Archive for March 2010
What’s your second impression like?
Shadow by Adam Hawkins http://anodizeproductions.com
We see a lot about the importance of creating a good first impression but what’s your second impression like?
You get into the right clothes, do a bit of grooming, practice the smile and the firm handshake, learn a bit about body language and voice tone and wham, bam, thank you m’am you’ve aced the first impression. Everyone thinks you’re a great guy or gal and relaxes.
Then what? Then the real you gets an outing. When you stop trying to impress is there a different you that comes out?
I’ve recently had to re-asses my opinion of someone who always gives a great First Impression performance and remembered this that I heard from George Raynault, a multi-millionaire I worked with for several years who was a very wise man:
Someone at a reception smiled a hello and shook my hand warmly.
Later I saw him almost sneering at one of the waiters.
And, later still, talking behind someone’s back.
You only have one chance to make a first impression, true, but you have an
awful lot of time to make plenty of second impressions.
If you are meeting someone for the first time and may not get a chance to see
them again, a first impression really counts. For a very short time.
However, if you are going to be interacting with a person over a longer period of
time then second impressions are even more important.
Is someone who is rude to waiters and cab drivers or who cheats a barmaid out
of small change really someone you want to do business with?
If someone is always blaming other people and doesn’t treat others as they’d like to be treated why would you recommend them to others?
If people know they can rely on you to behave well and honorably even if no-one is watching, if you listen to them, make them feel good, cheer them up, be kind or give them good advice they will always seek you out and introduce you to others.
Second impressions are even more important than the first ones. Appearances only go so far. Its deeds that show your true worth.
Posted in Networking | 
Tags: Asses, Body Language, Cab Drivers, Clothes, Good Advice, Good Cheer, Good First Impression, Great First Impression, Handshake, Impressions, Millionaire, Period Of Time, Second Impression, Short Time, Smile, Voice Tone, Waiters, Wham, Wise Man | 
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You Unlimited
“What counts in the ring is what you can do after you’re exhausted. The same is true of life.” Muhammed Ali
Clive Gott is testimony to these words. When in June of 2004, he reached the lower of two peaks on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, exhausted, did he accept that “at least I am at a peak” or did he look for something extra within himself to go the last 210 metres to ‘the roof of Africa?’
In April of 2006, when out of water, bereft of energy and still faced with more than 3 miles to go on stage two of the Marathon Des Sables in Morocco, he was faced with a choice. Would he climb into a land rover and call it a day or, somehow, get to the end of that stage and start a new day tomorrow?
Be honest now, what would you do? Do you have that dogged determination to get to your goal or are you more likely to take the easy way out?
You see, what counts is what we do after we are exhausted. Whether it is physical or mental exhaustion, the ability to find something extra is what separates winners from losers.
Clive applies his experiences to all aspects of life – not just physical and mental challenges but emotional ones too. He was married three times before he woke up to the fact that HE was the one who needed to change in order to have a fullfilling relationship.
He is also very funny. Listen to this short video clip called “Blame the Boss”
Clive has a passion and that is to release the dormant energy and magnificence of others. To encourage and inspire anyone and everyone to take life by the throat and say “I’m not done yet!” Clive is a student of life who happens to be compassionate, courageous, inspirational and very funny. Using his own achievements (and blunders) and life experiences as his main examples Clive has the unique ability to make the seemingly complex simple to understand, the challenging seem achievable and the impossible possible.
He is the reason that my ‘Inspirational Speakers’ events exist because he had faith in what I was doing and inspired me to believe in it and in myself enough to keep working at it and turn it into an achievement to be proud of.
Come and see Clive in Cambridge on 17th March for the presentation “You Unlimited” You won’t walk away unchanged.
