[First Chapter]

     The two men that walked into my office could have been Realtors®, investors, or Xerox salesmen. They were clean-cut, conservatively dressed. They exuded an air of quiet confidence.
     "Are you John Ross?"
     "Yes," I answered.
     "Mr. Ross, we’re with the FBI, and you’re under arrest."
     There are moments in life when time virtually stands still. This was one of them. I stared in amazement at these men, trying to make sense of what they had just said. The words "under arrest" came to me like a phrase out of an old James Cagney movie. They were make-believe words. They weren’t words that you ever hear in real life. Not in my life, anyway. Yet here were two men telling me I was under arrest.
     All time and motion ground to a halt, and a succession of still-framed memories exploded in my mind in rapid succession. I saw myself sitting in church with my wife and four children – a father proud of his family; a family proud of its father. I saw myself being interviewed on Good Morning America – a young man who had achieved uncommon success in real estate investments. I saw myself standing in front of a group of students who thought of me as a master who could help them walk the golden path to success and financial liberation. This was reality.
     "You must come with us," said one of the agents.
     I made a desperate attempt to gather my wits. "If this is real," I thought, "if this isn’t a nightmare, what should I do?" I forced my voice to sound calm. "I’d like to call my lawyer," I told them. "Will you please have a seat?"
     Minutes later, when I emerged from my office between the two FBI agents (mercifully, they did not handcuff me), I was horrified to see several television news cameras pointing directly at me. These were cameras from the same stations that had been spotlighting my success story during the past years – stations that had labeled me a rising young business star. Now they were here, like buzzards, to video my arrest and pick my bones.
     At the police station I was fingerprinted and booked. Mug shots were taken, and I was told that I had been charged with ten counts of grand larceny. Then I was placed in a cell and the heavy, barred door was shut and locked.
     I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but that simple yet symbolic turning of the key was to separate me forever from the people I loved so dearly and the life I had worked so hard to build. It’s fortunate that I didn’t fully understand at that time how my arrest would affect my life. I don’t think I could have taken it.
     "This can’t be happening," I kept telling myself. "It’s just a nightmare. That’s all. I’ll wake up in my own bed, in my own house, next to my wife, any minute now." My lips formed these words over and over again, like a Hindu mantra. And as they did, my mind – wounded and in a state of shock – began searching through the past.
     Looking back, I realize now that I was frantically looking for clues to help me make sense of what was happening. In my 28 years I had risen higher than most people ever dream of. And now I had fallen lower than I had ever imagined possible. I had been on the very top. And now I was bankrupt and in jail.
     "Why is this happening to me?" I thought. "Why has my life been such a roller-coaster of fortune? Why?" Out of the timeless scrapbook of memory, my numbed mind began pulling bits and pieces of the past together. Maybe in those shards of remembrance I would find an answer....

[Last Chapter]

Attitude is a popular word these days. Everywhere you go you hear statements like, "Boy, does he have an attitude!" or "Get an attitude!" All the problems that have come my way have taught me a valuable lesson that makes the suffering I’ve gone through worthwhile. It’s a lesson about attitude.

