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It's A Snake!
It's How You Say It?
by Jerry Hocutt

What did Steve Irwin (the Crocodile Hunter) tell his 9-year old daughter Bindi to make her unafraid of snakes?

Watching a promo for “Bindi the Jungle Girl” for the Discovery Channel on one of the morning shows I was impressed with the way in which Bindi was able to pick up and handle the snakes she brought for show-n-tell.

They weren’t poisonous.  But still creepy and crawly anyway.  I’ve been around a number of snakes throughout my life (no this isn’t a political essay) both of the poisonous and non variety.  I’ve never had a desire to pick them up, much less to stay within 50 feet of them.

So I was wondering: what did the late Steve Irwin say to his daughter to make her unafraid of animals most of us would rather view behind glass windows and steel bars in the zoo?

I don’t think he said anything to give her the courage to pick up snakes.  I think it was something he told her to make her unafraid of picking them up.

Whatever he said or did has given her a different perspective of reptiles than I grew up with.  Did he hand her a couple of non-lethal snakes to play with first to give her confidence?  To show her there would be no harm?  Did he show her how to protect herself if the snake turned on her? 

Snakes crawl.  They’re cold blooded and slimy.  That’s natural.  That’s neither good nor bad.  A snake is a snake is a snake.  It’s our reaction to snakes that affects how we feel about them.  Snakes can’t change how we feel about them.  They don’t care.  It’s up to us to change.

What did Steve tell Bindi to get her to react differently than I do?  Would his advice work for me?  To me, everything that squirms and squiggles and darts its tongue in and out is lethal.  Bindi and I both see the same thing, yet we don’t see the same thing.  What’s going on?

Apply it to business
Can you apply Steve’s lesson in changing your perspectives to business situations?  For example, what makes you afraid of cold calling?  What makes you afraid of taking risks?  What makes you afraid of asking for the business?  What makes you afraid of asking for referrals? 

While some people see cold calling, taking risks, asking for the business, and asking for referrals as opportunities, others see the same situations as a den of snakes.  So what can you say to yourself to make you unafraid?

Complete these phrases:

1. Cold calling is not an activity to be feared, but it’s an activity that can _______________________________________.
2.  Starting a new business or finding a new job is not a risk, but it’s ______________________________________.
3. Asking for the business is not putting me in a position to be rejected, but it _______________________________________.
4. Asking for a referral is nothing to get nervous about, because it can ______________________________________.

Every job has its snakes.  Every step seems to be hazardous.  But then again, isn’t it all in how you look at it?  Danger or opportunity?  It depends upon what you’re saying to yourself. 

What’s that?  What did you say?

There was a fisherman named Fisher
who fished for some fish in a fissure.
Till a fish with a grin,
pulled the fisherman in.
Now they're fishing the fissure for Fisher.
________________________

Seventy seven benevolent elephants

Goes Both Ways
“Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out.” – Dr. Karl Menninger

Understood
“Nothing in life is to be feared.  It is only to be understood.” – Marie Curie

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
“Fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.” – Shirley MacLaine

Heeeeere Kitty Kitty Kitty
“After dark, all cats are leopards.” – Zuni Indian Proverb