The Power of Influence

The Power of Influence

Every organism has a tendency to observe things from their surroundings. Since from the beginning, we have a major impact of the circumstances, the people, our friends and even our enemies on us. What we see at our home becomes part of discussion tomorrow morning at work or at school/college; any new friend gets reflected in our language and our habits.




Our home environment, our company at school or college leaves a mark on our mind that eventually shapes our character and personality.  So, our behavior with others, way of treating people and most importantly how we face situations shows our “traits” of personality which actually we absorbed from the surroundings that include people around us, your favorite fiction character, any inspiration. Having said that, since we absorb things from surroundings there are higher chances that the surroundings may not be clean. So, it’s equally possible that we may contaminate our personality by having a bad influence. That reminds me of a very popular story proving the power of influence:

Like any other story, this one also starts like this: Once upon a time there was a pair of parrots Alex and Reed. One morning, they got caught by a hunter. While they were on sale separately, Alex got purchased by a priest while Reed got purchased by a dacoit. Now, Alex gets to listen to holy chants day and night, Reed on another hand only gets to hear the abuse and all the wrong words. After some time, those dacoits went to a village where the priest resides and in a commonplace, both of the brothers met again. Though they were looking the same, there was a huge change that became evident asa they started speaking. When Alex was reciting chants and became everyone’s favorite, Reed was abusing people and no one was happy with him. Their character and personality got drastically changed!  

The story may be old and kiddish but the takeaway is very basic and yet very powerful and that is “Influence”. Influence of the people around you, of the things you observe that somewhere determines the course of your actions. So, be very careful while getting influenced by people because you may not be aware but that actually impacts your judgment power.

Having said that, I am very well aware that professionally the odds of handpicking your surroundings are very low. On the contrary 90% of the time, we have to deal with people with not so good influence on us. But, wait what’s good or bad? Who decides that? In my story it was black and white, so quite easy to decide what’s good or bad on moral grounds, but the reality is not so distinctive. In reality, the black and white are blended so effortlessly that it becomes very difficult to segregate the white or even blackout of it. Then what should you do?

It’s a choice by you for you

There is no universal right or wrong

I say choose your color white, black grey, silver .It’s totally your concise that’s lead you to the right color. So, answering the question above it’s “YOU” who decides what’s right and what’s wrong for “You”. Mind you it’s a choice by you for you, so there is no universal right or wrong.

He is always LATE but GREAT at WORK

She is CHATTY but HONEST

He is OBNOXIOUS but PUNCTUAL

She is DOMINANT but RESPONSIBLE

 A single person famous for all wrong things on the floor can be a great influence for you; similarly a very famous celebrity can be of least interest to you. That’s beauty of choice, even though the second person has most of the traits that make him dark but you still choose the brighter side. On the contrary you can even pick black as per your taste but then you must be ready for consequences. So, make your choice and make a wise one!!

So, be like a sponge! Absorb things, but only that’s good for you and I bet you’ll find one thing to learn from every single people around you.

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