This summer I worked full time at a place. A nice place. Although the technical elements did provide me with useful experience I learned the most from the people at this place.
There was a man on my floor who’s nothing but sunshine. He’s upbeat, he’s an achiever he just gets all his stuff done with a smile on his face and has the energy and ability to make others smile too. You’d never know his wife is struggling with a very difficult disease. I had an opportunity to watch him and his wife interact and even in large groups it’s like there’s no one else. They value each other so much. He taught me that what ever shit you have going on you can still manage it.
I met another guy from marketing. He did a presentation that made a lot of sense. He said “perception is reality”. It doesn’t matter what kind of statistics are out there, what product or service you provide, what people perceive to be the truth is what makes customers react favourably or not. Perception is a physical force. The most important force in many cases. People have such busy lives and are so distracted that there’s very little time to fact check. You need to control your image and make sure what you put out there about your service or product is what they hear most and consequently accept.