Reputation Takes a Blow

Fight fans – and even non-fight fans – recently watched in record numbers as Floyd Mayweather defeated Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas in the biggest boxing match in years.

Meanwhile, many miles away, on the undercard, yours truly was stunned as a big name up-and-comer threw a right hook known as not-showing-up, and knocked me to the canvas having to shake the cobwebs out of my head and retreat to my corner.

That was two days before the main event at the MGM Grand.

I waited at the recording studio – along with the engineer and the studio head – for the guest to connect in for the interview for the podcast.  I had just re-confirmed with him the day before.  Now he was nowhere to be found.

We waited.  And waited.  And I listened to how an intense editing session had been halted, just so as to accommodate my session.  Yet there we sat, with no guest.  Someone who has been on national TV and has since had a successful crowdfunding campaign and is now playing shows throughout and beyond the U.S.  Yet he was absent for this obligation.

Like a doctor in an emergency room, the studio head finally “called it,” after maybe close to 45 minutes had passed.

Soon thereafter there would be an email from this mystery guest.  The bell rang and he came out of his corner to say that there’d been a family emergency, which sounded believable enough.  Until the re-match, that is.

He, himself, chose one week later.  “Same time,” he wrote in his email.

Five days after the final bell rang on Mayweather-Pacquiao, now on a short leash, he got a phone call from me five minutes after the agreed upon time.  Or I should say, his voice mail did.  So a text was sent at that same time.  But to no avail.

Thirty minutes later another call was made, unsuccessfully.  Along the way I had heard about the client before me that wanted to keep his session going, but that they’d stopped due to my standing time block on the studio calendar.

I heard words like “unprofessional” and “disrespectful” as the towel was thrown in again.  This time, however, it was “Strike Two.  You’re out!”  Why go back for more punches when you know it’s going to leave you with nothing – other than lost time?

Sure, the guest later texted (this time with no excuse) but by then it was too late.  The book had been written on how to make a bad name for yourself.  Witness to it were myself, the studio head, the engineer, and now the loved one I’ve confided in about it.  In bigger cases, the guest might not get so lucky as to only leave a bad impression on four people.  Someone like him knows the way recording studios work in terms of time blocks and availability – or lack thereof.

Learn from his mistakes, up-and-comers.  Honor your commitments.  Be on-time.  And respect other people’s time.