Fucking Up The Right Way Is How You Improve Your Reputation, Your Business And Your Life
The other morning I stumbled upon a story about the transabeled.
I knew nothing about them and the way the article was written made them look like a bunch of assholes.
So, I shared it on Facebook with the comment "Fuck these people."
Within minutes a bunch of smart people told me the article was full of shit, that being transabled is real and the people are not the assholes I'd thought. They provided links and explained what was really going on.
I then made a new post saying "Fine. I was wrong about the transabeled."
And suddenly people, most of whom were not even involved in the intial discussion, started saying really nice things about me. I'm not surprised. I've found that's often how the world works.
To put it bluntly fucking up and then owning the fact that you fucked up can make you look better than if you've never fucked up at all.
I've seen this many times over the years as a freelancer. My most loyal clients aren't the ones who have loved the first draft of something I've sent them. It's the ones where because of a brain fart I completely misunderstood what they wanted at first and turned in something fucked up.
When they've pointed out I was being a bonehead, I've appologized and then sent them what they actually wanted. Whenever that happens I get a huge amount of positive feedback from them. Often this feedback comes with stories about how other freelancers they'd worked with tried to give them 100 excuses as to why their fuck up wasn't their fault. They respected me more becasue I offered no excuses and simply fixed the problem.
What they said they liked - and why they wanted to keep using me on more jobs - is the way I'd handled the fuck up.
I think that's pretty much the way most relationships work. People know people fuck up and generally don't judge them for the fuck up - they judge them on how they deal with the fuck up.
Figuring that out will help you in many, many parts of your life.
I knew nothing about them and the way the article was written made them look like a bunch of assholes.
So, I shared it on Facebook with the comment "Fuck these people."
Within minutes a bunch of smart people told me the article was full of shit, that being transabled is real and the people are not the assholes I'd thought. They provided links and explained what was really going on.
I then made a new post saying "Fine. I was wrong about the transabeled."
And suddenly people, most of whom were not even involved in the intial discussion, started saying really nice things about me. I'm not surprised. I've found that's often how the world works.
To put it bluntly fucking up and then owning the fact that you fucked up can make you look better than if you've never fucked up at all.
I've seen this many times over the years as a freelancer. My most loyal clients aren't the ones who have loved the first draft of something I've sent them. It's the ones where because of a brain fart I completely misunderstood what they wanted at first and turned in something fucked up.
When they've pointed out I was being a bonehead, I've appologized and then sent them what they actually wanted. Whenever that happens I get a huge amount of positive feedback from them. Often this feedback comes with stories about how other freelancers they'd worked with tried to give them 100 excuses as to why their fuck up wasn't their fault. They respected me more becasue I offered no excuses and simply fixed the problem.
What they said they liked - and why they wanted to keep using me on more jobs - is the way I'd handled the fuck up.
I think that's pretty much the way most relationships work. People know people fuck up and generally don't judge them for the fuck up - they judge them on how they deal with the fuck up.
Figuring that out will help you in many, many parts of your life.