Allan's Philosophy Podcast Headline Animator

Allan's Philosophy Podcast

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Philosophy on Facebook # 37 - Credibility

Man guys I'm sorry I haven’t been on the ball when it comes to posts but this past week has been so busy and it won’t let up until around Friday or Saturday but I'm hoping to squeeze in a couple of podcasts and hopefully this post in the meantime. Anyways, this post I wanted to discuss credibility. The inspiration for this one came from a discussion I had with my friends about basketball. I was wondering why or how people can believe in others so much. In particular, I was wondering how teams would place so much faith in players like Lebron James or other stars straight from high school. If you know anything about basketball, the 1st round picks don't always turn out to be the next greatest superstar but that doesn’t stop teams from pursuing players. They find that the risks involved with picking inexperienced or young players will be engrossed by the overwhelming benefits that accompany the player. There have been many flops when it comes to picking players straight out of high school *cough* *cough* Kwame Brown *cough* but also have been many greats like Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, and Lebron James. This got me thinking about how these players can convince and in a sense prove that they are worthy to be picked even at such a young age. I've determined that the most influential factor in these judgment decisions is based upon credibility.

I thought I would relate this to the English AP test also and how, when writing, you have to appeal to credibility with ethos and ethics and the principles of conduct that govern people and organizations that give them the authority to speak on certain topics. This case works with almost everything. With me for instance, I am not an official philosopher but as your friend I hope you enjoy what I say and it appeals to your own perspectives and think that I am a credible source to discuss such topics. Besides being able to show authority, your credibility is based upon background and legacy. If you are brand new to the game, coming out of the blue, it will require time and effort in order to build a fan base. This also involves trust because if you don’t have an entity backing you up that is well known then people won’t necessarily be willing to trust you right off the bat. For instance if you have a well known company sponsoring you then the people trust that the company has the best intuition and good reason to sponsor you so you must be a credible source. In order to gain trust you must also have others think that you can provide and back up whatever claims have been made about you prior.

Your credibility is also based upon your image and reputation. How others perceive you can make a big impact on whether they think you can be the next superstar or next prodigy or even trust you as a realtor to sell their house. There are almost limitless opportunities that call for credibility to be present in order to make decisions about a variety of things such as entrusting others with money. If someone looks like a sketchy person or word on the street is that they aren’t reliable then their credibility will most likely be the making or breaking point when it comes to lending money. Because of this perspective is an essential part when it comes to determining credibility. What others think of you will determine how far you get in life. For this reason the status of your credibility has a major influence on your capabilities. When we try to go to college, we try to make it seem in the eyes of the colleges that we are credible picks to be given opportunities to go to their college. Our resumes and applications help build the credibility that colleges look for when picking people to be accepted. This is the same in the case of getting a job. You need to prove to your boss that you will be a good candidate and a reliable employee for their business.

What people think of you also determines what they will entrust you with. This is one of the fundamental factors in the economy and capitalism. We trust companies like Apple to provide us with the products we desire and in turn are willing to buy their goods. Their image is a major factor in making future decisions like this because if in the past they made terrible products I know I for one wouldn’t be inclined to buy any of their products in the future until I knew from other credible sources that I trusted said it was good. Your actions are also factors that dictate that trust. If you’re a very artsy person and do acts that correlate to those traits then you will be seen as an artist in the eyes of others regardless of if you’re good or not but just because people see you as something doesn’t mean they necessarily see you as a good artist. If you have been known in the past to lie then others won’t be willing to trust you in the future. I remember Victor wrote a post once about how time heals all wounds. This also relates to credibility and how eventually it is just natural if you are working with someone to have to trust them on certain issues at some point in time regardless of how bad they hurt on most but not all cases.

Most of what you do in life dictates your status and thus your credibility. You work for things to happen in the future. When we go to school we go to get an education to help prepare for the future. You try to do well in school to get into a good college and then to get a good job thus establishing your status. Your status plays a role in determining your credibility and it also takes prior events and actions to establish your credibility as well. I remember that Kyle Gavan during Spanish predicted what the cafeteria is serving for lunch that day. When it comes to believing these types of things, you can only gain trust if you can show and prove your abilities. Since Kyle had guessed the lunch menu correctly in the past I have decided to confer to him whenever I want to know what is for lunch today. : P People will usually only believe you if you have committed actions in the past that show that they can predict the future. This applies to almost everything where you need to prove your abilities in order to show your worth. With all the proving grounds in life, you will usually need to prove yourself at least once in order to gain a following of believers. In sports, to judge potential, you have to see what athletes show and have to offer like in regards to Lebron. If you are a player, you need to show your actual skills and put your words into action. If you only talk the talk and don’t walk the walk, then you only will at most build hype. At a certain point there will be too much hype that regardless of your skill level, you won’t be able to demonstrate enough skill to satisfy what words have preceded your actions. While it isn’t necessarily true all the time, the saying “Seeing is Believing” is a powerful thing that can convince a lot of people to have faith in your abilities and build your credibility. Building your credibility is an important part of life and upholding your abilities is almost just as important. If people believe in your abilities then your credibility has allowed people to trust you and gaining trust can allow you to do almost anything. Just make sure that your credibility doesn’t exceed your abilities because then you will hurt the people who have trusted you. No matter the situation, if you put your best ability into everything you do, regardless of the results, people will have to admire your tenacity and this will positively impact your credibility.

-Allan Nicholas

No comments:

Post a Comment