     The word attitude can denote something positive or something negative. That’s because attitudes themselves are either positive or negative. They are not fence-sitters.
     Attitude has become a very popular word because we are beginning to realize what an incredibly important role our attitudes play in shaping our lives. We are beginning to understand that good things and bad things happen to everyone, and that it’s not what happens to us, but rather our perspective and how we respond toward what is happening to us that makes us happy or sad, relaxed or nervous, hopeful or fearful.
     And that’s what attitude is: the perception of and response to what goes on in our lives.
     On a very simple level, it’s like the old story about the half-full/half-empty glass of water. Two people are given a glass of water. Both of their glasses have been filled to the halfway mark. The first person sees a glass of water that is half empty. He begins to complain. He feels victimized that he was robbed of the other half portion of water. He makes himself a "loser." After drinking, he is empty, bitter, and thirsty. The second person looks and sees a glass that is half full. He rejoices that he has been given half a glass of water where before he had nothing. He gives thanks and feels that the world is a loving, caring place, and that he is a winner. When he drinks, he is happy, and his thirst is quenched.
     There is one main difference between these two men: attitude, or perspective. Treated equally, one makes himself an embittered loser whose negative energy will attract negative things while the other becomes a positive, happy winner whose "good vibrations" will bring positive people and opportunities his way.
     I’m now going to give you a concept that is absolutely, monumentally important. Here it is: No matter what happens to you, you can find some positive way to look at it. And how you look at it will directly affect your level of happiness and even your future.
     Simply stated, I’m saying that we are in command of our own happiness. Other people and external objects and events that we can’t always control do not ultimately dictate how happy we are. We do!
     It all comes down to our perspective about what’s happening to us.
     I know that this is true. I had more setbacks, heartbreaks, and outright disasters in the space of just over a year (not to mention the other challenges that came later) than the vast majority of people have in their lifetimes. I could easily have taken refuge in drugs, alcohol, crime, depression, bitter apathy, violent anger, or even suicide.
     Why didn’t I? Because my faith in God, in myself, and in tomorrow enabled me to adjust my perspective of what was happening to me. I was able to say, "There is something positive about this. There is a reason for this."
     For instance, if I hadn’t lost my business in New York, I would have had to spend a lot of time flying back and forth between Rochester and Atlanta. And because I was not there to oversee things, maybe someone would have done something wrong, and I would have been penalized, or worse. Or, more likely, maybe I would have continued in that business for the rest of my life, and things would have gone fine. If so, I would never have learned the lessons that my challenges and suffering have taught me. I would never have written this book. I would never have had the chance to help people get through their problems. In short, I would never have fulfilled my full potential or my mission in life.
     If I had never had the experience of being arrested and spending time in jail, I would not have the empathy for inmates I now have; I would not have extended myself to help them rise above their circumstances; and I would never have created The Inside Corporation. Nor would I have learned how to be patient and to accept things that can’t be changed; how to relax, think, and meditate. I wouldn’t have learned that we are lucky if we have even one true friend, and that such a friend deserves our eternal love and appreciation.
     If I had not lost my credit and cash, I would never have developed my creativity. Without these things, I was able to not only survive, but prosper. I was able to create a solid, successful new business, staffed by some of the best, most capable people I have ever met. Not having credit has made me humble. This has helped make it possible for me to rise to the top again, and go far beyond.
     If I had not had challenges in my married life, I would never have been able to understand on a first-hand, practical level how even the most difficult changes can be transformed into personal power. And I would not have the loving relationship I have now with Kathleen.
     If I had never had to start over again, with absolutely nothing but what was inside me, I would not have the powerful confidence in myself I have today. I realize now that I was lucky the first time I "made" it. It was easy. But "easy" is not what I want now. I want solid stability, longevity – something that will last the rest of my life and hopefully beyond, in the lives of the people I’ve been able to touch.
     But what if you can’t find a positive perspective about something that has happened? For instance, what was positive about both of my parents dying at the relatively young age of 58? In cases like this, I think you have to have faith that there is some purpose – some ultimately good or merciful design – in what happens. My parents, for example, passed on to the next life fairly quickly. They could have suffered through years of pain and fear before finally dying, as so many people do. So who am I to say that their early deaths weren’t blessings in disguise? I choose to believe that their passings were, in fact, blessings.
     It was a little more difficult to find anything positive in the fact that I lived thousands of miles away from my four children for so long. Nothing could ever fill up the hole their absence made in my life. But even before they moved back to Atlanta, I was able to make an attitude adjustment that turned what had been a nearly unbearable sorrow into something more positive.
     You see, during that time I was able to take comfort in the fact that they knew they had a Dad who really, really wanted them, and loved them, and worried about them, and wanted the best for them.
     The ongoing challenge is to maintain a positive perspective and attitude when things go bad, when life gets tough. I am acutely aware of the fact that a key link to sanity, happiness, and success is a good attitude. Without it, we are in serious trouble.
     For that reason, I’m very careful to protect and nurture my positive mindset. I stay away from anyone or anything that will dump negative, evil, or depressing thoughts into my mind.
     I can’t stand to be around negative people for the same reason. I’ve developed something like an allergic reaction to them. On many occasions I’ve been with people when the talk turns negative. I get out of there immediately. After all I’ve been through, I literally cannot endure it.
     Being positive is like anything else – it gets easier with practice. Until you come to the point where you’re a "master" at it, you have to constantly struggle to keep a good attitude.
     I speak from experience. I have gone through times that were so bad that I lost my positive edge. During those periods I felt like I didn’t want to go on living. But somehow, every time, my faith helped me pull myself up out of despair, regain my positive attitude, and get on with the task of living.
     Now, living is a joy – not a task.
     That’s my message and my challenge. No matter how bad things get, no matter how black life appears, we have to hang on and look deep within ourselves to find that kernel of positive, joyous, confident happiness that is within us all. It may be tiny. It may be encrusted with years of negative input and experience. But it’s there.
     Once we find it, we must hang onto it, feed it day and night with positive thoughts, and avoid negative influences. As we do, it will grow and become a powerful force that will literally transform our lives.
     I’m reminded of the famous early American hymn, "Amazing Grace." Listen to the words ...

     Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
     That saved a wretch like me.
     I once was lost, but now am found,
     Was blind, but now I see.

     Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
     I have already come;
     ’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
     And grace will lead me home.

     The amazing "grace" that is the natural result of a positive attitude has led me from the jail cell to the speaker’s podium; from the rags of bankruptcy court to the riches of a prosperous business.
     As the song says, it has brought me safe thus far. And it will lead me home.
     It can do the same for you.

[Book Jacket Copy]

     Like Victor Hugo’s Jean Valjean (Les Miserables) or the Bible’s Job, John Ross proves that we can do more than merely survive life’s hard knocks we can become better, stronger, and ultimately happier because of them.
     This is not a story about getting rich. It is a story about falling from the summit of fame and fortune, surviving life’s cruelest blows, and finding the will to climb back to the top.
     John Ross’ Rags to Riches will take you on one man’s wild roller coaster ride over the breathtaking peaks of prosperity and into the deepest valleys of despair. This highly personal saga leads from the heights of multimillionaire status to the depths of bankruptcy, from the brightly lit sets of television talk shows to the dim gloom of a jail cell.
     And finally, it offers a living illustration of how the refusal to give up, combined with faith, gives the strength to bounce back – even after hitting bottom.

(Copyright 2000 OsborneWriter.com. All Rights Reserved)

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