Branding, Integrity, and Handling Mistakes
Branding, Integrity, and Handling Mistakes Integrity is not just a smart and moral way to navigate your personal life. It’s also part of your professional branding, and it will inevitably affect your business success. This past weekend I performed for a new client. They had previously booked another performer, but he phoned them to cancel his appearance just a day and a half before the event. They were not convinced that his “double booked” story was true, and he did not make an effort to replace himself but simply left them to pick up the pieces. I got the call, charged them a higher price (I simply could not match his low-ball fee), and got uniformly great feedback afterward. As a bonus, I expect significant additional work from this client. The truth is that the other performer may have indeed honestly and accidentally double-booked himself. Mistakes happen to everyone. But there is no excuse not to have gone to the client with a solution in hand, already having made arrangements to replace himself. There are literally dozens of performers in this area – at a range of skill and price points – and he should have at least reached out to a couple of them so that he would have options on the table when contacting the client about his error. The best possibility is that other performer made an honest mistake. On the other hand, he also may simply have ditched them for a “better” or more lucrative gig. I prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt, and I did so even when this client expressed their suspicion. But by leaving the client stressed, without easy options, and convinced that they had been ditched for a higher-paying opportunity, he spoiled any chance of working for them in the future. He also eliminated any possibility that he might get future “overflow” work from me because of the way he chose to handle the situation: leaving a client hanging rather than taking the initiative to attempt to replace himself. You and I will make mistakes, too. But how we handle those mistakes will be a good indicator of our integrity, our commitment to our clients, and to our own professional reputations. “Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of — for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” ― Socrates
Pride Goes Before the Fall – So Stay Proud!
Pride Goes Before the Fall – So Stay Proud! I’m sure you’ve heard the idiom “Pride goes before the fall” sometime in your life. You may recognize it as coming from the Bible – Proverbs 16:18, to be exact. In the original context, it is a traditional two-part warning: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” But modern English usage has shortened it to “Pride goes before the fall.” It’s generally used in the context of warning people that overconfidence and hubris often precede defeat, humiliation, or setback… usually because the excess pride led to complacency or mistakes. A stuck-up person can be blind to his or her weaknesses and fail to acknowledge his vulnerabilities. Warning people to avoid that pitfall is good advice. There is, however, another way to interpret “Pride goes before the fall,” but it requires that we split the concept “pride” into two component parts. Zenegra https://www.wolfesimonmedicalassociates.com/zenegra/ One part is hubris and haughtiness. That arrogant, overconfident element is a vice and is what the original proverb is warning against. It is about not merely elevating your perception of yourself, but diminishing others as well. It is an unloving and unwise characteristic and certainly as deadly a sin as we’ve been taught. But I believe, as have many before me, that underneath the vice, there is a virtuous element of pride, specifically, the state of being pleased or gratified with the result of good performance, whether your own or someone else’s. Even Christians are taught that we should desire to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.” That compliment is clearly intended to engender a combination of gratitude and pleasure at a job “well done.” Generic Ambien online https://www.gastonpharmacy.com/ambien.php The negative aspects of pride are, as always, a perversion of a virtue; that is, being proud to an extreme that goes beyond what is merited. Warnings against haughtiness are warranted. But it is both unreasonable and unwise to abandon the feeling of pride in true work and true value. If your work merits approval, then there is nothing wrong with being pleased that you’ve done a task well, that you’ve delivered the value expected of you, or that you’ve performed at a high level. In fact, I think that such pride in one’s work and one’s workmanship is a necessary component of a successful, prosperous society and a successful, prosperous brand. And that’s where the second interpretation comes in. When that virtuous pride is gone, your society will fall. When you stop taking pride in your work, your achievements will slow and stop. When you stop taking pride in your family, your relationships will weaken. When you stop taking pride in your community, your society will crumble. When you stop expecting others to demonstrate pride in what they do, overall quality of output will decline. When pride goes, a fall is sure to follow. It is smart to avoid hubris and arrogance. It is wise to avoid being unrealistic about your weaknesses and vulnerabilities. It takes humility to accept that you still need to improve. But in the same way you look at your shortcomings with an honest eye, you must also look at your achievements on their real merits, and take pride in doing a job well. You have a right to be proud of your brand and the things that you do to strengthen it. Enjoy your success – not in a haughty way, but in the context of building on your momentum to achieve more.
