Page 34 - Oscar Adler - Sell Yourself in Any Interview_ Use Proven Sales Techniques to Land Your Dream Job (2008)

SELL YOURSELF IN ANY INTERVIEW

slam. The catcher and umpire are watching. All three people
are seeing the same situation, but you can be sure they each
have different feelings about it:
❏ The batter feels great because his team has earned four
runs.

❏ The catcher feels bad because his team just gave up four
runs.

❏ The umpire feels indifferent because he does not care who
is ahead or behind; his job is simply to judge what hap-
pens at the plate.
This single event elicits three different feelings from three dif-
ferent people. In other words, the same thing means different
things to different people.
Here’s another example: Picture a single red rose.
Throughout history, people have endowed flowers with
meaning. Certain colors or types have been used to send
messages of love, jealousy, friendship, war, and mourning,
and have held countless other connections. The meanings
attributed to each flower vary from culture to culture and
have changed over time. To get an idea of how meaning
changes from person to person, let’s look at our red rose from
nine different points of view—see Exhibit 2-1.

Exhibit 2-1 A SINGLE RED ROSE MEANS DIFFERENT
THINGS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE.

OPTIMIST
It’s love and passion.

PESSIMIST
It’s thorns and allergies.

16