Posted in Steps to Success Events | Tags: Ali, Aspects Of Life, Blunders, Boss, Dogged Determination, Dormant Energy, Faith, Inspirational Speakers, Land Rover, Life Experiences, Losers, Magnificence, Marathon Des Sables, Mental Challenges, Mental Exhaustion, Morocco, Mount Kilimanjaro, Passion, Relationship, Testimony, Three Times, Video Clip | No Comments »
Why Tweeting Quotes is a Waste of Time
Quotations and aphorisms are generally just verbal Christmas presents; enticingly done up in pretty paper and ribbons, but once you get them open they generally turn out to be just socks. Tom Holt (2007)
I frequently have a rant about the uselessness of quotes on Twitter. Not ‘quotes ON Twitter’ as in “He who tweeteth quotes shall be deemed as wise as the person he tweeteth” because that’s just silly and most of the people who are quoted were dead many hundreds of years before Twitter came into being.
There is nothing so ridiculous but some philosopher has said it. Cicero (106-43 BC)
No, I mean the endless, indiscriminate parade of stuff that is so saccharin it makes you want to throw up, has no interest or meaning for most of the people who receive it and in many cases is just bullshit.
Some recent examples are “Thoughts become things so choose the good ones.” This is an example of such sloppy thinking that I’d like to slap the originator but instead devoted a separate post to it.
She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit…W. Somerset Maugham (1926)
The next one was something along the lines of “Before starting a journey don’t ask advice of someone who has never left home”. Now, I get the idea of this but, you know, there are circumstances when the person who has never left home might be exactly the right person to ask. They may have studied the place you’re going to or they may have the best maps. Hell, they might have invented Google Earth! Does anyone really believe that the only person to consult on anything is someone who has had personal experience of it? (Pause until the screams of many coaches has died down). Frankly, I’d rather consult a doctor who is healthy than one who has the same illness as me.
At all events, the next best thing to being witty one’s self, is to be able to quote another’s wit. Christopher N. Bovee (1857)
Another was “The person who wants to demolish a mountain starts by moving a few stones.” You know what? If I wanted to demolish a mountain I’d hire a bulldozer. Even taking it literally, if I had a job that seemed insurmountable, I’d get help. Wrapping things up in allusions and metaphore doesn’t necessarily make them more powerful.
In a pinch, any orphan quote can be called a Chinese proverb. Ralph Keyes, “Nice Guys Finish Seventh”:
Then there was a quote from Einstein. Now Einstein was a great scientist but deeply flawed in other respects. He was widely regarded as oversexed, immature and lousy at sustaining meaningful relationships so forgive me if I don’t follow his advice unless it’s directly related to science.
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. Oscar Wilde (1905)
Quotations can be used to great effect when used in articles or essays. They serve as really good hooks or attention-grabbers and can give emphasis to a particular point but on their own, with no reference point to their significance, they are just brain fluff.
Given all this, why do people feel compelled to share a quote, apropos of nothing, with their whole list of contacts?
Famous dead people make excellent commentators on current events. Ralph Keyes, “Nice Guys Finish Seventh”
I guess its because something in that quote spoke to them, which means that they probably need to take action on something that’s happening in their lives. It most likely doesn’t have any significance to anyone else unless they are sharing the same issues.
The great writers of aphorisms read as if they had all known each other very well. Elias Canetti (1942–1972)
What would be interesting would be to hear what folk did as a result of reading a quote but sadly, I expect the answer would be not a lot except nod wisely and pass it on.
Meanwhile nothing changes. Its thinking for ourselves AND TAKING ACTION that changes things not taking someone else’s thinking and believing it can change anything.
Immortality. I notice that as soon as writers broach this question they begin to quote. I hate quotation. Tell me what you know. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (May 1849)
Posted in Social Media | Tags: Allusions, Bovee, Bulldozer, Cicero, Circumstances, Creative Impulse, Doctor Who, Earth, Einstein, Google, Hundreds Of Years, Job, Journey, Maps, Meaningful Relationships, Mountai, Moving, People, Personal Experience, Philosopher, Pretty Paper, Quotation, Quotations And Aphorisms, Quotations Aphorisms, Quotes, Rant, Respects, Ribbons, Scientist, Screams, Serviceable Substitute, Somerset Maugham, Ston, Thoughts Become Things, Tom Holt, Twitter, W Somerset Maugham, Waste Of Time, Why Do People | 9 Comments »
