I Can't Remember Faces, So Why Not Go Into Sales ?
( Well, Duh.. )
For someone with PPG 'dummy me' chose the wrong vocation. Since working for someone else was unbelievably stressful for me I opted to be self-employed. Not realizing my problem was anything but just being 'poor' with faces I got into sales. Maybe I thought it would get better with practice as I was in it for over 20 years. My partner and I traveled a regular circuit. We developed a faithful clientele of customers who followed us show to show . But each time I would see a someone approaching with that 'she knows me' look I'd have to be hurriedly prompted " "Here comes one of our favorite customers, Gail, she was here buying blah blah yesterday, she spent a lot of money, she's always at our shows, say 'hi". Each day I relied my partner's help . I was lost without her. I couldn't have stayed in business without her, not a week . I didn't need her to sell or do the books as much as identify customers for me . She was my 'seeing eye companion' But it sort of evened out, as once she described where I should know the person from, I could usually give her the name. She's poorer with names than I am, and I'm not great with that, as knowing a name is near useless if you can't mentally associate it with a face.
When , occasionally, my partner was sick and couldn't do a show I got totally freaked. I generally dropped the show, but if I had to go I did poor sales as I remembered no one. I'd more likely insult someone by inadvertently mixing them up with someone else or I'd talk about something they knew nothing of, inevitably confusing them with someone else. The continual 'deer-in-the-headlights' look was on my face as I scrambled to recall our dearest customers , co-workers and friends. My partner would have a lot of damage control to do later !
Even when she was there I dreaded the times she took a bathroom break or lunch because surely that would be the interval when one of our top 10 favorite customers would stop by and my partner would come back and find me attending to others while ignoring a good and steady customer without a glance or greeting. Customers of 15 years standing were just more blank faces in the crowd. I still love sales, though I'm out of it. But if I had to do it over I would have chosen a catalog business where you deal with names and data, certainly not one where your customers have to be distinguished from one another. Unfortunately my skills to do sales, anything.. cars, homes, etc. conflict with my avoidance to go anywhere alone (without my 'seeing-eye' partner) . While most jobs allow companion pets, they don't allow 'seeing-eye' humans.
Now They Got Ramps..Congress Should Mandate A Name Tag Law
After moving to a big city I changed to a job where all bosses and co-workers wore name tags (a dream come true). I knew who everyone was unless they turned their name tags around (which many did because they hated the pictures). My only worry was , again, remembering the customers (they didn't wear name tags). After more than a year there, and much interaction with frequent customers I finally learned to differentiate about a dozen of them. But being unable to interact better with more people daily was a constant strain and embarrassment and a major source of stress leading to a nervous breakdown and involuntary unemployment. Now regular employment terrifies me . How can I deal with this quirky malady and still hope to function in traditional work .
Imagine your first day at work someplace. First days are stressful because there is so much 'newness', unfamiliarity. You get introduced to everyone , try to learn your location, where is this room, that office, where do they put this ,and that. Who sits next to you, who is the assistant head supervisor, etc. etc. Fine , you sort this all out and accomplish a bit of work. The next few days it gets easier and you get into the groove. But what if every day is like the first day ? Each day you see unfamiliar people (evidently all over again ) ?Can you keep asking who they are ? Will they always stay at their desk ? (Of course 'temps' handle the unfamiliar daily, but they're not expected to remember everybody either) . For me it's like the first day every day. I'm always on edge and apprehensive.
Let's say I get an office job.. If I'm given a memo to deliver to Marge , just which one in the heck is Marge (if she's not at her desk,) and how many times can I confuse her with Denise or Jen who sort of look similar ? Is that the boss I see coming towards me, or should I say "can I help you?" Maybe the first week making those kinds of goofy mistakes may be allowable, but 3 months later you'd have used up all your points and just be considered retarded.
I Didn't Know That's The Car You've Been Driving
For The Past Three Years
I don't know what corollary deficits attend PPG in others. Besides not remembering faces could PPG be why I can't remember generic objects, cars, houses, etc ? I thought cars looked alike to everyone, I never questioned that assumption until I tested bad in it. Other people can tell cars apart ? How quaint. If you ask me to describe my mother's car I can tell you it's green. That's it, it's green and car shaped. Is PPG why I don't know 'locations' well ? If a store is in a particular area of town I couldn't give you directions to it even if I've been there a dozen times. But I can find my way around by reading maps and using other cues .I didn't know I had a problem until I tested for it. Then I realized I was using a very good compensatory mechanism; I just drive the correct street until I find the place I'm looking for .
Hmm, Maybe Those Of Us With PPG
Are Smarter Than The Average :-)
If I'd known that PPG was the price to pay for the blessings I now have , I might have volunteered for it because luckily, because of it or in spite of it , I've been the recipient of more
than my share of verbal, intellectual and spatial gifts.
The people who have written of sharing this disability seem to be a very bright group of individuals. Evidently our brains are abundantly endowed as far as intellectual capacity goes. Scientists have not studied enough, nor arrived at cut and dried conclusions as to what else may be affected or enhanced when one has PPG . Could that be why I'm an oddball-eccentric? Is eccentricity germane to this disability, or maybe part of it ? I love to play chess. I'm a night owl. I'm creative. I'm a social recluse. I have tested high in intelligence. I'm gay. I'm a nonconformist. Is this just me, or is this part of a syndrome ? Possibly, as in the way that deaf people develop an enhanced sense of sound, prosopagnosics have to exercise other brain areas thus gaining more proficiency by making unique neural connections.
One famous maxim that relates to interpersonal success states
" It's not WHAT you know, but WHO you know " . That's undoubtedly and sadly true. We ,with PPG, can't even recognize our potential network of benefactors and social allies. Thus we ,
often fail to make the solid, lasting interpersonal and business bonds that lead to rewarding careers.
Still, It's not the worst disability people have, I wouldn't trade it for loss of sight or hearing, nor losing limbs or mobility, but had I recognized PPG early on, it might have made a large difference in my emotional, vocational, and personal plans, I might have worked around it .There's classes I didn't take, jobs I couldn't accomplish, friends I couldn't keep because PPG has kept me from fully functioning in normal social pathways.
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