Avoid people who can’t keep their appointments

People who can’t respect your time, can’t possibly respect you

I’m personally like a clock. Some people think I’m way too anal about punctuality. If I agree to be somewhere at, say, 5PM. I will either be there at 5PM or you will know, well in advance, that I’m late. I won’t call you at 5:15 to tell you that I’m “running” late. I will know at 4PM that I’m already late, and will thus inform you. I respect your time. And I want you to respect mine.

And this is how I operate. 100%. Every time. I never slip on keeping my appointments.

I’ve tried working with people who seem to have no value for my time. Once I decided to hook up with an old friend in a joint venture. When I reached her hotel for our meeting, with two of my associates, she was nowhere to be found. Not in her room, and no answer on the celphone. After waiting around for about 30 minutes, ready to give up and leave, kinda worried about her, I got a message that she’s in another meeting, and will join us in another half hour. We decided to proceed for lunch, and wait. After about 30 minutes, she walked up, angry with me, for having left so many missed calls on her phone. I smiled and disregarded it as “aaaah she’s just like that”.

Needless to say, few more attempts to have that meeting over the next three months, in various parts of the world, FAILED. I kept trying to hook up with her in different cities, as both our travels crossed each other. It was always me trying to adjust my schedules to meet her. And even then, she always had other important things to deal with first. We never had that meeting.

In the process, I had wasted months, spent thousands of dollars, and it felt like she was doing me a great favor, by letting me chase her.

We’re still friends, and the venture is still on. BUT…. I’ve learnt a lesson. Someone who can’t make the simple effort to be on time, can’t be too serious about you.

When I look back at my life, I realise I’ve let too many people do that to me. It’s cost me priceless days of my life, and countless money.

Now, when someone doesn’t keep an appointment, without very strong justification, I put them into a list titled “NEVER WAIT UP FOR THEM”.