perspective

"The customer is always right."

I bet you've heard it before.

If you've ever dealt with customers at some point you've probably said to yourself, "This one is wrong, wrong, totally wrong! How could this nut job ever think he's right?"

Here's another way of thinking about it: right and wrong are a matter of perspective. Correct and incorrect are based on facts. So yes, the customer is always right. Based on their perspective they are right. They just might not be correct.

(For the record: it's better to understand someone's perspective and try to explain to them a different side than to tell them they're wrong. Or incorrect. Those things just make them more upset AND stubborn. You've lost them at that point.)

It’s been a month of deep thoughts so far.

Even as my role changes and I push forward in my career, I have toyed with the idea as to what I should be writing about on this blog. Should I bring work into the focus more? Should I write more about perspective? There is a large intersection between the two, somewhere comfortable, yet I have been unsure if that’s where I want to dig deeper.

A conversation with my fiancée the other night convinced me as to what I want to write about: perspective. We were discussing right and wrong, and I pointed out that while her and I will never agree with certain things people can do, there is a perspective which disagrees with us. Even if allowing such a thing is detrimental to society, there is a way to justify it as right.

I’m returning here with this in mind, as my fuel and guiding light. I’m looking forward to hearing all your thoughts on what I have coming up.

Years ago I made a promise to myself: no more New Year's resolutions.

If it's important enough to do, just do it. You don't need an excuse like New Year's to change things in your life, you just need a reason. Big reasons tend to work best.

I know the New Year seems like a fresh start. It's no different from today, or a week from Tuesday, or April 11. All it is? A new day. The big number at the end of the date my change, but it's still a new day, just like all the others.

If you want to embrace change, look at each new day as a chance for a fresh start.

One of the most popular and passed-around sites right now is People of Walmart.

Go there and you’ll find new pictures posted every day of the absurd people and things others saw at Walmart, along with some witty caption for each post. People are dressed in ridiculous outfits, bring pet monkeys into the store, and decorate their cars with little plastic dinosaur toys. Most of it is funny satire.

What gets people riled up about the site the most? When they make fun of people who look stereotypically poor, uneducated, or uncultured. When the comments are anti-gay, or insulting to people with obvious physical handicaps.

It made me think of a lesson I learned from the service manager at a car dealership.

The dealership he worked at was split into two separate buildings next to each other: one Dodge, one Subaru. Since I was looking for a job he told me the difference between the customers at the two dealerships. Dodge customers expected their current car troubles to be fixed when they drove their car home from the shop. Subaru customers did not expect their cars to have problems.Read more

I've been on a quest for the perfect sleeping bag and tent.

Like any product or service, I had to consider qualities in different areas and decide what's most important to me. I could buy the lightest one person tent out there, which would cost over $400. If I'm willing to buy one that weighs just under a pound more I could spend as little as $90. Would I be comfortable every night in that $90 tent? Not really.

After a few hours of research I decided I liked a particular tent, as shaving extra weight tends to cause the price to skyrocket. Then I picked a sleeping bag on a new set of criteria. Done.

In the end, I stayed away from the latest and greatest ultralight gear while finding some fantastic items. I go camping a handful of times each year, with just once or twice being times when weight matters.

At the end of all this, I realize this is who I am and this is not what the world is.Read more

This is part of my weekly series on how philosophy (personal beliefs) affect people’s perspective, and how you can this knowledge in life.

The world would be black and white without quality.

According to Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, quality is the grey scale in our lives, and without it we could not notice anything. In this instance, quality refers to the aspects of something which allow you to analyze, categorize, and form an opinion. Without quality, there is no beginning or end, there are no edges or soft spots, no color, and thus you would not have any thoughts or emotions about the world around you.

Think about it for a moment. If there was no way of determining how good, bad, attractive, ugly, pleasing, or revolting something was, would you ever notice it? Without quality, the world does not exist.Read more

“When we talk about settling the world’s problems, we’re barking up the wrong tree. The world is perfect. It’s a mess. It has always been a mess. We are not going to change it. Our job is to straighten out our own lives.” – Joseph Campbell

“Let’s not try to figure out everything at once.” – The National, from “Fake Empire”

The most important thing I do at work every day is lead with my personal beliefs.

I cannot end world hunger, break down racial barriers, make hate disappear, or eliminate any of the world’s biggest problems. I’m one out of seven billion people.Read more

For at least the third time in two years, one of my colleagues has proposed to change how we manage a calling list.

We print out a physical paper contact sheet for every prospect or customer. Each time someone has proposed this change it has been from the perspective of a sales team member who makes phone calls. The change? Allow the team direct access to the database to eliminate the paper clutter and speed up data entry.

The problem? No one on the operations side is looking to change things, because their job is to manage the information gathered by the sales team. The sales team is best at getting the information; the operations team is best at creating reports and managing the database using this information.

Not once has a member of the sales team approached the operations team first to ask questions and understand why we print out paper contact sheets.

If you understand the other side first:
- You can see whether or not you can help the other person
- They are more receptive to you because you can show them how you understand them and where you fit inRead more

Tell me what you think when I post this name:

Rush Limbaugh

Talk about a controversial figure. Forget that he has rabid fans and harsh opponents, because Rush is far more than that. He has people who cannot stand him yet agree with his views, and people who love his personality yet disagree with him on so many levels.

His willingness to stand for what he believes in is what has brought him his success. He is has the most-listened to radio show in the USA. He released a pair of #1 best-selling books in the 90's. It's the kind of success so many dream about.

It also stands in his way of some things in life.

Rush was dropped from a group of investors looking to buy the St. Louis Rams NFL franchise. On the surface it makes little sense. Limbaugh was a minority investor, not the leader of the group, and would not have much power over the Rams.Read more

Have you ever thought about your personal brand?

This has been the first 8 months of my blog's purpose. To figure out who my writing self is and what he likes to discuss. I've bounced enough ideas around to get a feel for what I can bring to the table and what I should keep tucked away. In the end, the writing I set out to do is not the writing I am going to continue to do.

Because I need to write about what I do and think about, not what I envision myself as.

That's what branding strikes me as. It's a reflection, it's a photograph. Don't worry, you can still clean up nice and tell the photographer to get your good side. Give yourself credit where credit is due. Embellishments are bad and noticeable, like a bad photoshopped picture. Remember these rules, because you're not marketing to customers, you're marketing to people, and some of them are brighter than you think.

So many people focus on the branding side of things, as if drawing people in is the most important thing in the world. In the end, what you offer is what keeps someone around. Branding is just projecting the best you have to offer. The key here: you need to offer something worth branding!Read more