First impressions really do last

Rereading my post from last night I can easily tell I was exhausted and was barely able to write a decent post. It took me about two hours to write that confusing post and then I still had homework. It was just the sheer thought process over that psychological and philosophical question that really took it out of me.

Basically I was trying to say that you have to understand the human psych in order to understand others and excel in startups. But if you were a new reader and that was the very first post you read on my blog you would have probably thought “What in the world is this guy talking about?!?! What a messed up blog!” and it would stick with you for a long time until you read many of the other posts. This is the sad effect of the first impression, whatever we are exposed to first we think it is the only truth.

This has happened to me a lot over the years. I have never been into politics nor the elections but I read my first review about Ron Paul from Digg. He was the first candidate I really know anything about now and I based everything I know about him from someone else’s opinion. So in my mind he is pretty cool and if I could, I would vote for him but I realize it is just because I was exposed to him first. Sure a real voter would do his research in all of the candidates and make his vote worthwhile but for a guy that already has no care of politics, I wouldn’t bother thus first impression sticks.

So in the business world, real life, and especially web 2.0, first impressions are a big deal. I am reminded of last year on the first day of school when my friend dressed in ghetto clothes and sat down in math class. Immediately the teacher came and said “Excuse me son, are you sure you are in the right class? This is a math honors class.” Talk about ouch, my friend is actually really smart but just dresses differently. His relationship with his teacher was then forever awkward for the whole year.

In the end with web 2.0 I guess the first thing you show to people has got to be the best. That’s why I always try to make my top post the best since people usually read that first although my first post was more informative. Well I would also like to know what you all feel about this topic so leave a comment!

~Kevin X