The interviewer sat down with the old man. “After such a long career, with so many notable successes, you must have a secret for getting people to believe in you.”
The confident veteran paused to prepare a thoughtful answer.
“I do. I got them to believe in the thing that’s most valuable to them.”
The reporter leaned forward. “What’s that?”
“Themselves.”
Good one, when I was a child, about 12 years old, I took the usual shortcut through our neighboors property to go see my grandparents who lived a few houses away. On my way back, I realized that the hummangus Rottweiler that was usualy tied to a leash was charging towards me ready to rip me to shreads. I knew I was in big big danger. My mind worked fast.
I recalled my dad telling me that the dogs sens fear and that they are territorial. I had to face him because I knew running was not an option.
So what I did is collected all the strength I had and yelled at him as stern as I could to sit down. SIT DOWN. He slowed his run and was displaying a verocious smile filled with rage and slobber. I said, SIT DOWN. SIT. SIT DOWN. And he sat down 3 feet from my naked legs. Wr stared at each other. When I tried to take a step he got up.
I repeated my command even though I realized I became a prisoner. He obeyed and we stared at each other for over one hour and a half.
When we both heared the neighboors car pull in the driveway we both started running, in opposite directions. He ran to his owner and I ran towards our house.
That day I was protected from being mangled by a raging dog.
I am not afraid of dogs. The incident was scarry as hell but I learned that sometimes you have to let your inner animal take charge if you want to avoid death.
Yelling for help only aggregated my opponent so I had to rely on my own strength and stare him down.
But to be completely transparent it was probably my guardian angel who stood between the dog and me protecting and shielding.
Thank you for that.