Expecting the worst?

“Are you going to pick that up?” screeched the woman at the young lady who’d just callously littered and dropped a piece of rubbish on the ground. Moments after this interaction the woman was furious, and so was the young lady.

The woman knew that young people just didn’t have the same sense of responsibility that they had in her day. She saw examples of it everywhere.

Isn’t it always the way…

When you expect a car sales person or real estate agent to be a shark, you can always find one that is. When you expect people to treat you poorly, there’s always row after row of examples to show you that’s the truth. When you know that you deal with the craziest clients there’s yet another waiting to prove it.

Funny… Because I think if the woman above had gone out that day with a different expectation, instead of seeing another young person littering without a care in the world, what she might have seen was a young mum and a close personal friend of mine, juggling her baby, a large pram and an awkward seating arrangement who was just about to attempt to grab the fly away piece of rubbish before she was scolded by a complete stranger.

Who knows, if she’d gone out with a different expectation, she might have even been generous and reached over and grabbed the piece of rubbish that was out of the reach of the young Mum who would have reacted with her trademark sweetness and thanked her enthusiastically. Both parties could have then left the exact same encounter with smiles feeling better about the world they live in.

What a shame expectations weren’t different.

What expectations do you have that might be clouding your vision of the true situation?

Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (her latest release is Retired at 27, If I Can do it Anyone Can) and a passionate entrepreneur who started her first business at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21. Now Kirsty does lots of fun things which you can read about here. Her favourite current projects are Elephant Property, a boutique property management agency, Baby Teresa, a baby clothing line that donates an outfit to a baby in need for each one they sell andReallySold, which helps real estate agents stop writing boring, uninteresting ads.