Three Sentences That Saved A Life
When a rabbi, a priest, a doctor, and a hundred firemen and policemen fail to “sell” a man on life and three sentences convince the man not to commit suicide – that is front page news! It was front page news recently in newspapers nationally, when a manufacturer, bored with life, went to the roof of a New York hotel and prepared to jump eighteen stories to his death. He was noticed climbing over the wall to a nine-inch ledge, from which he was going to leap to the street below. A secretary in the hotel screamed, and the man hesitated.
Hotel employees ran out on the roof. They asked the man not to jump, but he kept moving dangerously toward the nine-inch ledge. His mind was shattered.
Records of the incident showed the following conversation and the various underlying appeals used by the many people who, during the eight-minute roof drama, tried to dissuade the man from taking his life:
Self-Preservation – Religious Sentences
RABBI: PRIEST:
“It is against your RELIGION to take your own life!” “Don‟t do anything you‟ll REGRET, my good man!” “You will seriously INJURE yourself if you jump!”
DOCTOR: FIREMEN:
“Don‟t jump – get back – you‟ll fall!” “Get off that ledge – wanna get killed!”
POLICE:
Sensing that these appeals to self-preservation and the man‟s religion were failing, and that he was walking closer to the ledge, preparing to jump the eighteen stories to his death, Miss Diane Gregal, vice president of Tested Selling Institute, who was called to the scene, used these appeals:
Personal Comfort Appeals
“Shall I get you a cup of coffee?” “Would you like a glass of wine?”
When these appeals to the man‟s personal comforts like-wise failed, and as he was about to jump, Miss Gregal began to appeal to the man‟s VANITY!
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