Biggest Misperception

I read an interview with Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com in The New York Times. The article was about how to find employees that fit in with your company culture. Tony was asked for some specific questions he asks interviewees.

At the end of the article, the writer asked, "If you could ask only one or two questions to get a sense of a person, what would they be?" His first question was, "If you had to name something, what would you say is the biggest misperception that people have of you?"

This really made me think. I have been thinking about this question for at least a day. If I had to choose one, I think it would be that I think that I am better than people. I have always thought that people think that I am "stuck up" or that I think I am better than them. While this is true to a certain extent. The real truth is that I am an introvert.

As an introvert, I just don't need to talk to people as much as most people. I prefer to stand back and observe and listen to what people are saying. I like to learn, so I have always been the type of person that listens much more than I talk.

The second question that Tony would ask is, "What’s the difference between misperception and perception?" I assume that Tony is asking for the literal difference. A misperception is something that is misunderstood. For instance, people may misperceive me as being a person who thinks that I am better than other people. In reality I am not completely that type of person, but it is accurate to a certain extent.

This is one of the pieces of my personality that I need to work on. I need to be open to different types of people. I judge people too much, which limits my exposure to certain types of people. By limiting myself in this way, I am not able to learn things from this segment of the population. I am really doing myself a disservice.