, “Gordon, I am very impressed by what you’re doing here. Nobody could put more quality, care and dedication into manufacturing a car than you are.”

He said to me, “Dr. Schuller, since you are so impressed we’d like to do something for you; Be our guest and drive one of our cars for the next 12 months - free; And see if everything we’re telling you isn’t really true!”

The point is this: Never underestimate the value of an idea.