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What Does It Take For YOU To Change YOUR Mind?
One of my favorite Bob Dylan lyrics is from the song Highway 61 Revisited:
God said to Abraham, “Oh, kill me a son.”
Abe say, “Man, you must be puttin' me on.”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but… next time you see me comin', you better run. “
Well Abe say, “Where you want this killin' done?”
And God say, “Out on Highway 61.”
What Does It Take For YOU To Change YOUR Mind?
My friend Mike grew up in the Caribbean. His father was a chef who operated a chain of fine restaurants in the Dominican Republic and the US Virgin Islands.
One day, the real estate director from Kentucky Fried Chicken was snooping around the islands, looking for potential locations. He liked Mike's dad's sites and offered to buy them all.
Mike's father was outraged.
“There's no way I'm selling all my beautiful restaurants to some fast-food group so they can take over.”
The broker didn't respond. He simply handed Mike's dad a piece of paper with KFC's offer scribbled on it.
Mike's father unfolded the paper, scanned the number, and said quickly, “As I told you before… how soon do you want me to move out?“
Sometimes an argument is so convincing that no matter how firmly held our opinions are, we can't help but change our minds.
What Does It Take For YOU To Change YOUR Mind?
When I was running our advertising agency, I thought about this every time we'd suggest a creative solution and one of our clients would shake their head and say:
“Our customers would NEVER do this…”
Or,
“Our customers ALWAYS do that…”
I think about it again when I'm talking to meeting planners about how they'd like their audiences to respond to my keynote speeches.
And I also think about it a lot these days each time I marvel at the goings on in politics and our uncommonly drastic weather events.
So let me ask you…
What does it take for YOU to change YOUR mind?
I vividly recall sitting in my room as a 12-year-old when I had an epiphany. I had noticed that people who identified with a particular group allowed their thinking to be warped to fit with the thinking of that group. So, I decided it would be best NOT to identify with a particular group. Not American, not the Earth, my young mind went quickly to the idea of identifying with the Universe as a whole. Not unlike the sentiment of not wanting to join a group that would have me as a member, I have not always been a warm fit in the social settings. But, I feel I have preserved a lot of my mental integrity with this approach. So, to change my mind is not too hard. It depends largely on what can be known as facts. Which can also change.