Social networking and confusion of charity.
I have often wondered many things one of the biggest I seem
to get stuck on is helping others, sometimes to the point of pain, others
quietly unseen. Sometimes I am not even sure why I do, others I see my own
selfishness. Some I choose, some I don’t. There may be a whole personal side
and many reasons I will or will not choose to move.
Where I get stuck the most is when that crosses from the
reality of personal to responsibilities of business or the other flat side of
that same coin. Being responsible to business crosses the lines of personal.
With all this social media, all these sites to jump into
covering everything from who I work with, or hope to, to what I had for dinner,
there seems this complete blur on the lines of personal and business. I have even
seen the advent of new careers in this confusion; we call them personal
coaches, business coaches, extra. Not
that that is new as a career, I mean really how to make money helping others is
a very large industry and has been around for centuries. I even make a few
dimes in this area critiquing and mentoring.
Something I learned form years of addiction counseling, you
can tell a rock to move for free, even charge that rock for your time, that
rock is not going to move. It’s a rock.
I am really pre digital when it comes to who I am, age and
all them memories of wall mounted phones being moved to the desktop, next to
that thing we called a rolodex, when a copier was the most talked about
business solution. I guess that makes me old school to the younger generations.
With that I built an old school service with my smiley face, and keep on truckin
tee shirts and all.
Part of that old school stuff is developing personal
relationships with the people who I work with; this is not something that all
this technology has changed, for me it is a time together working relationship,
there is no such thing as instant relationships. Sure there are acquaintances,
and friendships built at distance, by phone, email, even sites like Facebook. With this ever changing world of digital and
cloud it is great to build more attention, and new relationships however they
still take time and effort to build.
Asking me for an endorsement of your work clearly falls
under critiquing, asking me how to develop a style, a presents of your work, or
abilities clearly falls under mentoring.
Yet here I set with endorsements, and thousands of
acquaintances, yet few take the time it takes to even look at my work. I can
laugh about this today, while this happened it stung, I had been working with a
young model who has taken the time to hang out and invest personal time into
getting a better photo session and hopefully more new work. For months I had
been developing a relationship teaching how to achieve that look spontaneously
quickly and professionally. I found out she only looked at my portfolio once.
That stings! So much for all this instant now stuff; a
working relationship still requires time and effort. An endorsement or referrals
are earned not given. An acquaintance is an attempt to get to know me and them
I, it is the beginning of a relationship, not the results there of.
A business referral is something that carries very strong
weight with me, from whom my service provider is, to who I suggest you work
with carries that piece of me with it, my suggestion, my word. I also expect
that in return.
There is no charity in this, this is business. With the
advent of all this social media forums, threads, instant now expressions and
quick text messaging I seem to wonder about old school values about being who
you are also being forgotten or over looked.
I am me from the moment I get up until the moment I go to
sleep each night, I am okay with that, I have a profession a thing I do and
have done for years, it is how I make my living, am I perfect no not by a long
shot. I am honest asking me how I ended up on skid roll once or twice. For me
my profession is my life, not just my livelihood. It is something I have
extreme pride in, something I have worked very hard to do, something to show I
was here.
Asking me for a business referral after becoming an
acquaintance, friend or connecting with me yesterday goes against everything I
am about. Asking me to endorse you, you better include a check, or a mutual
gain perspective. Asking me to give you a character reference better have a lot
of character if I met you yesterday.
A career is something you work at, at least for me. I
believe that; To achieve great things, first dream great dreams! I also believe
that to do that you have to work at it each day, take a step in that right
direction each day. I believe that risks with effort are worth it, even if you
miss your mark you learned from the effort, thus making the next mark that much
easier to reach. I believe that success is putting consistent work together.
I believe in the physics of social networking, the law of
attractions, attention is attention in business that means things will get
better all around in every industry. Also believe in Darwin
Alas I was not made yesterday. I am not a package of instant
breakfast. There is no instant endorsement, instant success.
No comments:
Post a Comment