Have you ever known a store to sometimes stock what you
require and it was nearby, but there is this distant store that always have
what you need? I head straight to the store that is guaranteed to fulfil my
needs even if it is farther away. As
humans, we gravitate towards things that will be working when we need them to. Intuitively, we know we save time and money by
going straight to a guaranteed source.
For this, we are even willing to pay a premium to get a certain amount
of guarantee for a particular service.
Imagine playing chess, and somehow the pieces have emotions and the queen decided today that she doesn’t want to act like a queen, but instead wants to act like a pawn. This is totally within her powers to do so. The queen deciding only to play as a pawn just totally handicapped your game. Likewise, not being reliable in the real world can make your life and others handicapped.
It’s clear that reliability is a good thing, but what should we be reliable for? It’s true we can’t be reliable for everything; I suggest you be reliable for one thing. For instance, make it be known amongst your friends anything they are doing you are willing to support with your time; they can rely on you for this. Being reliable in one area prevents you from being stretched too thin. Also, it allows you become an expert in that area.
Let’s go back to the game of chess. You will find pieces with simple moves can form complex patterns/behaviours, so much so, that there are more possible chess games than all the atoms in the universe. In a similar vein, you being reliable can fit into someone else’s complex scheme… and by and large gain the benefits of being in that scheme.
Forget about other’s schemes, what about your grand machination for success? My advice is have people roles in your life well defined, and well compensated. Different adventurers in life requires different roles being fulfilled. For instance, I don’t have transport, but there is a Taxi-man I could call and be most assured I get to where I want to go. You are saying he is a Taxi-man; that is his job. And this is my point, give everyone a single explicit job with an explicit compensation [need not be financial].