There is a small book sold in the gift shop at Pearl Harbor entitled, "Reflections on Pearl Harbor" by Admiral Chester Nimitz.
In the book it explains how on Sunday, December 7th, 1941 Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert in Washington D.C....He was paged and told there was a phone call for him. When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet.
Admiral Nimitz immediately flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of despair, dejection and defeat--you would have thought the Japanese had already won the war.
On Christmas Day, 1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Big sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters every where you looked. As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat asked, "Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this destruction?" ...Admiral Nimitz's reply shocked everyone within the sound of his voice.
Admiral Nimitz said, "The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make, or God was taking care of America. Which do you think it was?"
Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked, "What do mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?"...Nimitz explained:
Mistake number one: the Japanese attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out of every 10 crewmen of those ships were ashore on liberty. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk--we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800.
Mistake number two: when the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once bombed our dry docks opposite those ships.
If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow everyone of those ships to America to be repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America...And I already have crews ashore anxious to man those ships.
Mistake number three: Every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is on top of the ground in storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply.
That's why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could make, or God was taking care of America. There is a reason that our national motto is, "IN GOD WE TRUST."
Admiral Nimitz immediately flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of despair, dejection and defeat--you would have thought the Japanese had already won the war.
On Christmas Day, 1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Big sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters every where you looked. As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat asked, "Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this destruction?" ...Admiral Nimitz's reply shocked everyone within the sound of his voice.
Admiral Nimitz said, "The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make, or God was taking care of America. Which do you think it was?"
Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked, "What do mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?"...Nimitz explained:
Mistake number one: the Japanese attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out of every 10 crewmen of those ships were ashore on liberty. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk--we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800.
Mistake number two: when the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once bombed our dry docks opposite those ships.
If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow everyone of those ships to America to be repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America...And I already have crews ashore anxious to man those ships.
Mistake number three: Every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is on top of the ground in storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply.
That's why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could make, or God was taking care of America. There is a reason that our national motto is, "IN GOD WE TRUST."
Anyway you look at it--Admiral Nimitz was able to see a silver lining in a situation and circumstance where everyone else saw only despair and defeatism. President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for the right job... and during those trying times the United States desperately needed a leader who could see silver linings in the midst of the clouds of dejection, despair and defeat....
We are also in trying times...the last 7 years have seen some of the best of times and the worst of times. Now is the time for positive leadership, Company owners must stand up and give direction and a hope for the future for their Associates, Office Managers need, now more than ever, to be a positive Coaching influence for the new and the experienced agents...and Associates need to be a positive source of real estate knowledge for their clients.
Become "The Voice" for real estate...positive news and attitudes will produce positive outcomes.
A few positive Real Estate Stats for our area:
- Number of Homes Closed in TMLS Jul - Oct of 2011 was up over 13% from the same period in 2010...a positive for Seller Clients
- Median Sales Price YTD 2011 is down 0.5% over YTD 2010...a positive for Buyer Clients
- Average Sales Price YTD 2011 is up 1.5% over YTD 2010...a positive for Seller Clients
- Pending Sales have been higher month over month 2011 vs. 2010 for the last 5 consecutive months...a positive for everyone!
- The Housing Affordability Index has averaged 15 points higher since June of 2011 compared to 2010...another all around positive stat.!
Think positive and positive things will happen for you!
Eddie Brown- December 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment