John Brown’s Eyes

In my sales training days we used a phrase that became the foundation for broader understanding. “To sell John Brown what John Brown buys, you must see John Brown through John Brown’s eyes.” (For the fact finder, John Brown was an abolitionist in the mid nineteenth century.) This statement runs contrary to the common thought that the “selling” must get the buyer to see the object being sold as the seller frames it. The wisdom of seeing John Brown through John Brown’s eyes is of infinite value. In our fast paced, (anti) social media world, we are seldom witness to understanding or being understood. The question “how are you doing?” is most often followed with a “fine” response, assuming the question to be a social greeting, lacking any real interest in one’s state of being. Many may have discovered the rare occasion when the receiver of the question uses the opportunity to launch into a lengthy diatribe recounting formidable years and the patent effect upon today’s struggle. The quality of human interaction, however, is greatly enhanced when two individuals seek to truly understand how life is viewed by the other. A common malady today is the ill feeling that “no one understands me.” The act of digging deeper to find the passage to being understood only results in finding one’s self in a deeper hole. The age old remedy when one finds oneself in a hole is to stop digging! I have discovered that the best way to relieve the need to be understood is to seek to understand others. Even scripture gives the profound advice that “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) It’s refreshing that the path to self-fulfillment is paved with pearls obtained by laying down self interest at the door to the heart and mind of the other. May your day uncover more and more precious pearls!