October 29, 2008
Daily life, THINK before you speak
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The original post of a series now titled “THINK before you speak”
Dear Craig’s list poster,
While I suppose I can understand how you may be frustrated with your past experiences selling your items, I wonder if you understand that I, the current reader of your post, am most likely not the jerk you are referring to in the following comment, quoted directly from a recent post:
CASH/PICK UP ONLY!!!
smoke/pet free home! Will NOT HOLD for anyone! If whoever gets here 1st with the money gets it! I’m tired of people saying they will come get it then have to reschedule only to decide they dont want it.
Yes, dear poster, you may indeed be tired of all “those people”. However, now you strike me as a hothead and I will not take the risk of doing business with you. Did you mean to come off that way? I’m guessing no.
You just forgot that this is my first impression of you, and a temper tantrum is not a good first impression, nor a positive public face. Does this somehow exact revenge upon the person who apparently decided your items were not the quality they were hoping to purchase? No, it only reflects on you.
And you just alerted me to the fact that someone else rejected your stuff as not worth the money. I think I will take a lesson from your last buyer and pass on your things.
October 27, 2008
Daily life, THINK before you speak
4 Comments
This began as a completely different post, titled “exposing your tantrums publicly on Craig’s list” but it took a different turn and I’m gonna follow it to that end. Maybe my next post will explain this other title another day.
I have a bit of cautionary advice: if you tell someone something about yourself today, do not be surprised if they file it away as a fact and consider it to be relevant even 5, 10 or 15 years later.
Let’s have a mundane example: My friend Michele told me a few years ago that she doesn’t want a household pet. She knew she would end up caring for it, not the kids and all the other usual very good reasons a mother says no. that was 3 years ago. If for some reason someone would ask me today, I would say in all confidence, “no way, Michele doesn’t want a dog.” But it’s been years now, and a lot happens in daily life- maybe they have now decided it’s a great way for Jacob to learn responsibility…
Oh- another case in point- how many of you have attended a High school reunion and had so many people say “do you still… (insert anything here)?”
These are fairly harmless illustrations, but what if one of my friends had told me about trouble in their marriage? It’s a common human behavior to consider that to be a fact years later, even though I know that in my own marriage Paul and I can have trouble one day and it be resolved the next – I don’t give other marriages the same fresh start I get every morning.
My point here is, please do your friends, family and acquaintances a favor and check in with them from time to time before you declare something you KNOW about them.
