| | Someday, more people will realize how useful it can be to have an Objectivist around, due to their distinctly superior abilities to cut to the core of things, figure out what it's really about. With that, though, often comes the problem that emerges along with any great power- in sales training (woo woo) it is part of what is called "the dummy factor". In essence, the dummy factor points out that a neophyte sales person almost inevitably will (at first) outperform the more seasoned, because they do not have the prejudgment of negative experience as so strong a limiter. Literally, more possibilities exist for them, because they allow them to. They don't know you can't.
The thing is, instead of just throwing out the baby with the bathwater, Objectivists are more inclined to drown the baby in its own bathwater.
Tony Robbins is a snotty, self-consumed fuck, there is no doubt about this. On the other hand, though, he brought forward some excellent tools in his potpourri of a book called "Absolute Power". My opinion is its the only book he ever needed to write. It included some very strong breathing and focusing techniques, and, of course, dynamic visualization techniques. What are these, indeed?
I guess that technically, it would fall under the line of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), but only on paper. Dynamic visualization is probably best known as a tool of choice for many professional athletes. You see them doing it all the time- mentally running through the steps over and over as they plan to make them happen. They are seeing the whole picture in their minds (that's the visualization part). But lots of people use it- concert musicians and conductors come to mind. Race car drivers. There are some basic protocols that you learn.
I could see some beneficial applications in the Objectivist community in the area of developing more advanced interpersonal skills. Specifically, developing communication skills that specifically address personality types. Learning how to recognize basic personality types.
Mainly because of being in business for so long, I've been through many different kinds of training and personal development courses. Actually, I'm certified to train in a few of them. I never thought of them as "self-help". Personal development. Big difference.
Some of them, though, OH MY GAWD. Talk about training the trainer. There was a particularly unpleasant experience where one of my employers had paid a large sum to a consultant to administer sales training, and he started out by pulling out my least favorite sales bromide, which is "Perception is reality."
I had had enough of this guy in the first fifteen minutes of meet and greet anyway. I just didn't like him, I'll admit it. I decided to fuck with him, down to the NLP level if need be. I kid you not, it went like this, and didn't stop for two days. I was bored with the crap, so I used the time in practicing classic NLP drilldowns.
"Perception, then, is reality"
"No it's not. Reality is reality"
"You don't understand my point"
"Oh, but I do. You are saying that B=A. A thing is another thing. That isn't so. That means a foot can be a hand."
"No, I didn't mean it that way...."
"What did you mean, then?"
"I meant that how the customer perceives you is more important than anything else."
"So, no matter what I do, if he 'perceives' something else, I'm out of luck. And anyway, there have to be more important things than what he thinks."
"You almost had it in the first part."
"Well, this seems like an educational issue to me, assuming he's not mentally ill, or blind or deaf, or something... But perception isn't reality."
"Well, you're entitled to your opinion."
"It's not my opinion, it's reality. A=A, not this other thing. Here, why don't we just be honest and put it this way- reality is overrated in certain situations. How's that?"
"You could look at it that way."
"Do you look at it that way?"
"I'm not sure, it depends"
"And...?"
"And we have to take each thing as it comes..."
"So..."
"So we have to look at every customer encounter differently"
"Differently? Is that a perception thing? Different every time? So you're never sure of anything...how does that make you feel?"
"It makes me feel.... wait. We're way off track here..."
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