Get a Bad Rap

Prime Locations

Last weekend, my brother and I helped his partner move home. She was moving from the prime location of Charing Cross to North Greenwich. While living a stones throw away from Trafalgar Square might sound idyllic for some, it is far from a suitable place if you're raising a young family, like my brother and his partner are. On underbelly of the tourist trap that is Central London lays is a heartbreaking tale of the homelessness and drug dependency. As a visitor, you can be forgiven for not seeing it. As a resident, the sight of people shooting up or sleeping drunk on your doorstep is unmissable.

Where she was moving too on the other hand, was a vibrant youthful neighbourhood, ideal for young kids to cut their cloth and enjoy their childhood with a group of contemporaries.

Pushy kids

As we began unloading in North Greenwich, we were accosted by a group of youngsters between eight and eleven years old,

"Can we help, can we help!" They pleaded.

Instinctively I refused.

"But we helped [the previous tenants] move out, it's fun to help."

They were insistent and started unloading the removal lorry anyway. In no time we had an army of half-a-dozen kids carrying belongings to the new flat.

Kids get a bad rap. I concluded. These were the sweetest, tenacious, pushy kids I'd met in a long time. (Nothing like me and my crew when we were growing up!)

The bad egg

Well... most of them were sweet. You see, one of the group, had taken it upon himself to attempt to steal a baseball cap and a pair of swimming goggles from our belongings.

This could have tainted our whole view of the group. However it didn't take long for the rest of the group to inform on their friend and get the belongings back themselves. The stigma of all of them being labelled thieves was enough to turn in the bad egg and continue their good deed.

Before long however supervising a bunch of over-zealous kids as well as moving goods was becoming unmanageable. My brother thanked the group for their help then told them we can take it from there. The group left.

No reward.

As we continued, two of the most helpful members of the group returned. They began helping and we let them. When we'd finished unpacking about an hour later, the pair got a gift.

£5 reward.

The lesson

Later the boy who had tried to steal from us returned. He had come to say sorry. His apology was accepted. He then completely negated the sincerity of his apology by asking,

"Can you give me £5 now please?"

His request was met with a predictable no. As he continue to plea and make his case, my brother gave him a small life lesson.

My brother told the boy,

"They get £5 because when I first met them they were kind and helped me move in. When I first met you, you tried to steal from me."

More importantly he went on to say,

"Now whenever I see you all around, which I will, I will always remember, they were the kids that were nice to me. You were the kid that tried to steal from me. This is why it's really important, when you meet people in the future to try to be a good first impression."

The moral

I'm not sure how much the little boy took away from what my brother had said, however there is a lesson there for all of us, especially on a platform like this. It pays dividends to go out of your way to make a good first impression, especially if you make it with zero expectations of a payback. Often we put in work first, before getting rewards; whether it's pitching, networking, a job interview or greeting a new neighbour. Putting our best foot forward without the expectation of recompense pays in the long run.

As content creators on these new Blockchain-based reward platforms, building up credit (and a solid reputation) in people's hearts and minds will be as important as building up your bank balance. Money comes and goes pretty quickly. Credit, reputations, friendships and first impressions can last a lifetime.