Apathy - an evil most people face each day

In offering training programs on customer service and loyalty, I too often see the biggest nemesis of performance, greatness and choice: apathy. From an employee perspective, I think people often figure they aren't high enough up in an organization to make a difference. I've heard people say it: I'm just the doorman; I'm just the bus boy; no one cares what I think so I don't care. No, you are not just ... You are someone who can make an impact. An impact on a customer or an impact on a society.

On a personal level, in their daily lives, I think people believe that since they are only one person they, again, can't really make a difference. But people forget that they influence their friends and family to such a degree that if they find a product they like or don't like, they can get another 5-10 people to follow their purchasing decisions. So when those 5-10 people start to influence their friends, imagine how fast we see a change of opinion or a change in the purchasing patterns of 1000 people.

My observation is that apathy is even worse than people thinking they can't have an impact. Apathy says to me, I don't care either way. This takes me back to a blog I had ages ago about turning off your TV and finding ways to spend your time that engage you. I can't emphasize this enough, because engaged people are people who think for themselves more often, and who are critical in their observations. Once you start to think for yourself and to seek other than mainstream inputs of information, you start to see things in a different light. You start to develop opinions.

Can you name 10 things you are passionate about or stand for? If not, maybe you need to spend more time determining what is important to you. Then, the next time you can vote, buy a product, give an opinion or sway someone else on a subject, you will be clear on what you know, what you believe and what you stand for. Look through a newspaper and see how many articles you have an opinion on versus how many articles you don't care about. It's a quick and easy apathy meter.