Experience doesn’t pay the bills

with being credible. Being a pushover doesn’t lead to decisiveness or conviction—both of which are attributes that bolster credibility.

Likewise, you can be credible and not likable. If people find you annoying or disagreeable, it doesn’t affect your credibility so long as they’re certain that you’re honest and have conviction. Being too honest or doubling down on decisions isn’t necessarily likable, but it fosters credibility. Sometimes, doing what’s right means acting directly against certain people’s interests—and that means catching some heat and potentially being disliked. Even if they dislike you, people are more likely to defer to someone whom they regard as brash and high-strung than someone who’s passive and swayed by the way they’re perceived.

All this isn’t to say you should go balls to the wall with forgoing likability. What I’m saying is that you should closely consider what you’re really aspiring to do. If what you’re looking to build is credibility, you don’t need to die on the hill of likability. It’s all give and take. There’s a sweet spot of having both likability and credibility, but in order to achieve either to a higher degree, you need to let up on the other. Neither is necessarily better than the other, but it’s all about what you want and what you are looking for. Once you can figure out what it is you really want, committing to it is worth it.