My Quick Thoughts and Emotions: Ecommerce Summit 2010

So, I am sitting on the plane, watching the parade of people going by as they make their way past my seat. I am on the front row, seat 1F in business class. So John why is that important?

I am so glad you asked … I ALWAYS have coach seating, I have not flown first class since the days back when I was a kid. My dad retired from American Airlines and as a kid I got free flight passes, boy those were the days. But nowadays I simply can’t really justify the cost to sit in business class, since that class actually lands AFTER the coach class LMAO!

I was checking in for today’s flight and was offered a frequent flyer upgrade and took it…Lucky day huh, especially since the casinos here in Vegas busted my ass. I was in Vegas to speak at the eCommerce Summit hosted by the Ecommerce Merchants Trade Association (ECMTA) and PeSA (Professional eBay Sellers Association) here in Vegas and it was 2 days of intense learning and networking and was a great time for all. A fabulous event that I really enjoyed, but more on that in a later post….

The managing director of ECMTA, Jonathan Garriss, did his presentation and it was fantastic. One of the underlying themes he had was about perspective. That just kept resonating with me as my "personal" take away. He was talking about how we all perceive our businesses from our perspective and was showing the opposing view points of things like, customer vs. business owner or even ecommerce channel (like eBay) vs sellers.

Brandon Dupsky, Jonathan Garriss, Joe Cortez, Adam Hersch (all are ECMTA Board Members) and myself

Then in another session with the eBay panel, an attendee was questioning why eBay was not as "responsive to his needs as a seller as he thought they should be" and one of the eBay panel people said, there are approximately 5000 employs and 60 million sellers…hmm, perspective is important. Even while doing my presentation on

Social Media for Business SUCKS! I had some slides in it dealing with that same subject matter of perspective.

So here I am on the front row of the plane and suddenly my perspective was altered. I did not wait in the long line at the check it, I went to the business class lane and was helped immediately. They also have a business class lane for security search, no long line and waiting. I got to go on the plane first and settle in before the others with seating in coach. And best of all, I am sipping down a CC and Seven (no Johnny Black on Airtran ) while I am writing this blog post in my leather reclining oversized seat.

The take away is this…IF I were a privileged flyer, filthy rich and all of my travel was just business class and I never had the opportunity to sat in coach before, how would my perspective of air convince and comfort differ from a coach flyer? How would I respond when I hear others speak on their hassles with air travel. Could I really understand and truly share in their pains? NOPE probably not.

Now flip that scenario and put yourself on the other side of that mysterious blue curtain, that separates coach from first class. Could that person appreciate why business class passengers get to jump to the front of the check in line. Do they understand really, why the business class passengers get special shout outs on the announcement or why they have cocktail drinks in hand BEFORE the plane leaves the gate? NOPE probably not.

In this scenario which side is "right", which experience is more realistic?

Everything that we think, feel, believe and understand gets filtered and processed by our brains. Our mind filters everything by and through our experiences giving each of us a UNIQUE perspective on things. To help expand that narrow viewpoint, sometimes listening to the experience of others helps to craft and alter how we filter thought and alters the way we think.

The tricky part is to be open enough to take in the information disseminated by others and use it to shape your thinking, so you can now filter information better by using not only your own limited experience, but those of others, ESPECIALLY your customers and business partners.

You have got to get INSIDE their mind and understand their experiences which shapes their perspectives. You do not have to think it is the ONLY "right" perspective, but you must understand where they are coming from. And you have to empathize with their perspective for your own graduated success and endeavors. Doing this not only in business but in your own life!

Photo above Usher Lieberman (TheFind.com), Me, RIchard Brewer-Hay (eBay Ink Blog) (from left)

This is something that you can take and use in all areas of your life, remember that each of use have a unique perspective and even though you think you see something one way, another person can see it entirely different and BOTH of you can be 100% right. How’s that for a insightful take away blog post on a conference, eh? Use it…I most certainly will going forward.

Photo credit: Karen Locker