Your Own Personal Reality

We think everyone else sees what we see. How could they not?

And we think everyone else would believe what we believe if only we could explain it to them clearly.

But this is almost never true.

Two people stand shoulder-to-shoulder observing a scene.
One person sees pain and injustice and despair.
The other sees opportunity and purpose and adventure.

The first person sees the second as an impractical dreamer.
The second sees the first as a whining pessimist.

Every person carries a schema, an inner belief about how the world works.

Your schema dictates your perceptual reality. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying your schema changes the facts. It just changes how you interpret them.

Twice a week for the past several weeks, Ray Bard has been sending out clusters of about 20 quotes to more than 1,000 quote judges so that we might help him score their impact. Last week, Ray told us something every ad writer knows.

There’s always some surprises about which quotes score the highest. But there’s one thing that doesn’t surprise me anymore. It’s the range of opinions. For example, in the last Collection someone said: “Seems like you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for quotes,” and the very next person commenting said: “So many great quotes. All winners for me.”

If your message has the power to move people, you can be sure that it won’t move everyone in the same direction. If you’re not prepared to smile your way through negative backlash from well-meaning customers, friends, employees and associates, you’re never going to have a message that will pierce the clutter of this over-communicated world.

When you have a message that makes people pay attention and smile, this is the sort of feedback you can expect. (This is real, by the way. Jerry and Andrea received it last week.)

I am embarrassed for you because of your turning your business over to such a young person that has such a voice that I have to turn off the commercial. I have to go to my radio and turn it off. It hurts my ears. And the commercials are just childish. They are not professional. No, they are not professional. I would not use your company for anything. I am regretful I have used you forever. I told the world to use you. I’ve gotten you a million customers. I’m embarrassed and ashamed. And I’m sorry I have to make this phone call.”

This sort of feedback isn’t unusual. It’s automatic.

Would you like to know what triggered such heartfelt concern? Here it is:

[Play ad]