Be a pleasing personality

Your smile is your logo, your personality is your business card, how you leave others feeling after having an experience with you becomes your trademark.”
— JAY DANZIE

What do people think and say about you after a brief encounter with you? Are you a likeable person? Are you an approachable person? A pleasing personality means that those who come in contact with you are really pleased to meet you and would like to remain in your company. Every living being wants to be loved, needed, wanted or missed when not present. With a little effort on your part, you can transform yourself into a pleasing personality, a sought-after person. Being a pleasant person does not cost you much but the rewards are manifold.

There is a beautiful story in Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich about an elderly lady who was strolling through a Pittsburgh (U.S.A.) department store, obviously killing time. She passed counter after counter without anyone paying attention to her. All of the clerks had spotted her as an idle “looker” who had no intention of buying. They made it a point to look in a different direction when she stopped at their counters. Finally, the lady came to a counter that was attended by a young clerk who bowed politely and asked if he could serve her. “No,” she replied, “I am just killing time, waiting for the rain to stop, so I can go home.” “Very well, Madam,” the young man smiled, “May I bring you a chair?” And he brought one without waiting for her answer. After the rain stopped, the young man took the lady by the arm, escorted her to the street and bid her goodbye. As she left, she asked him for his card.

Several months later the owner of the store received a letter asking that this young man be sent to Scotland to take an order for the furnishings of a home. The owner wrote back that the young man did not work at the home furnishings department; however, he would be glad to send an “experienced man” to do his job.

Back came the reply saying no one but this particular young man was required. The letter was signed by Andrew Carnegie, and the house he wanted furnished was Skibo Castle in Scotland! The elderly lady who visited the store was Mr Carnegie’s mother. The young man was sent to Scotland where he received an order for several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of household furnishings. He later became the owner of half interest in the store.

If you are an approachable teacher in school, students will like you. If you are an approachable boss, employees will like you. Does that need any extra effort from you? A simple smile can make a world of difference in your daily life and the lives of many people with whom you interact every day. It does not matter who you are and where you are now. You can make this rule a habit immediately. The greatest benefit from this habit does not come to those to whom the service is rendered. It comes to the one who renders the service.

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