Image matters.Well that is what my licence plates say. Ever since I started Corporate Confidence I have been helping people; men, women and companies to project a more confident image. I have been showing them ways to nail that first impression. To wow everyone they meet that first time. To ensure that how they are first project themself is the image with which they are remembered.
I am still amazed by the people I meet who hold no faith in first impressions or even lasting impressions, they simply do not see the value in it. The value on the impressions we leave hit home suddenly and with a vengeance on December 12th 2007 when my husband and I woke to the news that my step son had been killed in a car accident the night before in America.
Aaron was only 16. He had barely started to live but was growing into a very handsome man. The flush of his youth was being replaced with the strong lines of manhood. We had not seen Aaron for a couple of years so it was a shock to us as we remembered the young boy he was. For the following week I was caught up in following the outcome of the accident through news reports and online blogs out of America. It amazed me at the comments directed at the boys, who were passengers in the car and not just at the driver.The driver turned the car into the path of a fully laden semi-trailer late at night. He killed all three passengers, all three boys on the brink of their future, immediately. He, though, walked out of hospital 2 days later. The driver of the car was unlicensed, 2.5 times over the blood alcohol limit, mind you being unlicensed makes him completely over any limit as he had no right to be driving, but that is not the story I wish to tell here.
The blogs were commenting on the character of the boys as a whole for being in the car together. They were tried and condemned by association alone. I wanted to scream at them how can you judge a boy who is just a passenger in the car on the actions of the driver. How can you say he deserved what he got for being young and being out late at night? I think we forget how easy it is for people who do not know you to pass judgement and make up who stories of your life based on one piece of evidence. Factual or not. We have seen athletes, celebrities and ordinary people on the street commented on kindly and maliciously depending upon the news at hand. Is that how we want to be remembered?
It was the words at the funeral, the words from friends and the words that made it into the papers describing Aaron that melted my heart.Aaron was remembered for his skateboarding, his easy going nature and his manners. Can you believe in amongst all of this his manners rated a mention. This says something about who he was. To be remembered that way is more than any parent could ask for. It gladdened our hearts to hear him described this way.
My message to you is this, don't just stop at the first impression; make everything you do the best you can so that whenever people speak your name they will do so in glowing reference. You will be able to by-pass any of the negative comments which a less than exemplary nature may leave you open to. You image is both internal and external, it is not just how you dress but the way you act around people and how you present yourself at all times. Believe it or not but your image matters.
This article is dedicated to Aaron Lee Pham, a young man who had the world at his feet and died too young.Aaron you will live forever in our hearts and the image you have left with us we will always treasure.
