Assumptions -The lesson – Don’t make assumptions and jump to conclusions.
A little while ago I sent a ‘nice to meet you’ card to a new acquaintance, naturally in the hope of strengthening our association. She sat next to Sue and me at a business training seminar and during the day indicated that she would like to know more about what we did and maybe opening a Send Out Cards account. So naturally I wanted to follow through and explore what we could potentially do together.
Not wanting to be pushy and also allowing time for the impression of receiving an unexpected card in the mail to settle in, I allowed some time before attempting to make contact with her (also hoping she might make contact first). When I rang I learned that she was away on business for the next week. Obviously I would have to leave communication until her return.
In the meantime her card was returned, marked unknown and return to sender. I checked and that was the address I had written down for her.
Her address wasn’t on her business card and I remembered that when I asked for her address she was hesitant to supply it. It seemed apparent to me that although she was being nice and appearing friendly at the seminar, she really didn’t want to explore the possibility of us doing business, otherwise why would she have returned my mail? So feeling a little foolish and also wondering how I read things so wrong, I threw the card aside and dismissed any thought of further follow through.
A couple of weeks later I chanced upon the card and this got me thinking about how I could so misjudge a person’s character. I had to phone; I had to find out why she returned the card.
A warm and friendly greeting was followed by easy conversation. I quickly decided I had better reframe my question. So instead I stated I had a returned card and that I must have written the address down wrong. I had! I had written 123 instead of 124. Whew, it would have been really uncomfortable if I had continued on with my assumption.
A mutual friend who knows us well and was also at the seminar had rightly assumed we would send her a card and asked her what she thought of it. As she hadn’t received one, this caused her to wonder about us and our efforts to follow through as well. Fortunately we had a good laugh and are now moving forward.
So if things appear different to what you expected, don’t make assumptions and jump to conclusions, instead make contact, check it out, it could be that you have it all wrong!
Ron and Sue