Happy Sunday Everyone:
It was almost a year ago when I wrote about my decision to run down the street in Palm Desert saying hello to everyone, loudly, and what happened in the responses from those I interacted with, it was great. Forward to this past Wednesday, I’m in Fairfield calling on new business partners and show up 30 minutes early to a meeting, I’m starving. I have the choice of going into a Indian restaurant that has 15 one star reviews on yelp, or Costco. I walk into Costco and pass two ladies in the food court, rough ladies, tank top, tattoos on the neck (sorry JJ), tear drop on the eye….I make eye contact with one of them for one second and I hear ” Why you so Angry?”…I ignore the comment and keep walking, get in line, order my hot dog and diet Pepsi for $1.50, and wait. I get my cup, turn around to walk to the soda station and there she is again waiting for me “I was talking to you, why you so angry??”. I’m kind of panicked, I really don’t feel like making a scene in Costco so I smile and say “I’m not angry, I’m just hungry”. She then fires back “well you aint bad looking, you should smile more, it fits you better”. I end up talking to this lady for 5 minutes. Many possible lessons here about not judging a book by its cover etc… she was actually really nice and I enjoyed our conversation but that’s not my point, my point is the lady was right. A perfect stranger who actually had the guts to call me out on it could simply see in my body language that I was in a bad mood. Am I allowed to be in a bad mood? yes. Am I allowed to have a bad day? yes, but I know the look the lady was talking about and it’s the same look that’s on my face most of the time if I’m not interacting with people, which quite possibly is why I can have a reputation for being “eeyore” at times, a comparison I hate. I’ve been thinking about it ever sense when I’m walking around and what message I’m putting out to the world. Without knowing me, and seeing what she saw, I think I probably look like an angry, intimidating, unapproachable guy. What I prefer to look like is approachable, and kind. Doesn’t mean I’m going to walk around with a giant smile on my face everywhere I go but I am going to take the time to look people in the eye more and simply smile, say hello, etc…What I absolutely noticed from my interaction with this lady is I went from being grumpy to very happy in 5 minutes. I was literally laughing walking out to the parking lot, in part thinking “did this really just happen”….I mean think about it, how crappy does the look on your face have to be for a stranger to call you out on it???
Let’s all learn from me that people actually take notice. Perhaps this is pie in the sky stuff but put a smile on your face and say hello to people. Put that stuff out in the world and it comes back to you. That lady made my day, and week. She wasn’t looking for a fight, she was serious.
Have a great week, and smile.