The t-shirt said, “For the time it took to read this, I had control of your mind.” Fair enough, but big deal. There are lots of people, mostly strangers, who have controlled my mind
a lot longer than that.
I didn’t ask Charlotte T. out in school because I didn’t want her brother to tease me. I skipped an open tryout for the Reds farm team so my friends wouldn’t make fun of me, even though I averaged something like 15 strikeouts a game the previous summer (pitching, not batting).
Countless times in college I was pretty sure of the answer but didn’t raise my hand because I didn’t want the morons in back to think I was stupid. There were meetings at work where I had ideas that might have worked but I kept quiet because I didn’t want anyone to think my idea was stupid.
“I have seen great talent lie dormant, great plans get dusty and more than enough mediocre results because of concern about what others will think, what others will say or what others will do. Stop worrying about others. The greatest leaders and most effective salespeople I have witnessed don't care what others think. They care about others...but not what they think about them.” That’s from Blair Singer.
So now I wear red and black and white shoes because I try very hard not to let what other people think control what I do.
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