DREWspective

[ originally posted Jan 17, 2010 @ 11:59 ]

This post is mostly unedited, because most of what I’ve originally said has proven to be true. One person, who shall not be named, managed to demonstrate all six of these in a single interaction.

Before I started writing this post, I had to think of a convenient name or acronym I could use to refer to certain kinds of people. Wayne Dyer once used the acronym NLP for what he called a “No Limit Person”, and women have the convenient term “weirdo” or “freak” for anyone who has a personality they don’t agree with. (Men have all kinds of terms for certain kinds of women.)

In the end, I opted for the acronym SCPP, standing for so-called positive person.

So-called positive people, or SCPPs, are poisonous and toxic people: they are actually what we’d call negative people in disguise. They’re those people who go around labelling others as either “positive” or “negative”, and usually claim to be “positive” people – while saying and doing arguably “negative” things. They differ from vanilla negative people (and negative thinkers) in that they have an unhealthily high regard for themselves, and a generally low regard for at least certain kinds of other people, if not everybody else.

SCPPs share exactly the same traits as “negative people”, but from my experience here are some traits that I’ve identified as being common among SCPPs.
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To date, almost every single web site I’ve launched has had negativity as the very first feedback received.

In beginning the rebuild of my personal website (drewmaughan.com), I was criticised by two different recruitment agents over my copy. One didn’t like the fact I said things about bad clients, the other wanted to be “offended” because they misread what I said about recruitment agents.

In all seriousness, whether or not anyone agrees with their conduct, their reactions got me thinking about two distinct things: having a reputation, and having an image.

Reputation

Reputation, according to Wiktionary, is:

what somebody is known for

Someone is said to have a reputation based on things they’ve already done, and I would add to that: things they have done consistently.

If someone provides excellent service 99 times out of 100, it’s likely they will have a reputation for providing excellent service.

Image

Image, according to Wiktionary, is:

…an artifact . . . that has a similar appearance to some subject–usually a physical object or a person.

Someone’s image can basically be what other people see with their eyes, but it also has to do with how someone presents themselves. Looks in this case aren’t just aesthetic: some people can improve their appearance by using all the correct buzzwords, using body language and other tricks.

Both are important

As I began to realise not so long ago, it’s important to maintain both a reputation and an image.

I tend to focus most of my attention on my reputation: I wanted to be known as the guy who could get the job done, where existing employees couldn’t or were just lazy. “Say what you want about me,” I wanted people to think, “but I am good at what I do – and you can’t take that away from me.”

I didn’t give a rat’s arse about my image, because I’m of the belief that a nice face and body could only get someone so far. (I didn’t realise at the time that image was more than just aesthetics.) But above all else, I discovered over time that people’s opinion of me had very little to do with what I actually said or did – therefore I couldn’t change it.

As far as image goes: I look like the web developer version of Columbo.

One reason why reputation is so important for me, was because I’ve seen a lot of companies, agents, clients and people appearing to be obsessed with their image, and how they appear to other people. They want to be seen as being the best, seen as being competent and seen as being superior to all others. They want to look like they know what they’re doing.

And oftentimes, it’s at the expense of not actually knowing what they’re doing.

Image-obsessed people usually promise the world when delivering their services, then quickly pass the buck to their subordinates (or to other people) when it’s time to back themselves up.

Most of the time, an image-obsessed person is only interested in covering things up – and not actually resolving the problem – to stay “looking good”.

You’re making me look bad

is an image-obsessed person’s only concern.

But I realise it’s important to look after both one’s reputation and one’s image. They both take a long time to develop, and both can be destroyed in one fell swoop.

And it’s not only important to have both a reputation and an image, but they must also be consistent: on their own, as well as with each other.

For one, if we don’t maintain a reputation or an image consistent with ourselves, we don’t actually have a reputation or an image to protect.

For another, imagine what would happen if our reputation and our image aren’t in line…

• Someone whose reputation is very good but has a poor image, would find it difficult to get their foot in the door in any industry, simply because most people focus on looks.
• Someone with an image “everybody” likes but has a poor reputation may land the job, but will have a hard time keeping it. (Unless you’re in management. )

In many cases, I was focused so much on doing a great job that I didn’t take the time to socialise, or even to make an effort to look good in the office. The result has usually been that I get more work to do, while the other employees go off to chit-chat and play games – which ultimately (and funnily enough) gives me an image of being antisocial.

There are a lot of things I can do on my part to improve on my image, whether it’s to do with aesthetics or personality. Losing weight (again) is a big one.
However, I see the problem as being too much inconsistency between the image and the reputation of the people I’ve been around, which eventually rubs off on others by changing their perception of the world and the marketplace.

To clarify: I’m not saying that everyone – or anyone – is bad; just suggesting that they’ve been inconsistent, and that inconsistency irks me.

What do you think? Are reputation and image equally important, or is one more than the other?

A couple of years ago I made my longest, arguably most epic YouTube video to date: Best Chadwarden Parody Moments Remix.
It went out on the 14th March (the edge of the 13th March in the USA), which was a day later than I really wanted. (The 13th March was the day the original Chadwarden video had been uploaded.)

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[ originally posted Oct 31, 2009 @ 6:51, as "10 Words YOU MUST Erase from your Vocabulary" ]

Almost a year ago I received an email about article writing, which itself was presented an example of good article writing. (Most of these American “gurus” are known for blowing their own trumpets.)

As a result of this email, I was inspired to find out whether other people, as well as myself, had elected to remove certain words from their vocabulary. I came across one such article by a woman named Barbara Henry, who explains which ten words she’s “removed”.
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