Pierre Omidyar who founded Ebay believed (and am sure still does) that people are honest and trustworthy.
Sadly we read more and more of those who aren't, stories of nice people don't sell newspapers or fill tv and radio airtime. We all encounter the odd nasty person, but they are in the minority. I don't get mugged every time I go out, people don't spit at me or shout at me, they smile, ask me how I am, some people I meet even tell me they'll "see me later", I do worry sometimes that these poor souls who I briefly met at a checkout in some shop spend their evenings hunting me down just so they can be true to their word.
It may not be a fashionable thing to say but people are nice, my customers are nice, I like to be nice.
Yesterday two customers paid me extra, one said I had undercharged postage and sent more, the other gave me extra when I agreed to drop off a parcel at their local address. Both of these took me by surprise, it was unexpected and not something that happens every day, two actions that made me stop and look at what I take for granted every day.
Every day grateful and nice people say nice things about me via Feedback, currently 99.9% appreciate me, that 0.1% tends to bother me in a much bigger ratio than the 99.9% pleases me. I really don't like getting things wrong, I like it less when people think I've wronged them.
That's probably the problem with the human race, we magnify the negative and minimise the positive. Pierre Omidyar was right, people are basically good, yet Ebay has had to spend more of its time focusing on the negative aspects, there will always be a negative, I often wish we let the power of the positive diminish it to the tiny part it is and keep making it smaller.
So thank you for being nice, I'll see you later.
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| Pierre Omidyar |
Sadly we read more and more of those who aren't, stories of nice people don't sell newspapers or fill tv and radio airtime. We all encounter the odd nasty person, but they are in the minority. I don't get mugged every time I go out, people don't spit at me or shout at me, they smile, ask me how I am, some people I meet even tell me they'll "see me later", I do worry sometimes that these poor souls who I briefly met at a checkout in some shop spend their evenings hunting me down just so they can be true to their word.
It may not be a fashionable thing to say but people are nice, my customers are nice, I like to be nice.
Yesterday two customers paid me extra, one said I had undercharged postage and sent more, the other gave me extra when I agreed to drop off a parcel at their local address. Both of these took me by surprise, it was unexpected and not something that happens every day, two actions that made me stop and look at what I take for granted every day.
Every day grateful and nice people say nice things about me via Feedback, currently 99.9% appreciate me, that 0.1% tends to bother me in a much bigger ratio than the 99.9% pleases me. I really don't like getting things wrong, I like it less when people think I've wronged them.
That's probably the problem with the human race, we magnify the negative and minimise the positive. Pierre Omidyar was right, people are basically good, yet Ebay has had to spend more of its time focusing on the negative aspects, there will always be a negative, I often wish we let the power of the positive diminish it to the tiny part it is and keep making it smaller.
So thank you for being nice, I'll see you later.
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