Healdsburg, CA -
We made some new friends on this trip here, one of them an interesting guy with good stories of a life well lived and examined.
He spoke of working newspaper-circulation sales as a kid, knocking on front doors without anyone answering. His mentor took him back to one of the homes and they knocked on the rear door instead. Somebody answered and listened to their pitch. “Salesmen come to the front door,” they were told, while “friends and neighbors come to the back door.”
Except for the fact that people might shoot you in this situation these days, there is a good lesson here. It is important to walk around back - literally and figuratively - to take the true measure of a person, organization, or situation.
There are just too many Potemkin Villages out there; Hollywood facades that upon further inspection validate the aphorism that there’s no there there. Be skilled and patient enough to move past the bluff, bluster, bombast, and bullshit to find truth.
We can best develop ourselves to go around back and beyond facades by honing our listening skills and powers of observation, asking good questions, and focusing less on ourselves conversationally.
