Newsletter 5: Build & Defend Your Reputation

Hey - I'm Thomas. Welcome to the fifth issue of Build & Defend.

One email a week. No fluff.

So here's the thing about reputation.... you kinda build it, but you also really kind of accumulate it. So is build the right topic here? It can be, because you have to build the events and things that go into accumulating your reputation. It takes a while too, and before you know it, you're fifty and you have a reputation and unless you were purposeful about it, you have whatever you get based on what you've done without purpose. But you can also build towards having a good one.

You can do it in a myriad of ways, but it's important to realise that it's largely going to be those small moments that matter that not everyone remembers. The first time you stay late because the entire company is down with a new worm. The first time you tell a client something he doesn't want to hear, and then keep him at the Service Desk until Microsoft is closed so he can't actually check until the next morning. When you work your ass off for a year to help a startup and end up as the Solution Architect of the Year. Some of them people will remember (and can be documented in photos) but not everything will be that way.

I went on PTO last month, to Telluride, and hanging in the bathroom (yes, of all places) was a framed photo of the quote "Work hard and be nice to people." by Anthony Burrill. It seems too simple to say that that's what you need to do, but really, that's what you need to do. The rest mostly takes care of itself. That said, I say "mostly", because you also have to do some self-promotion. You could be the hardest working person in the room, but if you're in the back and no one notices and your work still 'counts' to whatever the end goal is, you'll end up with a reputation of the dependable person in the back of the room that no one notices. Yes, you want to be in the spotlight to a degree, but it's not just about the spotlight - it's a combination of the two that requires you to have some forward thinking about how you want to be known in the world. That, and working hard and being nice to people.

You can obviously influence your reputation, build towards something, but it's important to know of course that it's also going to be "held" by other people. You will not have control over the final product per se. You can check in with other people as to how you're doing, and you can see what you get when things come to you that you didn't ask for, so there's a method by which you can get feedback. If you get opportunities that you want that match your goals, that's how you know its working. (Awards are good feedback too.)

The last thing I'll say about building your reputation: you can take it with you to an extent, but not necessarily everywhere. It's not like airline miles. You have to keep working at it - especially if you move or switch jobs, or even sometimes both. You have to keep working hard and being nice to people.🙂  You have to defend your reputation all the time as well.

Defending your reputation is a bit different that building. Defending means being aware of what you've built and how to avoid losing it. You can sink in a moment what it took you a lifetime to build. (just ask Jeffery Toobin, who got caught with his trousers down (quite literally) during a Zoom meeting during Covid. Or a myriad of other people who had damaging secrets come out.) It can also be revised after you're dead, which is not really in your control, but there are plenty of historical revisionists out there trying to take away people's reputations. Again, you can't do much about that part, but it you do enough good things, your actions should - even over time - speak for themselves and be defensible.

So, how do you defend your reputation aside from accumulating lots of good things over time (which is really the build part)? Well for starters, don't accumulate bad things. That seems simple, but don't do stupid stuff. Admittedly, it can sometimes be difficult to figure out what's stupid and what's not, but if you use common sense, you should generally understand this. You have to be careful, especially in today's day and age where things can be easily recorded and sent around the world in seconds. (We could get by with more stupid things in my day, since no one was there to record them.)

Next, don't talk about others behind their backs unless you're also willing to say the same things to their faces. This is a really good rule that has served me well for a long time. The old rule of thumb was that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. However, that can be changed to add "unless you're willing to suffer the consequences of saying it to their face". Be nice or be honest. Essentially.

Also, don't cut corners on things. Don't promise what you can't deliver. When you promise, try to under-promise and over-deliver.

If your reputation is attacked, don't immediately go into fight mode. Take a second to figure out whether you need to respond, and if so, how. Most times, most people will understand that your reputation isn't to be sullied in one instance of someone speaking out of turn where you're concerned. If you have a reputation for something, generally you want to keep delivering on that, and if you need to go into crisis management mode because an internet rumour has things out of hand, take a moment to reflect on the best way to take control. Sometimes, that's not doing anything at all. (Barbara Streisand has an "effect" named after her because she tried to sue someone into getting an aerial photo of her home removed, and she ended up drawing much more attention to the photo than she otherwise would have, to the point where the effect is now named "The Barbara Streisand Effect".)

Lastly, be choosy as to with whom you work. Never take shortcuts for things that don't align with your values. Especially where money is concerned. That's almost always a trap.

If we're talking about reputation, stacking refers to just keeping at it. Go out, do something good, work hard at it, and make a name for yourself, or continue making a name for yourself.

I'm still at $300 per month passive income.... I have been working diligently with Talos (my OpenClaw AI assistant) on something and it should be ready in a couple of weeks, so hopefully more information soon.

GoodReads has a shelf on reputation management: http://goodreads.com/shelf/show/reputation-management

Work hard and be nice to people.🙂

- Thomas

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