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"I Know Everything In The Universe!"

by goindeep
3 replies
In my day job I work as the CSM for a large global manufacturer. Usually I dont take calls but when we are low in staff or my day is just dribbling past slowly like a mosquito thats been drinking from a heavily intoxicated bogan ill grab a few calls to lighten up my day.

Our product is technical in nature so usually you need to be a licensed plumber or gas fitter to install, service or repair it.

It never ceases to surprise me when some person calls in who believes themselves to be the worlds smartest person or something to that effect usually saying something along the lines of "It's OK Im a chemical engineer" or "Hi, I'm an architect, I know about everything" or "Nah, mate look out here we fix things our selves I'm a cattle farmer from honky donk whoop whoop town in such and such and I know what I'm doing".

The simple fact that they have called up for technical support usually suggests they do not know what they are doing. Some time into the conversation I'll figure out that not only do they not know what they are doing but that they really have no clue and wont accept any sort of advice that is going against their grain (demented reality)

I like to call this the "I know everything" phenomena.

Usually people with this complex won't really listen to advice, they will almost always try to do things their way (which is always he long way) and even if they do see successes its usually always short term and the ROI is so low its not even worth it.

In our little world of Internet marketing, it is exactly the same.

The moral of the story?

You don't know everything, no one does.

The more you keep thinking you know it all the more you shut yourself off and don't learn new things.

So while you sit there swimming in your own delusions of super human like capabilities there are others that are keeping quiet, have their heads stuck into their screens or their books during late night Internet marketing cram sessions and then end up becoming successful while you become bitter.

-Andrei
  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    Good point, Andrei. The #1 obstacle to a person's success is that person. The ability to give one's self PERMISSION TO SUCCEED is the key to sustainable success.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mousumi
    It makes me laugh Andrei

    The real problem is we deny emptying our glasses....some small piece of advice seems a sort of boring lecture. The other problem is no one wants to "Listen"...Oftentimes, to save time, people say, "I'll do it."
    My husband recalls an instance:
    back then he worked for Dell's tech support and a lady gave him a call. She said, she was watching a movie and it stuck. She wanted him to fix it asap. He asked her if the system had any anti-virus install and without knowing she said yes.
    My husband then suggested her to restart the PC and then clean it..You know what she did..she used the glass cleaner to clean the computer (she had unpacked it that very morning) and sanitized the room to make it virus free.

    Since my husband had placed her on hold..she came back and said 'thank you,' it works perfectly now...though I didn't understand the logic behind cleaning the brand new PC and the room which is so neat and clean....lol

    PS: She was a teacher and this incident took place 9 years ago
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    • Profile picture of the author ThePromotionalGuy
      Andrei,

      Your examples are so true. I'm a locksmith by trade 25+ years by day, IM by night.

      At least once a week a customer will come into the shop and have a key duplicated. Once the key is duplicated the customer holds his key up next to the duplicate and then proceeds to tell me the duplicate won't work.

      I explain that he/she won't know if the key works until they actually try it in the lock.

      But Oh no, this customer has "Micrometer Eyes" and can detect the slightest flaw by simply looking at the key and holding it up to the light.

      All they really want to do is get into a verbal confrontation that they can tell by just looking at the key and that I must not know what I am doing.
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