I find social staircase dynamics so fascinating.
Picture this: you’re on the staircase of an industrial office building. You walk down the stairs, which are completely empty. Acknowledging that you’re in no rush, you walk down the stairs at a very glacial pace, catching up on a few texts as you begin your descent. Abruptly, you hear thudding coming from above They progressively sound closer and closer. Suddenly, you notice the man one flight directly above you.
What do you do?
If you’re like most people, you put your phone back in your pocket, adding some hustle to your step in order to accommodate the speed of the man behind you.
Unfortunately, this is never a sure thing. The results can be either tremendously rewarding or incredibly disappointing/emasculating.
If everything goes according to plan, you get to your destination without holding up the man behind you.
If everything goes not-so-according to plan, the man will be significantly faster than you, despite your sudden increase in speed, and he will essentially jump past you once he reaches you.
I’m afraid we still have yet to reach the emasculating bit.
After the man passes you, there’s no reason for you to continue hustling to accommodate him. In a sense, you feel like you lost a race, yet you weren’t even trying to turn the situation into a competition. You were just trying to be a nice guy, but you still “lost.”
Nice guys don’t always finish first, unless they’re capable of jumping down entire flights of stairs in a single jump.
Until next time,
Michael J. Erickson, CEO & Co-Founder
