Susan Boyle and Paul Potts - What They Did Right and What We Can Learn from Them

The element of surprise and witnessing the totally unexpected brought the world's spotlight onto Susan Boyle in her audition for Britain's Got Talent.

It's called shock value, and it's eerily familiar to what we witnessed with the likable Paul Potts when he first performed on Britain's Got Talent.

Do you think the entire world would have made such a fuss over Susan's incredible voice had they already known how good she really is and had been expecting the stellar performance she rendered?

I continue to be moved emotionally each time I see that video clip. Susan expresses so much passion and belief in herself as the entire audience rolls their eyes in anticipation of the expected performance they thought would be a complete embarrassment for the unknown lady named Susan Boyle.

She stands her ground and proudly admits she wants to be a professional singer and be as famous as the renowned Elaine Paige. There is an audible gasp of surprise and laughter from the doubtful crowd.

To put it bluntly, it was downright rude! Shame on them for making their negative thoughts and low expectations of her so obvious.

And shame on me and all of us for thinking the same thing as we watched the initial part of the video clip for the first time. We all pre-judged Susan.

She taught us all a valuable lesson once the music began as she "rocked" the audience with her incredible voice.

We were all so surprised and overwhelmed with how wrong we were in our erroneous assessment of Susan that we had to share the experience with others right away. There have already been millions and millions of video views of her audition experience.

Susan really is "that good," but that alone would not have given her immediate worldwide exposure. We loved realizing the fact that we could change our impression of someone so fast as we cheered her on. It helped that she picked such an appropriate piece of music that fit so well with her abilities and the given situation. I think that we also loved watching Simon melt in seconds as he sighed and smiled like a love-struck school boy.

Whatever it was, it worked. Susan has given us all something to cheer for.

I believe there are at least two things we can learn from this...

-The first lesson is one that we all know and feel guilty about forgetting. We should never wrongfully judge another person by making faulty assumptions or pre-judgments concerning them.

-The second lesson is that we should never let other people stop us from chasing what we believe to be a worthy cause and a worthwhile dream. Susan could have decided to not audition in the first place on account of the possibility of failing in front of a large crowd.

We are all grateful that Susan did make the decision to audition. She deserves the chance she has been given. It truly was a "wake-up call" for many and we are better people for having seen and shared in her experience.