Isn’t it interesting how easily the human mind can seek and find evidence to support what it already believes rather than looking for alternate explanations.

Some people seem to be on the lookout for “signs” more than others, and will find them anywhere. It is important for a business to fix things that might be interpreted as “signs” but you have to put yourself in the other person’s shoes to find them (or listen to what they tell you).

For example, years ago there was a small parachuting operation that found they had a lot of first time skydivers showing up to their plane and then change their minds at the last minute. Not surprising, I suppose, but they were losing more customers than their competition.

To my knowledge their operation was as safe as any other, but their plane looked a little shabby so they gave it a new lick of paint. Did a new paint job fix the problem? No.

It took them a long time to see the problem themselves because, to regular skydivers, there was nothing to be scared of in what they do.

They eventually solved it by changing the registration of the plane, allowing them to change the registration letters painted prominently on the tail.

Their airplane’s old registration letters were “DOA”

(This was a reply I posted to the excellent VirginFlyingWithoutFear blog, where Paul and Richard discuss another example of someone taking three random letters as a sign. Worth a read!)