Blink Bob Golomb Character Analysis

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More Compassion, Less Judgement As I was growing up in Uzbekistan, I was exposed to the diversity of a wide mix of ethnic groups and cultures. I’ve been raised to be respectful of others, regardless of their differences and to not judge people. Exposure to the multiculturalism helped me develop a greater social awareness needed to overcome implicit biases, to understand and respect others. In the book Blink, the author, Malcolm Gladwell, describes how the sales director of the Flemington Nissan dealership in New Jersey, Bob Golomb became a successful salesman. He has an ability to make snap judgements about customers, however, he tries not to judge anyone based on their appearance and serve his customers equally. He is aware of just how dangerous …show more content…

He had to gather all the information to figure out and adjust to customer’s needs. He would always give customers the best experience, even if things are terrible at home. When most salespeople see their customers, they make snap judgments about a person’s appearance (Gladwell 91). According to Gladwell, Golomb tries to be careful with first impressions and snap judgements. As Gladwell described Golomb, “He has antennae out to pick up on whether someone is confident or insecure, knowledgeable or naïve, trusting or suspicious- but from that thin-slicing flurry he tries to edit out those impressions based solely on physical appearance” (91). In other words, Golomb uses his first impression of the customer appearance to recognize their needs. It helps him to provide his customers excellent service. In fact, Gladwell believes that an important reason for Golomb’s success is, even though he may make snap judgments about a customer’s needs, but he tries never to judge anyone on the basis of his or her appearance (90-91). Most importantly, Gladwell emphasizes that “Taking rapid cognition seriously- acknowledging the incredible power, for good and ill, that first impressions play in our lives- requires that we take active steps to manage and control those impressions” (98). In fact, Golomb is a great example of managing judgement, which leads to success. After all, Golomb is a kind, respectful person who manages to limit use of stereotypes to treat every customer exactly the

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