I am on a trip, traveling to an island with a ticket paid not by me. The guy who invited me I was told he is very careful with who he invites to his wonderful summer house. My friends think I got lucky, but is it luck? What I did to have a free ride. As I am writing this one memory comes up.
It was late night in the city center and me walking around to find a friend. Suddenly, a small group of familiar faces waved their hands to me. They were sitting outside of a bar among others. With this people, I participated in a series of courses about self-branding, marketing and business plan presentation about some cat-food gourmet products. With one of them we were teammates. I stopped to join them and catch up with our news. Each of one told his story about places he went, people he met and all this crazy-exciting-shit stuff he did with his friends. When the subject hit the career, you know, the thing that you need to work your ass on to have enough money to feel independent, things got a little un-comfy. Why? Because part of our success is to feel that we perform better than others measured by how much we earn.
As we kept going the discussion of careers I noticed people were gossiping about why their boss is dressed like that or about their colleague that trying to make funny videos on YouTube and asked their opinion, or even about other people who are gossiping.
Anyway, my turn came, long story short, I mentioned that I work occasionally for a guy for a few days now who pays quite well per hour and my job is the classification of documents and photos (yes, it's very boring). I said, due to an internship I did for a Charity organization which he is not directly involved, he like my work and hired me. Some ask me what he is doing for a living or if he has rich friends, one even ask me if knew his zodiac sign to determine his character.
Why should I fucking care about all this information?
No, I shouldn't care. If the person wants to tell me things from his life I am more than welcome to listen, but I will not seek it by myself.
The 3 things that keep building you trust and respect.
First, do the job that you promised and meet the deadline. Any less than that people will start to consider you less trustful.
Secondly, do a little extra effort on top. If they ask you to stay a little more to help after you finished then stay, it's going to pay off on the long run. You may also create a small surprise added to the work you have done, this show that you care in what you offer and blows the mind of the other person. Who doesn't like small surprises? I do.
Last, be discreet. I insist on this, keep other people secrets in your mouth. There is nothing more satisfying than to know if I say something embarrassing for myself to you stays there.
Now, I'm going to eat my sandwich and take a tour of the ship.