I was scanning through my articles and found one I wrote back in 2004 on “Social Proof”… I don’t think I’ve posted here yet, so enjoy…

“RAISING THE BAR WITH SOCIAL PROOF… Or, You Didn’t Think Of Doing It Because You Didn’t Know It Was Even Possible.” ~ by Carmen Maranon

Dr. Robert Anthony, author of, “The Ultimate Secrets of Total Self-Confidence” writes:

The most important thing to remember about desire is that if you have the desire to do anything creative, you also have within you the means of fulfillment… In other words, whatever desire you have, no matter how far-fetched it may seem, carries with it the ability and mechanics to make it become reality.

Let’s take my 3 year old, Joshua, for example.

He’s a very cautious little guy… I admit, I’m to blame. Never wanting him to get a ‘boo boo’, I taught him to always be very, very careful to avoid getting an ouchie.

When he plays Power Ranger, he pretends to leap from tall buildings by jumping off the very bottom step. He never jumps off the couch like most other kids, but, instead, he escapes from the monsters by sliding off the couch and rolling across the floor.

Too young for preschool, and being the only grandchild from both sides, he’s never exposed to children his age, and ‘carefully’ plays with his mommy, day in – day out.

And then it happened…

I was asked to babysit my friend’s two children, ages 1 and 3. The 3 year old, Jayson, is one month older than Joshua.

I played with the 1 year old as I watched Joshua and Jayson play “dinosaur, monster, police truck”. Running around the family room, screaming and laughing, jumping and dropping… when suddenly, they climbed up the sofa, yelled, “Power!”, bent their knees, and Jayson jumped up into the air, then dropped down on the floor on both feet – as my Joshua looked on, his eyes wide with excitement.

Keeping in mind that my poor, sheltered son’s definition of taking a risk is, jumping from the fluffy bedroom carpet, onto the bathroom tiles…. imagine my surprise when Joshua followed suit without batting an eyelash.

Now he’s a mean, green, jumping machine. Constantly jumping off sofas, beds, coffee tables… you name it. If he can climb it, he’ll jump off of it.

This is “social proof” at work.

Dr. Cialdini, author of, “Influence Science and Practice” writes:

The principle of social proof operates most powerfully when we are observing the behavior of people just like us… Therefore we are more inclined to follow the lead of a similar individual than a dissimilar one.

There’s no doubt jumping off the big, fluffy, couch has crossed Joshua’s mind, even before Jayson came along. He just never witnessed anyone doing it… let alone a boy just like him. He didn’t know it was possible… how could he? For the past three years, he did exactly as his mommy did. And mommy never jumped off the couch like that.

Let’s move the focus to the adults. How many times have you fantasized making a million dollars a day? That would be fantastic, wouldn’t it? But it’s just a fantasy, right? Or is it?

Recently, a virtually unknown man by the name of John Reese, made over one million dollars within 24 hours of launching his product. Many of you will quickly point at his large network of Joint Venture partners. But the truth is, we don’t care exactly *how* he did it at this moment… only that he did.

John Reese, whose name and reputation has not yet widely circulated as those of Gary Halbert, Jay Abraham, and Dan Kennedy, proved to us that our dreams do not have to be confined in our thoughts… it can be unleased and transformed into reality.

Have you ever imagined making five million dollars in 24 hours? Or buying a $150,000 sports car as a surprise gift for your husband? How about that spectacular ten million dollar, 60-room, 12-car-garage mansion?

You don’t have to wait for someone else to come and ‘prove’ to you that it can be done. You thought it… if you truly believe it… you can do it.

Be the proof, others will follow, and you’ll be a hero.

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