To Be Earned; Not Demanded

The idea that respect should be earned, not demanded, is apparently not a well known fact.  I was raised with this idea in mind and therefore just always figured that everyone else must have been as well.  The only place that respect should just innately be given, not earned or demanded, is to your elders and that is a fact that I’m noticing some of the newer generations having difficulties grasping.

Respect is hard to earn and even harder to get back from someone after it has been lost.  The entertainment community that I have been a part of for over two decades is vast and yet incredibly small all at the same time.  In our community it is common to accept opportunities initially on a verbal agreement and a handshake until the legs of the project can be fleshed out.

Recently, I was unfortunately involved in an incident that caused me to lose all respect for a past colleague.  It was this experience that made me realize that respect, faith and trust can be one in the same at some points.  Once you lose one of the items above it is almost impossible to have any of the other two.  While it is possible to earn back respect, faith and possibly even trust, it is by no means an easy path to have to proceed down.

The reason that I point out how difficult of a process this can be is so I can also bring up how detrimental demanding respect can be.  I can assure you there is no past occurrence in history in which demanding respect from someone lead to a good situation.  Respect is only to be earned, and quite frankly, I can’t imagine that anything as important as respect should be received without a little effort anyway.  What are your feelings on the subject?  Have you ever had an instance where demanding respect actually worked out in your favor?