More often than not, in the world we live in, it has become almost normal to judge and be judged at first sight. In just a matter of seconds, people tend to be judged based on how they dress, speak, act, look, and even walk. These judgement can be termed "first impression." It is true that, sometimes it can be helpful and can drop a few hints for others, but on the other hand, it can also be misleading and may be unfair. The first impression that you form of someone in your mind may not be correct or right. And if you believe it, it may becloud you from seeing the person's real self.
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There is a friend of mine who has become very trusted and good. But when I first met him some years back, I almost created a wrong first impression of him because of the way he responded to me. I met him first in one office I entered to do a particular transaction. He was so unresponsive, but I still exercised patience with him. At the closing of the day, he asked me to drop my details so that he would get to it when he is done. I reluctantly dropped it because I thought he would not do it. Surprisingly, he got the transaction done and called me to tell me he has done it. It was from there that we started talking.
I later got to find out the reason behind why he exhibited the attitude - his direct boss queried him the day he came back after his leave, on what he knew nothing about, and even threatened to cut his salary, plus some other family issues he had. If I had proceeded with the wrong first impression that I formed about him, I would have missed out of his friendship. There are times that you may meet someone for the first and the part of them that you meet may fall short of your expectations, but it does not mean that is who they are. If you judge people by what you just perceive about them when you meet them for the first time, you may judge wrongly - just the same way I would have judged his personality wrongly because of the first impression.
It is worthy to note that, in most cases than none, first impression is normally influenced by bias, emotions, or even from what we have experienced with people in the past. For example, if someone who dresses in a particular way has hurt your emotions in the past, if you meet someone else who dresses in the same way, without even relating with them, you would already form a first impression of them based on your past experience. This is why you can go wrong with your first impression. Take this example; you might meet someone who is neatly and well-dressed and you will conclude that they are trustworthy and good, but deep them might be some very dark side that you may not even know about.
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The human mind has a way of creating an impression from what we perceive, but sometimes, it may not be right. What a lot of people do not know is that someone's character may be very dissimilar from how they appear. Someone can appear supposedly bad outwardly, but underneath the appearance can be the most amazing person that you have ever met. Before you form an impression of someone, try to get to know them first, know their character, know who they are and their personality. You will agree with me that there are people you are now friends with, who you did not like the first time you met them, but you later discovered that they have very kind heart.
You need to know that being fully dependent on the judgement you make on first impression can make you to miss opportunities. This is because the people that will help you may not look like it when looking at them, but they are may be your pathway to greatness. A lot of people have missed opportunities simply because they judged their destiny-helpers wrongly based on what they perceive of them at first. This is why, in your personal life, in leadership, even in your business, you have to always look beyond the first impression.
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