Translator: neil li Reviewer: Elisabeth Buffard
One one thousand, two one thousand,
three one thousand,
How many of you have already decided?
You're wondering, decided what?
Well, they tell us that we have between three and ten seconds
before people make up their mind whether they like us, or not.
I used to think on that, how is that possible ?
I read an article recently that indicated that our eyes
can take in 7.3 gigabytes of information per second.
7.3 gigs per second. Let me put that in perspective:
I have a laptop, it's got 821 gigabytes of space left.
In a matter of seconds,
you folks would crash my laptop,
and it really would make me mad!
The eyes are such powerful instruments.
Let me ask you question:
how many of you agree that eye contact during the communication
is extremely important?
Raise your hand!
Practically everybody.
Now how many of you know the proper way to make eye contact?
Raise you hand.
Nobody raised their hand! Ah, there's three!
Two, three!
It's amazing that I get that same response whenever I ask that question.
Here is the deal, today you are in luck.
I'm going to share with you the proper way to make eye contact
and I hope from the moment you leave this room,
until... well forever, that you always use this technique.
You always look your listener or the speaker,
when you must make eye contact,
you look at them into their left eye.
What? Look at them through their left eye.
Now I didn't make this up,
It's backed by a philosophy.
It's backed by science and medicine.
And it's backed by practical application.
Philosophy: a gentleman named Roger Sperry opined that
when you have an aneurism on the right side of your brain,
you are going to have your left side of your body affected,
you have a stroke.
And it's not as common
but if you have an aneurism on the left side of your brain,
the right side of your body is affected.
Now I misspoke, this is the medical part of it.
But the gentleman Roger Sperry opine that our right hemisphere
tells our left brain or left eye what to see.
Our right brain tells our left eye what to see.
So more medical or science to back up the left eye logic is that
if you talk to your local optometrist or ophtamologist, they gonna tell you
that your left-eye lens has nerves that cross over
and go into your right brain.
So your nerve endings to your left eye
are connected to your right brain.
The philosopher tells you that your right brain
tells your left eye what to see.
What's all that mean?
The reason that this is important is we spend most of our time
trying to convince someone to do something:
either we're in sales, and we're trying to make a sale;
we are parents, we try to convince children to do the right thing;
we are husband and wife and we're trying to convince our spouse
that we should take this vacation.
The secret to getting to 'yes' is by looking them in the left eye
when you make that eye contact.
We're odd! Scientifically, philosophically, okay!
It was time for me to put it to practical use.
So even when I came out here -
it's kind of dark but I can see you -
I looked on left side of your face
because I knew I was gonna ask you
how many you have decided
I knew you were gonna make up your minds
whether you liked me or not,
so I had to hedge my bet.
What I want to make sure
is that everyone of you really get this:
when I began to practically look at people in their left eye,
something else happened that I didn't intend:
I could see the pupils of the person I was speaking to.
Why is that important? Because physiologically,
if your pupils dilate when someone is speaking to you
or when you're speaking to someone else,
that means that person is interested in what's being said.
However if the pupils constrict and they look like the top of a pin,
that person has no time for you, they're not interested
they can't wait for you to stop talking.
In the sales world, we called those people pushy salespeople.
How many of you love pushy salespeople?
No one! And... somebody raised their hand in the back.
What happens when we get pushy salesperson
and they're not paying attention to the signs?
But if they were looking at eyes, and watched the pupils,
they'd understand
that a constricted pupil says, "We need more information".
And what I typically will do is say,
"listen! I can tell that you still have something that's bothering you.
Let's talk about it."
And then hopefully you'll tell me
and I could literally overcome that particular objection
and watch the pupils grow.
And as the pupils grow, I'll know it's now time for me to say,
"What is it that you want to do next?" and you'll close the sale.
Left-eye contact. Let's do this,
really quick, I want you turn to the person next to you,
I want you to look them in the left eye, introduce yourself to them
but you must look at in the left eye, let's do it really quick.
OK, raise your hand if you thought that was weird.
(Laughter)
Here's the deal, it feels weird at first because you're wondering
things like "Can they tell that I'm looking at their left eye?"
or it just feels weird to you when you're trying to do it?
Trust me! They can't tell, there's no difference!
It's just eye contact, but I have to tell you something,
there are two other occasions where the left eye logic won't work:
when it is dark in the room, our pupils dilate
(Laughter)
and also if you're on drugs, you're pupils will dilate.
So all things being equal, if you're in a sales environment,
you have some light
and you'll be able to tell if that person is truly interested.
I am at a disadvantage here because...
I got it!
Two minutes! Can I have a volunteer?
because I am not quit sure that you are sold on this left eye logic
and I need to make sure that everybody understands.
Have you met me before today? No? Just few minutes ago.
Will you do something for me? Extend your left arm.
Now I am gonna ask you question.
Actually, I'm gonna give you a command.
No matter what I do, I will not be able to push your left arm down.
But I need you say that for me with conviction.
And don't let me to push your left arm down. Say it.
Man: No matter what you do, you can't push my left arm down.
RW: Now you heard when he introduced me,
I work out a lot.
(Laughter)
Man: I've been too!
So I put pressure on your arm.
(Laughter) (Applause)
OK, this time, same thing,
no matter what, you're not going to let me push it down.
Tell me that with conviction, and mean it.
Man: no matter what you do, you cannot push my left arm down.
Why do you feel that way?
(Laughter)
Thank you very much!
Man: Good job!
So what you've just witnessed
is that when I asked him the original question,
he put that arm up there,
he is in his right brain, he's been creating his emotional center,
he is invested, his left brain cannot make decisions.
His left brain only knows analytics and numbers.
So when I paused and I asked him that question,
his left brain kicked in
and I was able to get past his right brain
and push his arm down.
The left-eye logic works.
I'm just going to leave you with this:
all of you have been left-eyed today
(Laughter)
And the only thing that I ask
is that you go out and left-eye others.
Thank you!
(Applause)