People behave as if they are clairvoyant. We too often make assumptions about the personal and professional lives of others without enough knowledge, and forever hold onto our misguided opinions.
It gets worse when people are looking over the wall at their competition. They jump to conclusions about the success, failures, feelings, actions and motivations of people in their industry. Without facts they are sure their competitors suck for some reason. And god-forbid someone is angry, as in that case they make up all kinds of crazy stuff to fill in the gaps in their field of view.
The problem here is our assumptions are probably wrong.
Walter Matthau, as Morris Buttermaker, in the 1970s classic film "The Bad News Bears" told the team "Never assume, because when you ASSUME, you make an ASS of U and ME." (I loved that when I was ten years old, because he said "Ass"). And he was right, but we didn't learn from this sage advice.
We all create opinions about others, script what they think and feel, and then go on about life convinced we are right.
Let's try to catch ourselves assuming, and then stop. To really know what is going on with another person we must invest in building a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship. We need to come at them from a place of understanding.
Ahhh, but that takes time and hard work, .... so we go back to our imaginations.
Have A Great Day
thom singer
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