Following this period of recession, I have come across a number of people (as have most of us I'm sure) who are rueing their bad luck, this reminded me of a parable I came across a few years ago... A farmer used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer’s neighbours sympathized with the old man over his bad luck. The farmer replied, “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?” A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbours congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, “Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?” Then, when the farmer’s son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows? ”Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer’s son with his broken leg, they let him off. Now was that good luck or bad luck? Who knows? Unfortunately, it is all to easy to blame the recession, or indeed a 'bad luck' when things go wrong, yet it is important to look at the positives, and the good our situations Is redundancy bad luck, or is it a great opportunity for a new/exciting/better career or job? Is a lost contract or reduced business revenue bad luck, or is it opportunity to seek better, perhaps more lucrative revenue streams? You don't have to look far for a person enjoying the recession, just find someone on a tracker mortgage, particularly an interest-only tracker mortgage.... When you feeling hard-done-by or down on your luck, think of that clever and considered farmer