One of my favorite “people” lessons is the Bob Principle. This comes from John Maxwell’s
book, Winning with People. And when it applies to the female population, we can call it the Bobbie Principle.
To make this simple, I am going to pick on the “gentlemen.” Here is a true story, and I am changing the name to “Bob” to protect the guilty. I met Bob in a networking group. He was a home/auto insurance salesman. He was frustrated because he was having difficulty getting sales in the group. He had the expectation that since they were an insurance representative that everyone in the group should buy insurance through him. In fact, he stressed to the group, “you must buy from me - I am the representative in the group.”
I suspect that you can count on one hand, the number of people that you know that do NOT have auto/home insurance. It is relatively common sense that one has protection in case something catastrophic happens.
Additionally, let’s also recognize that proper networking is not always understood. Just showing up is not networking. The most important thing to be aware of in a networking group is that one must build relationships. If one is going to complain about the lack of results from the networking group, one can blame the networking group. However, when someone seems to complain about everyone else, and not recognize that he is the common element of the situation; then he is missing the obvious. This person, we’ll call him Bob, is the problem, not everyone else. That’s the Bob (Bobbie) Principle!
We often find ourselves wondering if there is a connection between the person pointing out all the issues, and whether there really are issues? That’s the irony of this principle - yes, there is a connection. When Bob/Bobbie has a problem with everyone, Bob/Bobbie is usually the problem.
The question I must ask myself: Am I Bob?
Comentários