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Book and magazine publishers have long
since proven that although a cover may not tell you what’s on
the inside, it is the reason that we’re initially drawn to a
book, and it is the reason we choose to take one magazine off
the shelf as opposed to another. Here’s the thing—until a book
is picked up, guess what? No sale. And no sale means that the
great story inside never gets told.
How does this relate to you? Simple. You,
like a book, may be fabulous on the inside, but if you haven’t
interested people enough with ‘your cover’ to pick you up and
see what you’re all about —there is no way they are ever going
to find out!
Clearly, my objective is not to defend the value of the book
cover, rather to illustrate a point. That being that your
image—from the clothes and accessories you wear, to the car
you drive, to your hairstyle and hygiene—is your book cover.
It may not fully or accurately represent the whole story that
lies inside your proverbial pages, but it will determine your
ability to make a sale, in both the literal and figurative
sense.
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Remember the adage, “You never get a second chance to make a
first impression,” and heed it’s warning. Those impressions
are formed in a matter of seconds. Being both immediate and
long lasting (if not permanent), they will largely determine
your success or failure – with women, with career, with life.
The Old Double Standard
Many men—though maybe not you—might be
reading this and thinking that the lesson doesn’t apply to
them because, well…they’re men, and men don’t have to be
concerned with their appearances (their “covers”) in the way
that women do.
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If you’re one of these guys, you’d better wake up…and fast!
This type of misconception—and let there be no mistake about
it, it most definitely is a misconception—may not only be
holding you back from reaching your goals—it might downright
prevent your success! But don’t just take my word for it.
Studies have shown that white-collar job interviews involving
strangers succeed, or fail, much more due to
appearance-derived judgments than underlying abilities. Is it
unfair? Yes. But is it true? You absolutely, categorically,
better believe it is!
Check Your Image for ‘Cause
& Effect’
It’s been over 2,000 years since Socrates
explained “The Law of Cause and Effect", and you know what?
After all this time, nothing has changed. When you pick the
action, you pick the result. You choose your image – you
choose how people will react to you and how they will treat
you. That is a proven fact!
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Everyone—from the sexy woman you see every morning at
Starbucks who you’ve been working up the courage to ask out,
to your boss who may (or may not) give you a promotion, to the
maitre d' who determines which table you get—will make
judgments about you that modify their behavior, and determine
their treatment of you, based upon your appearance and their
perception of you.
In other words, that sexy woman might think twice about saying
yes if she’s not crazy about your dirty, scuffed up shoes or
the way you were slurping your coffee as you neglected to hold
the door open for that elderly older woman. And your boss
might not consider you for that promotion if you’re coming in
every day looking disheveled and unkempt; or if you did not
allow a female client to walk ahead of you to the table, and
pull out her chair, at that important dinner he invited you
to. And the maitre d’? You know where you’ll be sitting if
you’ve missed getting your monthly hair cut – for a third week
– or show up wearing a wrinkled shirt and ‘too loose in the
seat’ pants! That’s right. The back…next to the kitchen…on the
way to the bathroom.
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Looking the Part
Now that you grasp the importance of your image, it’s time to
actually do something about it. Because while it may seem
unjust that people make judgments based on “covers”, or that
your success depends upon an initial impression of only a few
seconds, the great part is that your image—and the judgments
others make about you based upon it—is that most of it is
totally within your control!
The real question is whether you’re going to positively—or
negatively—affect and influence that judging. The real
question is whether it will be you getting the promotion, or
the well-dressed guy with impeccable manners next to you (you
know the one who’s got half the qualifications as you but
somehow comes across as more together). The real question is
when you’re going to accept the fact that looking the part is
one giant leap toward actually being the part.
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