Never judge people by their appearance, because in many cases you will be completely wrong. Luckily I have been pretty good at this through the years. My life’s experiences have taught me to slow down before I make assumptions.
Let me tell you a story of a young man in the car sales business many, many moons ago. I by the way am that young man and I was just starting out in the car business. This I believe was in the year 1999.
I was what the salesman called, “green.” New to the business. I had to shadow people for a couple of days before they threw me in the deep end. The car salesman at the dealership that I worked for were pretty judgy people. Everyone who walked in they had something to say. Usually, “They can’t afford it!”
On my first day on my own I get to the dealership super early to get the day started in the right way. All of the senior sales people that had been there for a while had their desks right near the front door so they would have access to the “ups,” customers walking in. I knew this would be a challenge for me as my desk was in the back 9.
At 9am I decided to stand in the middle of the showroom to hopefully get the first person to walk in. Well one of the seasoned salesman, Rick beat me to the door. But he fell short as he looked at the gentleman that was approaching the door. The guy had overalls on and got out of an old car.
Ain’t gonna buy it anyway!
He fell short of the door because he was making a judgment on the guy coming in as to whether or not he actually wanted to take him. He was sizing the customer up. Shame, shame. Rick quickly said something along the lines of, “Hey new guy, this will be your perfect first customer why don’t you take him.” I gladly did knowing that he was being judgy.
It was kind of easy to see why because the the guy looked all dirty and with the overalls I almost couldn’t take him seriously. In that moment I decided to stop all the preconceived thoughts and just give the man the best car demonstration ever. I really did work hard to explain all the benefits of the car.
I recall the salesman laughing at me when I went to grab the keys to the car. It is my belief that that is what I needed in that moment. I wanted to prove them all wrong. The customer was a chicken farmer and he smelled really bad. During the discovery period, I learned that the man had done really well the past few seasons.
He was intending on buying only one suv to transport stuff, but I apparently did so well that I actually sold him 5 vehicles. One for himself, his wife, his two kids, and the suv. This was a complete shock to me but he ended up calling his family to come down to the dealership. I was there until after one in the morning and I washed all the vehicles for him.
I did it by myself because the process took most of the day and we closed at 8pm. Our detailers had already gone home. I was so very proud of that experience because for one I proved my coworkers wrong and I proved to myself that I was competent.
The salesman judged me that I couldn’t sell cars. They were wrong. So wrong that I ended up being their mini boss 6 months later. Try not to judge and when you catch yourself try to remember this story. I believe it can help you change the narrative.
“Never judge the future of a person based on their present conditions, because time has the power to change any black coal to a shiny diamond.” Attributed to Chanakya
Conclusion
You don’t know their story. Remember that you shouldn’t judge others as you don’t walk in their shoes. I still catch myself being a bit judgy every now and then but I think I really like joking around mostly to myself. Don’t be a Judgy McJudgerson!!
