You just need one chance to dismantle a good first impression

Once, some friends and I went to one of those motivational speeches when I was at the university. When we arrived there, the room was full and there was a bad-dressed guy, a regular t-shirt, dirty tennis, sat on the teacher's chair. People were ignoring the guy and he didn't say a word.

Exactly at the beginning minute of the speech, he stood up, loudly cleared his throat and left the room. After five minutes, he went back, this time extremely well-dressed with an impecable suit, shining shoes, beautiful tie,

That was the first time I heard the expression "You'll never have a second chance to make a first good impression". In fact, here in Brazil, we have this saying "The first impression is the one which sticks". But that, the brazilian adage, is not exctly true. I would say that "the first impression is the one which sticks" only if it is a bad impression.

It's common sense that people retain bad impressions more than good ones. I think it goes beyond this, to me a bad impression can easily overcome a good one. For example, if you go to a restaurant for the first time and the food is delicious, than you go back again and again and, you talk to your friends about the restaurant, you become regular and everything goes like a fairy tale. But if one time you go there and get food poisoned, you get sick, you have to go to the hospital because of it, this one time will perhaps be enough for you never set foot in that restaurant again. Besides, it´s probable that you tell your friends not to go there either.

It doesn't happen only with places but with people, specially on this internet-based judgemental era we live in these days. Reputations are thrown in the garbage with a blink of an eye, with no chance to defense.

I myself have been thinking about this topic because of the situation of a football (soccer) player. He had three explendid sesons and now is going through a rough fase so people quickly forgot what he's done and hardly criticize him on the internet. In this particular case, his behavior is not helping because he acts like the bad moment doesn't exist and the good moments of the past are enough to allow him to do whatever he wants.

Nevertheless, my point here is that the problem is not having a second chance to make a first good impression, it's rather having a second chance at all. And it gets worse, the older you get.

Be well.