So the question? Are you a good apple or a bad apple…. and can you really be either or are we all one in the same?
I have owned businesses since I was a kid…. coming up with ideas and making some happen and writing down others for when I had the time to implement them properly. One of my mentors and I were talking about life and business and we altered an analogy that we liked that day about apples. WE LOVE analogies…. they help set the foundation for understanding in any environment. Analogies bridge the gap when words strung along in a sentence don’t seem to make the cut.
The analogy? It deals with people. If you put a bad apple in a bag full of good apples – the good apples won’t turn the bad apple good. However…. one bad apple can spoil an entire bag of good apples in a very short period of time.
So what’s the point here? Well…. I would suggest that you are either a good apple for the people around you or a bad apple. We have the ability in all of us to be both… Why don’t we strive to be good apples and pay that forward all week, month and year?
I can dig the need for comments…most people I have found will read what you post, but very few actually comment…here’s hoping we can change that.
So for the question and analogy…it works…and based on rigorous research on my part, yeah right, bad attitudes do tend to affect others around them. Just like water tries to seek its own level…people tend to seek the level of those around them…whether good or bad. Been around someone who curses a lot and not had the urge to drop a few yourself? What about the gossip queen, ever been dragged into the he said / she said world in which they live. It is simple human psychology…people want to fit in, advertisers know it and we know it if we just admit it to ourselves.
Conversely, if we surround ourselves with positive people, those who seek positive outcomes, then logic suggests that we will want to be more positive in our every day lives.
So why don’t we??? That’s the conclusion I’ve drawn for you my friend. Oh, and for the analogy, here is a shameless plug for a blog I wrote on analogies a while back…doesn’t touch on a buiness topic but it does deal in teaching youngsters with analogies; ideas stated in ways even really young children can grasp.
http://stormplay.blogspot.com/2008/05/sunshine-and-sidewalks.html
Keep up the urge!