Last impressions count

: Published: Saturday, 28 February 2009

When you leave someone after an interaction, do you leave them present to their own greatness? Do you leave them feeling completely validated, appreciated and respected? Even if they’ve just made (what you deem to be) an unwise decision for your project? Asked (what you think is) a really silly question? Said something really inappropriate?

What sticks with someone isn’t, “how great were they at the start when they wanted something from me/ were judging me to see if I was an appropriate contact to hold on to”, it’s “how great were they after they got it/ didn’t get it/ found out more about me”.

It’s not how you play the game of ‘first impressions’ anymore. In the world of the Internet, Big Brother and the constant bombardment of twitter updates, Facebook wall posts, SMSs and Skype, you’re always giving an impression.

Be on your best behaviour. Whatever you do there is always someone watching, you are always teaching, and someone is always learning.

About Me

Marita Cheng Forbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.

I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.

Subscribe

Random Articles

How the community keeps you going
When I first started Robogals, the first thing I did was tell people about my vision and ask that they sign on to join. From that, I got a team of 3...
G20 Brisbane Global Cafe
Spoke about my robotic arm at the G20 Brisbane Global Cafe.
Cool enough
I find that many people my age are quite lost. They don't know what to do with their lives, they don't know what their dream job is, they don't know...
Where are you not looking?
You’ve brainstormed and tried all the keywords that you could think of in Google, you’ve asked Jeeves, you’ve spoken to your lecturers and you’ve...
The Project Woman to Watch
The Project called me a “Woman to Watch” and shot this short video. It contains footage of a child going to school remotely using Teleport,...
Sole founder or co-founders?
I was starting up my new start-up and I was finding it hard to get my desired co-founder to commit. So I thought back over my experiences of the...
The most successful students become university professors
When kids are in diapers, their parents enroll them into primary school. If all goes right, the right primary school could mean the right high...
The Year of a Young Australian of the Year
In 2008, I founded Robogals as a response to there being hardly any other women in my engineering classes. Our organisation is run by university...
Woman in STEM
For National Science Week, I spoke at the Super STEM Careers event about my career in STEM.
Insights from another student entrepreneur…
Kieran O’Neill started up holylemon.com, a sight that shows funny videos, funny movies and funny videoclips when he was 14, and sold it for US$1.25...