The Five Percent Rule

So, first of all, I have to give credit to person who caused me to assemble the Five Percent rule, Nozomi Shigihara. Thanks Naz!

The Five Percent Rule tool for observing human interaction.

It says: five percent of the people you meet, you will hate on sight. Not misunderstand/bad first impression, but oh-man-I-can't-stand-them. There is no hard reasoning behind this, it is based on your gut reaction to the person.

That's it.

Clearly some people hate everyone they meet. That does not make for a very useful rule name.

The usefulness of the rule comes in when you consider HOW you deal with it.

One end of the scale, you continue to treat the people who trigger the rule just like everyone else despite the obvious added effort of smiling nicely while trying not to throw up.

The other end of the scale is that you turn your back on whoever it is, waste no effort trying to be nice to them, and avoid any unnecessary interaction- of course, at the expense of any form of social grace.

Somewhere in the middle is proactive relationship with the rule. Recognize it and manage any situation involving one of your five-percent people, so, while not being either too polite or too rude, you lessen/minimize/remove contact with them.

Why is the Five Percent Rule worth mentioning?

It's interesting to appreciate your own relationship to the rule, both ends of it. You can end up on the other end of the rule, and when you do, it's good to know there's simply nothing you can do about it, and you should be prepared to accept it. The other person will come around, they'll learn to manage the rule- or they won't, and just being yourself is the best thing you can do.