Think you can

Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.

— Henry Ford

My interpretation

Henry Ford is known to most as the man who pioneered the assembly line manufacturing for mass production. In doing so, he revolutionised transportation and industrial production forever. To be the cause of such a large-scale economic transformation requires equally large quantities of indefatigable faith in one's ability.

In this quote, Ford declares that faith in self works wonderfully for those who believe it can. Conversely, it fails to work for those who don't believe it.

When pronouncing the above, Ford must have spoken from his own experiences of life. From his humble beginnings as an apprentice machinist, when he had nothing except his passion for mechanics, to successfully founding the Ford Motor Company, which remains one of the largest auto companies in the world till today, his life is an example of faith.

In practice, when we believe in a goal, we work diligently and do what it takes towards making it happen, until it sees the light of the day. Ford believed he could do it, and he did it. He didn't look for excuses of how or why it was difficult or impossible to achieve the goals he set for himself. When we demonstrate faith in our abilities, we focus on how to achieve our goals - and act.

Conversely, when we don't believe in our abilities, we have little motivation to accomplish our goals and consequently we end up putting little, if any, efforts towards making our goals a reality. Not surprisingly then, the goals remain far from materialising.

Faith in self is our essential nature. At our deepest core, each of us possesses infinite faith. If we observe little children, we can easily spot that they have faith in everything they do. The conviction can be seen in their innocent mannerisms and behaviours. We have all been there, done that. Only, sometimes we need to re-discover it by getting rid of the doubts that have enveloped us.