Don’t Judge

Why are we always so quick to judge someone or a situation?  We love to turn our nose up at something without investing a single lick of time to seeing what it’s all about.

I found this happening to me recently.  I was at an event (I won’t say where) and had a table to promote a product.  When I entered, there was a lady with a similar product at a table across from mine.  As I walked up, she immediately turned her nose up at me.  She then said something under her breath. I didn’t know the lady and I didn’t know anything about her product so I had absolutely nothing against her or what she was promoting.

As the four hour event went on, various people came to my table.  And each time someone did, she would give me this look – especially when they didn’t spend the same amount of time at hers. I just felt she had this attitude toward me and I wasn’t sure why. As the event was winding down, she walked over to my table.

I said a friendly hello and asked if she’d heard about my product.  She had not so I explained what we did.  She told me about her product and although it was in the same field, it was a completely different concept.  I told her it was a good thing both of us had tables at the event because each person has different needs and interests and we were able to reach a diverse group of people.  She thought about what I said, agreed and I saw her arms uncross.

She then asked about the amount of people that came to my table and I told her that I was involved with the community so many of the people stopping by were people I knew and were saying hello.  She now became more relaxed. As our conversation continued, she realized that I wasn’t competition at all and we really had a lot of things in common working toward the same goal. We exchanged business cards and all was well in our worlds.

Think twice before you cast judgement on someone that you’ve never even met.  Instead of listening to others thoughts about someone, take time to get to know them yourself.  We all have our own story and our own talents and there is room for us all to be successful and support each other.  It’s usually when we do work together that we often achieve the most!

November 2011