Yesterday I’ve been in parents home and I had conversation with my youngest sister. I have two of them. She was complaining about her MP3 player, she said that I have much better one and her is completely out of battery and she could not listen to music even longer than hour. Also she continued saying that it was cheap player and that is the reason why it is useless.

She always gets some money from me. I do not say that give her much money. Sometimes 20, sometimes 50, rarely 100 (those are Ukrainian hryvnias). And I do not like how she spends it, so I’ve decided to have a test with her. I asked her following: “How much money do you have now?” “60 hryvnia” – she said. Then I asked how she wants to spend them. She said that she wants roller-skates. Ok, then I followed with questions that brought to her mind and if she will not spend money this month she will get 120 next month or much more. Finally we went to the 1400 next year, but ONLY if she will not spend them on different useless things and if she will not buy rollers. She admitted that if she will stop spending money on crap she will get “rich” in her understanding .

After that I asked question: “Decide now, you either give me your 60 hryvnias and my MP3 is yours, or either you keep them for future!” She tried to avoid direct answer, but I gave her firm offer. Finally she came to me and said, that she will keep money. I praised her and with words “Keep in mind that sometimes right decisions bring your much more than you expect” I gifted her with MP3.

She was so surprised and with shining face ran to my parents saying that she gained MP3 and that is because she is smart girl. I’m sure that if we had no have that conversation before she most likely chose MP3 instead of keeping money.

I think this is simple example how you could show others that some things are good. So you basically change her mind, then you examine her and if she admits your ideas praise her (This will happen most likely, because now she thinks that this is part of her thoughts). In this way you will keep lesson in her mind for some evident time.

P/S Why have I posted this? With my future career growth I will have to be good on managing people. That is why time-to-time you will see such blog posts. But be calm, my blog is still tech blog unless I’m manager.