Matthew Hussey watches people rush airport gates before boarding is called and calls it herd mentality. He stays seated, reads, or calls loved ones instead, arguing that 45 minutes of productive waiting beats following the crowd.
Hello, it's Matthew Hussey here, and today I want to talk about something that really frustrates me immensely. It just so happens from my work, I'm on a lot of planes. I do lots of tours and seminars in different locations. So I'm always going from one place to the next. And I try and travel light and easy and efficient. And so whenever I'm at the airport and I see inefficiency, it just bothers me because it's like that, essentially, that's like my home. It's like seeing inefficiency inside my house because I'm there 50% of the time. So I'm at the airport. Every time I'm at the airport, the big thing that frustrates me is when I'm about to get on the plane and I know you've seen this now, as I say this, you're either going to be in one of two camps, the camp that I offend or the camp that's really annoyed by the same thing I'm annoyed by. So let's see. What really annoys me is when I'm about to get on my plane and I'm sitting there, I watch the guys, the stewardess say, okay, so the plane has just arrived and landed and we're going to be boarding in just a few minutes. And then everyone stands up. Everyone stands up, gets their bags like this plane is leaving without them in the next 10 minutes and start rushing the desk, and everyone just stands there. I sit there thinking, firstly, why has everyone stood up? Nothing is happening. And you know what? We all know that nothing is happening for the next 45 minutes. Everyone is standing there now, and people say, oh, you know, because I can get my luggage in the thing. I can put my bag in the top. Well, many people do this before their group has even been called. They stand there and they say, okay, we're building group one and two and groups three and four are just standing there like morons, just waiting. And I don't know why I'm sitting there. I'm having a lovely little time. I've got my book, little bit of Catcher in the Rye, sitting there reading away. Little Diet Coke, why not? I'm having a good time. I'm making a phone call to my mum. I'm building my relationships. Everyone else is stood there just waiting, just killing time in their lives. I don't get it. So if someone has a better answer for why people do this, please tell me. But here's what I think. I. I think that people are Inherently sheep. I think there are some leaders in life, but I think most people are just sheep. They just follow what everyone else does. They see everyone else stand up and everyone goes, oh well, I guess I should stand up right now. And everyone stands up. If everyone was sitting down, if everyone stayed seating, I guarantee those same people wouldn't get up. They wouldn't just be one person getting up, they go, oh well, it seems everyone's still seated. We should probably stay seated for a little while. It happens everywhere in life. People act like sheep. And my philosophy has always been this, you can follow the sheep, but it's always going to take you down the most crowded road in life. Instead, go the opposite direction. Your chances are always going to be better and quicker and more efficient than following what every other person is doing because they're only doing it because they see everyone else doing it in the first place. It's this weird psychotic loop that we all get into that drives me nuts. It's here's my challenge to you. The next time you're in this position at the airport and you see everyone rush to the desk when everyone's boarding, say, you know What? I've got 45 minutes right now to read a chapter of a book or to call someone I care about, or to learn something, or to study the city that I'm about to go to and find a great spot in that city. I have this time at my disposal to do something useful. And while everyone else is just standing there like these weird creatures, these zombies, just waiting for something to happen, I'm actually gonn make something happen in my life. And when it's ready, I'm gonna get on the frickin plane. Which was never gonna leave without me. Anyway, good luck my friends. I will see you soon. What did he call it? Sheeple. Sheeple. Well this is, that's kind of the playful name of this segment. Jameson's been just really hot on his puns recently.
