You had me at hello …..

by Sunil Bali. 01-07-2018

In the wonderful film Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise comes to Renee Zellweger’s house while she’s with a group of friends and launches into a long speech about why he wants to be with her. When Cruise is in full flow she says “Shut up. You had me at hello." (2 min video clip)

There’s a mountain of research which shows that people make judgements within the first 30 seconds of meeting them.

Konrad Lorenz discovered that baby geese, goslings become attached to the first moving thing that they encounter.

We humans form opinions just as quickly using a part of our brain called the adaptive unconscious which processes large amounts of data very quickly, warns us of danger and triggers the flight or flight response in the amygdala.

One of the worst first impressions anyone has made on me is by a recruitment consultant. The chap was wearing trousers which finished a couple of inches above the ankle, shoes which had been worn on a building site and hair which had never been introduced to a comb.

After our very brief meeting, I noticed that my right hand was sticky. Apparently he had been eating a jam doughnut in reception!

You only get one chance to make a first impression so make sure its a great one.

Humour

Live big & love deep.

Sunil