Susan Boyle and Erroneous Assumptions

You've probably heard the buzz about the 47-year-old woman who wowed the judges on a British TV show similar to American Idol. Her name is Susan Boyle.

The video clip is posted at YouTube but it wouldn't let me embed it so here's the url http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z0h1NNk1Ik if you'd like to view it. Or go to YouTube and input Susan Boyle--there are several versions.

She's amazing. Her voice is so clear and so gorgeous. Breath-taking really. Inspiring. Brought me to tears. It was obvious that no one expected that voice to come out of her. Why? Because we're all so shallow to think that only "beautiful" people can have such a voice.

What a shame that we miss out on so many people and their talents simply because they don't fit into our definition of pretty or beautiful or cool or ________ . We judge others by the way they look. We make assumptions about intelligence, social ranking, economic status, and talents based on how we perceive someone else's physical beauty or, in our opinion, lack of it.

For example, a large, multi-level marketing company, advises its salespeople to buy a Cadillac and make sure to drive the Cadillac to appointments so potential customers will assume they make a lot of money selling their products and will want to sell the products as well. After all, it's the appearance that matters.

We are a visually stimulated people and because of that we make erroneous assumptions. Susan Boyle proved it perfectly when she sang. The looks on the judges faces was priceless as they realized their mistaken judgment of this woman's talent.

I hope Susan Boyle will become super successful. Even more, I hope people will realize that you can't judge a book by its cover. Bravo, Susan Boyle.