That's right. If you are going to be a professional, be professional. That means a professional anything. A carpenter, lawyer, judge, whatever.
I mean, when a someone shows up at your house to look at the job and he is on a motorcycle, dressed in motorcycle gear and has a dozen or so shiny things sticking out of his face, that he did to himself, on purpose, you should not expect much from him. That way, when you don't get much from him, you are not disappointed with the results.
There are so many examples of people that are almost predictably unreliable and the scenario I just layed out happened to one of my customers the other day. The lady went on and on about how she could not find any reliable people to work at her house and specifically was annoyed by her plumber experience.
The plumber came to look at her job but did not come back to to the job as promised. Not too professional is it?
Of course, not all plumbers fit into that category and not all people with face piercings everywhere are totally unreliable, but when you are dealing with this pierced up freak for the first time, you don't know what kind of person they are and you only have their appearance to judge them by at that point. Besides, you aren't hiring a person, you are hiring a plumber.
Sure, lots of pierced up freaks are hard workers and indeed are very realiable people, but if they show up looking like they are ready for a concert or a night out at the bar then they better be ready to be scrutinized by others, at least until the people scrutinizing them have enough exposure to them to be able to judge whether or not they are going to be worth fooling with.
I know that most people who are all pierced up with tattoos showing everywhere are proud of their uniqueness and like to where it proudly, even though the more you try not to conform to others expectations the more you are actually conforming. I mean, look around, there seams to be so many people that are non conformists that they are almost the new "normal" and the people who look like God made them look are starting to be the outcasts.
I guess the moral to this story is, if you are a professional, act like a professional. Don't act like your just a good time waiting to happen. When you are off the clock you can be a walking pin cushion or billboard, heck you can be what you want to be, but when you make your first appearance at someone's home to work, their first impression can set the stage for a smooth work day, or a day of uncertainty and friction.
