It has been shared Albert Einstein himself was once teaching an algebraic class before quite a large group of students.

As we all know the man is regarded as one of the most intelligent human beings ever to have walked the planet, and his students at the time were well aware of his reputation amongst worldwide scholars.

On the first day of class each student was assumably expecting to begin learning the ever-famous complex equations developed by their famed instructor.

Einstein had something else in mind.

He began the class first thing by immediately writing either every child’s best friend or worst nightmare up on the chalk board: the infamous multiplication table.

Confused by what was happening, each student sat quietly and watched as the professor stood and wrote each and every simple equation all of them had learned a long time ago.

After having written every multiplication problem ones through nines, Einstein had finally reached 9x9.

He wrote 82 as the answer.

The class was shocked to see the famous physicist who had changed the world had gotten an answer wrong to such a simple math problem.

As expected, the students respectfully raised their hands and told him his final answer was incorrect, and the answer was of course 81.

Einstein simply chuckled at his students and calmly laid down the chalk. They had done exactly what he had expected them to do.

The professor had written every single multiplication problem correct, but purposely chose to write down an incorrect answer on the last problem just to see how his students would respond.

With over ninety math problems written entirely correct right before their eyes, each pupil chose to focus their attention on the one single problem that was wrong.

As Einstein had correctly predicted, a roomful of bright ambitious young minds chose to focus on the one negative thing up on the board rather than all that had been done exactly right.

“Stay away from negative people,” he said. “They have a problem for every solution.”

This story was shared just the other day to this unusual reporter writing this right now. A kind, intellectual fellow with a caring wife and four wonderful children, this longtime resident of Goshen County casually asked, “Why is it that people always focus on the negative? I see this everywhere and it happens all the time. Einstein was even well aware of it.”

As for the answer to that question there are quite a few theories we could think of, but in all actuality there probably is not one absolute resolution.

Here is just one theory as to why so many individuals would rather focus on the negative in any situation, as opposed to a zillion positives sitting right in front of them.

It would be reasonable, or even logical to hypothesize the reason behind this is it just happens to be that old thing we call human nature. Not everyone, but it seems more often than not people would rather find a problem instead a solution.

For some reason everything must be a competition, and someone always feels compelled to drag someone else down so they may feel stronger about themselves. For many people this is the only way they can even begin to feel good about themselves.

For these individuals they have to be dragging someone else down with them all the time. For some reason or another their self-esteem or confidence is so low, it can only be redeemed by attempting to make another feel the same.

As sort of mild pitiful subjugation if you will.

Just recently two individuals, both local residents of the county, had just met for the first time at a local business. After shaking hands and beginning to chit-chat a little bit, one man had mentioned the fact he had lost his wife to cancer recently. The other man appropriately expressed his condolences in which he then responded, “I can relate. I just lost my father about a month ago to lung cancer.”

Rather than acknowledging the other man’s loss after hearing this the first man said, “Yeah, but I was with my wife for over fifty years.” He then proceeded to discuss boastfully and at length over how much money he had.

There was no, “I’m very sorry to hear that,” or any sort of condolences. Even grief had been attempted to be turned into a competition in order for one older man to feel dominant.

More often than not it seems this is the way it is, but there are definitely exceptions.

Something which has been noticed over quite a significant length of time now, is when we choose to look at someone who is quote-unquote successful, they actually do a have a positive mind set. 

Not just for themselves, but more specifically to others.

Typically successful ones feel they have nothing to prove to anyone but themself, and really could care less about another who tries to weigh them down with their abject pessimism.

Most of the time these folks have figured out how to surround themselves with other positive people who may share the same mindset. It doesn’t have to be about politics or religion, but focused on succeeding at what you are passionate about and wanting to see others do the same. This doesn’t mean “yes” people, just individuals who will say the glass is half full rather than half empty in a conversation.

In other words, they may have figured out the mystical phrase, the pursuit of happiness. 

Someone who has to find problems in every scenario has some serious internal issues going on. There is definitely something missing, and these individuals just can’t seem to stand to see others do well.

Tragically in their own minds deep down they see themselves failures, and would like nothing more than to see someone else fail as well.

As the old saying goes, “Misery loves company.”

Of course, you know someone like this and have probably dealt with it over and over throughout the course of your life.

All of us have at some point. After all what we are talking about again is human nature. All of us have probably been guilty of this ourselves at some point also, so once again don’t beat yourself up too bad about it.

The point is always to acknowledge this simple truth and just think about it for a moment.

As an old boss of mine once said, “There are two kinds of people in the world. The why people and the why not people.”

Be a why not person. 

If you are always trying to find a problem, of course there will never be a solution for you.

The ones who want the solution however will always find a way to get it. 

Therein lies the difference between the two.