The child, coming from a foreign country, did not have many friends. One day, out of the blues a friend invited him to his farm the next day. So the child, with his mom (the author), waited at the school gate the next day, only to find his friend missing the appointment.
It turned out that the friend was just "casually talking about it" and since the friend had something else to do, totally ignored the promise. Since the kid was not her child, the author couldn't possibly lecture the kid about one's "credibility". The author then taught her child to be a credible person who always keep to his promise.
When her kid graduated, she saw the kid's classmate wrote an interesting testimonial for him. "You may not have realized this, but you are the most trustworthy person I've ever met. There's no worry that you will miss any appointment. You are always punctual for any event."
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So, today this post is gonna talk about "credibility" and "promise".
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Seriously, I am stuck. I had a lot of inspiration a few days ago when I read the article. But since my exam was coming I didn't post about it. And now...the inspirations are gone~! T.T I guess I should just type what I remember then. Sorry this post is gonna be a little disorganized. @.@
I sorta feel that, people nowadays take promises very lightly. That's why all plans usually ended up messy. Now, I sometimes don't even see the need to plan things in detail, because they don't go accordingly. For example, a dinner that is suppose to start at 7pm, we have to get everyone to come at 5pm. If you say "let's meet at 7pm", chances are, you're gonna get frustrated big big time.
Sure we don't see a problem. We know that people's gonna be late what. Just say we gonna start early la! But it's very unfair for people who are punctual, no? Punctual people sacrificed their time to wait for the "real time" aka 7pm.
To me, punctuality reflects one's personality. One who's always late has no consideration for the others, and therefore, does not worth my respect. If you're always late on me, I too will be late on you. You no respect I, I no respect you, simple.
Perhaps easy communication these days make people find less importance in "promises". If any problems arise, we can always contact the others and say so. But then again, breaking promises is costly to BOTH parties. The one who break promises again and again, you are gonna lose all your credibility and nobody's gonna believe in you again. The one who is always the victim, had to sacrifice his/her own resources (time, money, etc) to accommodate to the "change in plan". Take the example of the author's case, they had to sacrifice the time to wait for the friend, and maybe any cost of travelling or preparation for the outing.
The best illustration that communication affects credibility: my experience as an "ahmad". I remember in the past, when I went for any birthday party, I would tell my dad, "pa, event is starting at 1pm and ends at 6pm". I would reach by 12:50pm, and event would start around 1pm. And then by 5:30pm, event is near its end, and I can leave by 6pm.
Now, when I need to fetch my brother around, he always tell me "I will call you when it ends". To me, it's damn frustrating. Cause' I can't go anywhere! I need to wait for him to call me. When I ask him "can't you give me a specific time?" He would tell me "I dunno also! They say 6pm, but always end late one!" And the same thing applies to fetching him home from co-curricular activities.
Yea, everyone now owns a handphone. That's why communication is easy. Unlike last time, everything must be planned early, and must go according to plan. Because any deviation is costly to adjust.
But poor event management does affect the organizer's credibility. Seriously. I myself hate going to events organize by "this gang" because it never go according to plan. "This gang", really have a lot of problem in events and they make phone calls to adjust like nobody's business. And the participants like us, in the end, wait and wait and wait. For example, a barbecue dinner was supposed to start at 7pm. I was told that someone would fetch me from my home. So I got ready and waited since 6:30pm. And the person got another person to come pick me up at 7:45pm. I was starving, but never mind, I thought I got to eat by 8pm. But in the end, the driver told me that there's more errands to run. The driver had to drop people, pick up another person, buy some utensils because they didn't prepare, etc etc. I ended up reaching at 9:30. Yes, 9:30 for dinner. Don't you think that the deviation is a bit too much? If we are late by 1 hour, ok la that's still acceptable. But 2.5 hours? I mean, it's not the driver's fault, it's the event organizer's fault for making the driver to do so much. The driver was a victim too. and 2.5 hours is actually a pretty "normal" delay in their activities.
Like the author's case, your credibility is built by your actions. People don't trust you just because you are some big shot or famous. You need to build up your reputation. Start by doing simple things like keeping promises to your friends (party, gathering, study group, discussion etc etc), being punctual, do proper planning, and avoid last minute changes. Not only you are helping people around you, you actually help building your own reputation and credibility.
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Ok, I know this post is really messy and stuff, I'm really sorry. Cause' I really can't find the flow that I wanted to write the other day. >< My point is, KEEP TO YOUR PROMISES, and DON'T CHANGE THE PLAN LAST MINUTE. That's all.
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