Mental Patient Masquerades As Doctor?

Funny thing happened on the way to becoming successful. I ran into a few crazy people…

You never expect that kind of bat-crap crazy to come at you, but yet there it is. You are going along minding your own business when people come down with a spirit of weird and need an exorcism.

I own my own business (more than one actually.) I hang around other business owners. The people that I do business with seem to care about how they look and how they dress. They are usually polite and mind their manners because that is what professional people do. They would lose business if they were rude, or if they jumped to wild conclusions about prospective customers.

Sometimes we may select a business associate with care or be watchful to see if we would mesh well with a client especially if it is someone we will have to do business with on a long term basis but it is really not a fruitful enterprise to be full of judgement and blame within the first 30 seconds, and I believe that most true business people know this.

So today I visit the ladies room after a meeting and the oddest encounter ensues. A gal begins chatting with me and seems friendly and normal enough. She tells me she is in the psychiatry field and owns her own business. Naturally because I own a networking company that brings people together for referrals and warm leads I suggest that we get together at a later date to discuss it or possibly have her come out to an event. She tells me she has more than enough business and does not need any leads because she has lots of referrals already. I am about to move on politely when she changes her mind and offers her card and I agree to give her my own.

I glance at her plain card thinking to myself that she needs some marketing help and I ask her if she is on LinkedIn? I like to connect with people on LinkedIn as it is a good way to keep in touch and it is often  the first thing that I do with a card when I get home. Her response was a bit strange. She seemed to freeze up at the mentioning of social media. I tried to encourage her that it may be helpful for her business if she was on this business platform as it helps people discover a little more about oneself and it can be the determining factor between choosing one service provider over another. I could tell from her body language that she was suddenly uncomfortable so I just decide to smile and thank her and move on. I was just trying to help her out but for whatever reason she was not open to help so I thought it would be better to just let it go. I get back to the table where a business associate is waiting for me and I take out my pen and write a note to myself on the back of the card.

A few minutes pass and I am deep in discussion with my associate when this woman comes tearing towards us and rudely interrupts our conversation. She accuses me of being condescending and that I treated her badly in some way. She makes some reference to the fact that I am so much younger than her and that I have wrongly jumped to the conclusion that someone her age would not know or understand social media and I have somehow dishonored an elder. My associate begins to engage her in an argument chastising her for interrupting and being unprofessional. She demands her business card back and says she wants nothing to do with us and storms off.

I was dumbfounded. The age comment really threw me. Why? Because I am pretty sure that there is no more than a 5 year difference if there is one at all! But I look younger. I am a positive person. I dress kind of young,  I am perky and confident and I believe that a good attitude does cause us to look and feel more youthful.  I had been wearing a black dress, stockings and high boots with a colorful scarf. My hair is also colored hiding the years effectively.  In contrast this gal was dressed very casually and her hair was not concealing her age and she also wore a variety of fears in the lines on her face.  She is definitely afraid of the wrong person having her card, afraid of being on social media, afraid of trying new things and definitely threatened by another woman giving her any kind of advice. She was also obviously self-conscious about her age and appearance. I would not even have noticed either had she not brought it into question.

The sad and shocking part though was that this is someone who is in the business of giving other people therapy. Really? Wow…

I just don’t know what to say about that…

Was she really a doctor? Or was she an escaped mental patient masquerading as a doctor?

After she stormed off she must have turned that card over and read the note I wrote on the back. I wonder what she thought of that?  It said, “Not interested in LinkedIn/NEGATIVE PERSON.”

She was so worried about me calling her, I had already identified on the card that this was not someone I was going to call. I have nobody I could recommend her to. I absolutely do not know anyone who needs a negative therapist. I can only imagine that these abundant referrals that are already piling up for her must be coming from a government agency that only checks the credentials instead of the fruitfulness of a therapist. If you need a good therapist I will connect you with someone else...

Don't use the guy below either...

Always Loyal2U,

Kerry George