Fearing “The Other”

The Client Letter
October 2, 2013
The Desert of Arizona
Sunny 49 Degrees
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A week or two ago, my son got tasked with helping his soccer team sell raffle tickets to raise money for an upcoming tournament.

Before we were even home from practice, he started asking if he could go out in our neighborhood and start selling.

I explained to him that we were going to eat dinner etc. But that didn’t matter.

He walked out the door, across the street to the neighbor’s house, and managed to walk out with a sale.

Why was he so eager?

Because he wants to play soccer and he wanted to sell those tickets. No one ever taught him that he should be scared of approaching people and asking them for something where they might say no.

He wasn’t taught that, but I bet you were. I know I was.

From the very beginning of our lives, we are trained to fear “the other.” We are trained to fear other people. We are trained to fear those who are somehow different. We are trained to fear being rejected.

This is on purpose.

This is how you control people. You scare them to death from the earliest years of their lives.

Because if the people of the world ever woke up to the truth that we’re all the same and that the color of one’s skin, or the country you grew up in, or the religion you practice, or the people you choose to include in your family, doesn’t mean squat, then the powers that be would lose control.

They’d lose their “common enemy” tool they use to control.

And they can’t have that (yet). So instead, they reinforce the lines, they fortify the boundaries, they stoke the flame that is fear.

And people remain sheep. Not because they’re stupid, only because they’re scared.

Even the antics in Washington right now are an example. Team A vs. Team B.

Fake lines drawn in the sand between two groups of people who leech the resources of society and produce nothing of value in return.

You were taught the fear, you certainly weren’t born with it.

This means you can un-teach it to yourself.

And you can start today.

When you give up the fear, no one controls you.

No one.

This has immediate and lasting positive effects on your life and business.

When you’re not afraid to lose the client, you can speak the truth.

When you’re not afraid to lose the sale, you can quote the fee YOU want.

When you’re not afraid to be YOU and act and speak like it, then you provide the marketplace with a choice that is actually unique, interesting, and more valuable.

Stop allowing fear to control you and you are free.