....because if not all, then most of the times you'll get the wrong impression. And this is a really important "rule" in every aspect of life. This is the rule I live by...
Now, why am I telling you this when you probably already know it? Because I am the perfect victim of my own philosophy...
Let me explain...
Two years ago, and after a 10 year break, a well known producer decided to stage the famous TV show "Survivor" which was hosted at Philippines. The concept was: 2 teams, each consisted of twelve players competing each other every week in order to win the weekly contests for a chance of a more "comfortable" survival as the game goes by...
The red team was consisted of 12 "famous" players...such as singers, TV celebrities, athletes and such while the blue team by ordinary, infamous...every day people.
The thing is that there was a guy in the blue team that was dragging the whole team back, since it wasn't a solo but a team effort. To my eyes he was the ultimate failure...So skinny, he couldn't run, and even when he did he was soooo slow...he couldn't climb, he could barely swim...I was getting the impression that he had a contact and sneaked into that game...That had to be it.
What the hell...he had to compete some serious athletes out there...Needless to say that he had become the "hottest" joke at that time. Everyone was laughing at him and he didn't even know....
Eventually after 4 maybe 5 weeks he was disqualified...by the TV audience who were voting every Sunday on who should leave the game and return home...
Long story short, a couple of days back he was invited by a reporter to give an interview, and talk about his life after the game, the game itself, the experiences he gained there and so on. At this point I should probably mention that he looked way better. He had put in some weight and looked really healthy. His body was pretty much transformed...
The interview was exactly the way I expected it to be...Boring.
That was until he confessed to the reporter and some millions who were watching that 4 months before he entered the game, he was diagnosed with cancer in the bladder...A really aggressive form of cancer that couldn't be contained with a regular treatment...
So doctors suggested that while an problem like that would normally be treated in a 2 years time, his case was way different. So they concluded that he should take that same treatment in just 3 months.
This of course induced radiotherapy, chemotherapy and so on...in three months only instead of...24.
He completed the treatment just 30 days before the game.
He wasn't sure if he would live or die...doctors weren't too...
So he entered the game as a "death wish" in case things went wrong...
Fast forward to now, he is 100% cured and healthy. And he reveled his story this week...he didn't want people to feel sorry for him...nor their empathy...
I felt devastated. A cretin...How could I have judged someone by his scores in that stupid game? That's not me.
I can only imagine what he went through...the anxiety...his will for life...
I was really angry, with myself. This was a reminder for me. A big one.
Never judge a book by its cover....you never know a man's story...until the moment you do.
Dig deeper...