Boron - Chapter 19

# Boron - Chapter 19

The Boron Letters - Chapter 19

Saturday, 9:27 AM

June 30, 1984

Dear Bond,

Today, as I promised, our subject will be "You Never Get A
Second Chance To Make A First Impression."

Listen to this: When a person goes for a job interview, the
interviewer decides whether or not to hire that person in
the first 40-seconds.

And this: In a jury trial, the members of the jury make up
their minds as to whether the accused is guilty or innocent
during the first half hour or so (during the opening
argument) and they spend all the rest of the time the trial
takes in finding ways to justify the decision they have
already made.

And this: When a person falls in love it happens almost
instantaneously. After that, minor things like the truth
about the newly beloved are cast aside unless those "truths"
happen to reinforce the wonderfulness of said love subject.

And this: You either hook a reader or lose him when he very
first looks at your ad or DM piece. Not when he reads it,
but when he first looks at it.

Now, of course, this rule is not 100% accurate. Sometimes a
person will suddenly fall in love with a person he or she
has known for years; sometimes a jury will change it's mind
after the opening argument; sometimes an interviewer will
decide to hire an applicant he had originally (in his mind)
rejected. And, sometimes, a reader will read and order from
your ad, even though he was turned off by it when he first
saw it.

But don't count on this. Most of the time a person will
never alter his original impression. Most of the time he
will simply "edit" all new info that comes to him and
"process" it in such a way as to validate his original
opinion.