If you click on the video above, you'll see a very popular tune sung by Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. The song is entitled "Me and My Shadow," and if you listen to it two or three times, you may learn something very important about building relationships, whether in life or in business.
As a side note (and a bit of a hint), I recall reading some of the writings of Dr. David Burns. In one of his books, "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy," he told a story of a gentleman who was eating lunch at a Chinese restaurant, and got a chuckle when he opened his fortune cookie at the end of the meal. He got a message which said,
A woman is like your shadow. Follow her, she flees. Flee from her, she follows...
Now I'm not going to get gender specific here and debate whether the message on that piece of paper is true or false. That really doesn't matter, but the principle of the message is, the part about the shadow. Let me explain.
Everybody has a shadow, and it goes with you wherever you go, whether you want it to or not. You have no choice in the matter, and you have no say. Whatever you do, it does. It is what it is. But there is something you can learn from your shadow, a lesson that is very valuable if you apply it correctly. And the lesson is this:
Look at what happens when your shadow is in front of you. If you chase your shadow you will never catch it; it always runs away from you. Don't take my word for it, prove it to yourself. The next time you're outside and the sun casts your shadow ahead of you, start walking after it and see if you can catch it. I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that you can't; no matter how fast you run after it, your shadow will always be just out of reach.
But let's flip the script a bit and say that your shadow is behind you instead. And you try to walk away from your shadow. Go ahead, give it a try. On second thought, don't bother. You won't outrun your shadow; it's attached to you. Wherever you go, it goes. It's attached to you and there's nothing you can do to get away from it. It's stuck to you like glue, and will follow you to the end of your days like a bear with the scent of honey in its nostrils. Nothing you can do to part with it.
So why not take advantage of it? The principle of the shadow, I mean.
Why not, instead of chasing, hounding, harassing friends, family, acquaintances, associates to take a look at the goods, services, products, opportunities, gifts, talents, abilities, you have to offer to the point where they avoid you like the plague (both literally and figuratively), take steps to make yourself so intriguing, so interesting, so fascinating, so thought provoking, so worthy of discussion, that people are hanging on your every word like a dangling participle, or like people used to do decades ago with long running television programs that ran from early fall through late spring of the following year, then had to "suffer" through the entire summer waiting to see what would happen next with the next new episode...? As I recall these shows would have season ending episodes called "cliffhangers," because they left the audience hanging with baited breath, wondering what was going to happen when the new season would start in the next few months.
How would YOU like to be a long-running series, having people in your circle who can't wait to tune in with you to find out what you're going to say or do next because they know that they're going to learn something valuable that will help them with their life or their business?
Would you like to know how that's done...?
Well, tune in next time and I'll show you how to get people following you like they're your shadows. You may have so many people seeking a word of wisdom from you that you'll need to go incognito from time to time like a rock star.
And not to date myself too much, but I'll sign off like a couple of very popular television shows did way back in the day :
Tune in next time,
Same Bat time,
Same Bat Channel...
Y'all come back now, y'hear...?
And remember folks as always...
Keep it simple...
See ya!
No comments:
Post a Comment