Stephen Hopson

Everyone has experienced a time when they had to deal with a difficult person. This is a form of adversity. Difficult people take different shapes whether they are argumentative, abusive, stubborn, angry, and combative or a host of other negative emotions. The question is, how can we deal with them?

In my view, angry people are screaming to be heard. They want to be valued, loved and listened to. They want to feel important but just don’t know how to do it right. Here are 7 things I do when in the presence of such a person:

It was right around 2000 when I made the incredible discovery that deaf pilots had been flying since 1948. An idea occurred to me that I should not only find a flight school, but find one where I could work part-time in exchange for steep airplane rental discounts.

One thing led to another and I found myself a small airport in Michigan where I met two young men for an interview. I will call them Chris and Joe.

Chris seemed pleasant but Joe was a bit guarded. I could tell that Joe wasn’t all that enamored about hiring me. He didn’t seem to think I had what it took to be a line service specialist. Chris, on the other hand, was enthusiastically full of ideas on how they could provide me with a text-based pager that vibrated every time an airplane fuel order came through.

Over the years, I’ve learned a thing or two about life. I am a firm believer that everything is a matter of perception.  It’s not what happens to you that matters but what you do about it that determines the final outcome.
Today I thought I’d take a break from storytelling and give a list of things I’ve learned in the last 40 years.
See if they resonate with you ...

The next morning I awoke at 6 am, had breakfast and headed for Albany State University for the championships. So that no one would suspect anything, my head was concealed with a blue bathing cap. I wore nylon stockings and a couple layers of t-shirts to weigh myself down during pre-trial laps in the pool.

The idea behind shaving is to compare it to a snake shedding old skin for new. You are in effect getting rid of dead body cells, giving you the like-new feeling. It provides a tremendous psychological boost - an indescribable feeling.

After swimming a couple warm-up laps, I got out of the pool, dried off and removed the nylon stocking and t-shirts. The bathing cap stayed in place. Grabbing my blue warm up suit, I sat in the corner to mentally prepare for the race.

Back when I was in high school, my biggest passion was swimming. While I was not a “hot dog” (swimmers who consistently broke records), I did have a dream and that was to make the finals at the state championships in my last year.

Over a 4 year period, I worked my way up to Junior Varsity and finally Varsity.  The swim team had done particularly well during my senior year, advancing all the way to the state championships.

I was thrilled when “Rabbit,” our coach, put me in for the 200 individual medley event (consisting of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle - in that order).  We called coach “Rabbit” because he had two front teeth that was permanently puckered out of alignment.

On the day before the championships, I was watching the 1978 Olympics on television. As I was watching the men’s freestyle event, it slowly dawned on me that there was indeed a way to make the finals.

In 1995, I was riding high on Wall Street. Clients were enjoying double-digit growths and I was making a handsome six-figure income. I was winning sales trips to exotic places like Mexico and Bermuda, interviewed on national television and accumulating one sales award after another. But little did I know all hell was about to break loose. I had no clue it was coming.

Surrounding yourself with the right people is critical to your ability to overcome adversity.

... continued from "The Power of Three Words"

Ten minutes into lunch recess, I saw David, the class bully, sauntering toward me with a cocky swagger, his lips curved into an Elvis Presley sneer.  He was a spitting image of “The Fonz” from Happy Days, with greasy black hair combed straight back, 1950s style.  He always wore a gleaming white T-shirt with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in one, sometimes both, sleeves.  Like Fonzie, David did his best to strut his tough-guy image.  Up to that point, he had literally beaten up everybody in the whole school, except for me. Not that I was tough or anything, but for some reason he had left me alone until that day.

Here are the top 10 daily things I do in my quest for inspired success:

Did the title catch your attention? I'll bet it did because we're all taught from an early age that in order to win, we must compete against others.