I don’t know why I’m still surprised when I find out that people don’t always think exactly like me.

I should know better - I’ve left 3 companies, a marriage, and a church - all at least partly because one or both of us couldn’t get on board with the way the other was thinking.

And yet, life has a way of continuing to put people and situations in our path to remind us of simple things like this.

It goes deeper than just creative differences or simple squabbles.

Sometimes, people approach a problem exactly the opposite way that you’d approach it. In fact, some people think that the way you do things, the only way you can THINK to do things, is flat out WRONG.

As business owners, that leaves us with a lot of responsibility. In order to get other people to buy our stuff, we have to effectively communicate WHY they should do so. And in order to do that, we have to understand how to give people simple principles that they can understand.

It can be extremely frustrating, because it can take FOREVER. In fact, sometimes you can spend months on end trying to get someone to understand 1 principle.

But just like you can’t force a horse to drink, you have to be willing and able to meet people where they are before trying to teach them.

People don’t want to change, and they really like the way they think. It takes EXTRA work to get people to appreciate and accept a different way of thinking. Depending on how much you’re trying to get someone to change their mind, it might require events that are beyond your control to push them over the edge.

Above all else, you need to be patient and willing to keep repeating yourself until it sinks in. Either that or you need to be willing to let go when people simply won’t change their minds. As right as you think you are, they think they are right just as much.

And don’t be surprised when someone says that the way you think is diametrically opposed to the way they think. It’s WAY more common than you think. (that happened to me, and I was way more surprised than I should have been).