So I have this problem with a few people in my life. (You don’t know them, and anyway, that’s beside the point.) I wrote about it in the book but I’ll reiterate it here, because it’s worth it.
Reliability: It’s the big secret.
I’ve made the joke before that, before looking for people to work with, I check their Twitter account. If they tweet a lot, there’s no chance I’m working with them (Chris doesn’t sleep, so he’s obviously the exception).
Seriously though, there seems to be a direct correlation between amount of time spent on social media and ability to get work done. Think about it.
But I digress.
Reliability, the ability to answer email quickly, to answer questions, comments, or criticism in a timely way, to deliver projects on time, is a huge factor for how seriously people will treat you.
Imagine you have a person you’re working with, that you’re paying, but who won’t return your messages. In fact, you probably don’t have to imagine– it’s likely you really do have someone like this.
Maybe they’re creative, so you tolerate it. Or maybe you can’t find anyone else, or you’re lazy. Come on, you can admit it. ๐
For this reason, because everyone in social media seems to be WAY too forgetful, reliability is the one separator. And it’s the easiest thing to fix– if you get a system. So either do that, or learn to apologize– preferably, do both.
Which do you need to work on?
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