We’ve heard the statistics. Depending on who you believe, you have between two seconds and a minute to make a good first impression. Or, more to the point, when you meet a new person, they will make a snap judgment about the kind of person you are within that same amount of time — good, bad, or other. A lot of people think that’s just unfair.
I disagree.
Oh, their first impression might be an inaccurate representation of who you are, but it isn’t unfair.
Unfair is when you play a game and someone doesn’t tell you all the rules. In this case, you do know the rule: Everyone you meet will judge you immediately and make a decision about you in the first few seconds. There, now you can’t claim that first impressions are unfair.
Now, how are you going to make sure those first impressions match up with who you really are?