Perception is everything!

Perception is everything!

We live a good few miles away from the local train station. I get a lift from the family during the winter/spring months, as we have just one family car and public transport service does not believe in providing a bus service after 7PM to where I live.

Over three years ago, on one of those rides retuning home in the car…. just as my son was negotiating for his second toy for his birthday, he asked me, “why can’t you get more money from the station?”

“What? why from the station?”, puzzled as I was, “You mean, from the cash machine outside the station?”. He retorted swiftly, which clarified things: “No daddy. Station is where you work daddy, don’t you?”!!

Of course, he was right! Daddy gets dropped off and picked up at the station, so that’s where he works.   From his point of view this was a very natural conclusion.  I am guilty as charged, for not explaining where I work to a 4 year old. We laughed our way home. But that made me think.

Is everything our perception?  

We make decisions on what we believe things to be, we come to (often rather quick) conclusions on the appearance of what we see and hear. As a result, we are exploited by brands and marketing.

As the world is changing, global economy is growing so fast, cultures integrating together, it is important not to live in a world of perceptions about other nations, cultures, religions and economies.

Advertisements, marketing, branding are some of those who play with the perception, exploit our values on family, nationality, culture, honesty and taking sides to position products and services.  Even simple things like colour schemes influence our perception of what we buy.

Here are some (unrelated) statements to challenge some possible perceptions:

Event	Perception
Cadburys taken over by Kraft	Part of UK is lost
Watched “Slumdog millionaire”	Quality of Indian IT Industry is poor too
Received poor service from someone in the super market	The entire chain of Super market is bad
Steven Covey says “____________”	Steven Covey is the king, it does not matter what others say
Chicken Tikka Masala – Nice Indian food.	Whole of India must be eating this dish.
A sport celebrity endorses a product	It must be a national favourite
A sports celebrity is embroiled in an extra marital affair	It is a disgrace to have someone so bad to represent our country.

So what?

Be conscious that our ability to make judgements is blurred by our perceptions of the world.

It is important to have a point of view on all matters of life. In some respects that is what makes each of us humans unique. A point of view is position that we take based on some thinking and making some conclusions consciously, but we should always be open to changing our point view, as the constraints that drove us to make those decisions also change rather rapidly.

A number of us suffer from living in the past or old habits. One must be prepared to live in the ‘now’ as the world is changing. What is good for one is not for the other. What is good today is not the same tomorrow. With the integration of web, people, the barriers of country, money, taxation will bring out a number of perceptions views.

Just before I sign off, let me conclude that story I started with… After a few site-seeing trips to London cleared the air on what happens beyond the station drop off point, with my son.  Being a train commuter, is hard to travel in a train these days, I don’t want to be perceived to be working for Railways! That is one perception I shall avoid.

So, is everything perception?  

Isn’t Diamond just a piece of coal that did well under pressure!

If you have any comments/feedback, please post them on my FB page or email me KSBSairam@gmail.com.

Thanks,

Sairam

UK, 27/03/2008