Five F*ck Ups That Will Destroy Your Reputation
The curse of snowflakes: Anything you say could be used against you in a court of law that presides inside their head.
Every day you’re quietly building your reputation.
Many don’t see it as an investment. But your net worth is built on your reputation and it’s worth more than money.
True wealth starts with a powerful reputation. You can’t walk down to the supermarket and buy a reputation either.
You only get one.
Warren Buffet was right with this line:
"It takes years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."
Avoid these f*ck ups to keep your reputation strong, so you can build compounding wealth.
Not keeping your word
In my former corporate job there were a lot of meetings.
People would promise the world.
“Sure we can do that Sam. And we can also get operations onboard and have marketing promote it for us.”
A week later zero action was taken. Lots of nice words. No responsibility.
Same in sales. If you don’t follow up you get no sales. Most people say “I’ll think about it” and then never take action.
Not keeping your word makes you an accidental liar. You become one of the common sheep that blurts out promises but never gets anywhere in life.
Then there is the 2% crowd who do everything they say. I ruthlessly try to be in this group every day. I tell people what I’m going to do, then do it.
After a while people begin to trust you. You stand out. So you get more opportunities than the other 98% who sit there waiting for a lottery win or fake overnight Hollywood success to sweep them off their feet and “get their big break.”
Big breaks come from doing what you say you’ll do. Read that again.
Attacking others
As a successful online writer I cop this one weekly.
Random writers who I barely know or have never spoken with will attack me for no reason. They think it makes them look smart. But I roam the group chats behind the scenes to see what my audience and other writers think about them.
The result?
People start to switch off writers who attack other writers.
And the value of my reputation goes up when I simply ignore the attacks and try my best to treat everybody with kindness.
The source of attacking others comes from:
The sports psychology of “everything is a competition”
The belief that an idea must be either right or wrong
A lack of achievement in life
Built-up negativity
Mental illness
Jealousy
There are no winners or losers. The outcome is the same for all of us: we die. So for the time you’re alive just treat others the best you can.
Don’t attack people. Attack ideas.
Remember: your goal isn’t to always be right. That’s what the university system made us stupidly think. The goal is to make each other think through the sharing of ideas.
Exaggerating
Have you ever met someone who exaggerates a lot?
It’s a pain in the ass. You have to fact-check everything they say in your head. It’s bloody hard work. After a while you simply conclude they’re a liar.
The reason we exaggerate is that as humans we love to measure how we’re doing compared to others. When we feel a bit behind we start to make up the gap in ‘life numbers’ by exaggerating.
Don’t do it.
Be ruthlessly honest.
An even better approach is to undersell what you do. It shows humility, and humility is a powerful magnetic force that places opportunities on your lap.
Being a snowflake
I call them adult babies. The correct term is snowflake.
These are the humans who complain about everything. They blame their circumstances on outside forces instead of taking personal responsibility.
They’re entitled.
They want handouts.
They want free help.
They have a label for everything.
They don’t want to work for anything.
They think people are trying to attack the unique group of humans they belong to.
Their measurement stick of fairness is taller than the empire state building.
The worst part is they’re easily offended. Anything you say could be used against you in a court of law that presides inside their head.
Don’t accidentally become one of these people.
I was close a few years back. Mental illness had me by the balls. I was desperate to pin my pain on an unsuspecting enemy. Thankfully I got therapy. Turned out I was just an overly fearful little boy. My “inner child” was broken said the therapist.
Once I started taking small risks and owning my condition, things got better. Today I’ve been free of mental illness for 5+ years.
It’s easy to become outraged. It’s hard to practice discipline and own your sh*t. But option two builds your reputation.
Never having time to talk
One of my friends is what I call Mr Executive-No-Time.
If you can get him on the phone it’s a miracle. Once you do the anxiety starts to build – in him, and simultaneously in you.
You can hear in the tone of his voice that he’s in a hurry.
You feel like his minutes are golden nuggets. You just want to have an unrushed conversation but can’t. It takes months to get in his calendar for a 30-minute coffee.
The worst part is he’s so busy that when the conversation does start to flow, he’ll suddenly say “gotta run Timbo, I’m being asked to join a meeting.” So the conversation is cut off abruptly, never to be resuscitated again.
Makes me sad.
None of it is deliberate. If he could have 10 minutes with anyone in the world, I know I’d be in his Top 3.
We’re such good friends but his busy life ruins his reputation.
If you can relate to this busy life, it’s time to rethink things. The point isn’t to do and achieve everything. The goal is to build a reputation so you can become more valuable and not have to work so hard for money anymore.
There’s always time to talk with people you love when you get better at prioritizing and saying no to every request of your time.
Saying yes is people-pleasing in disguise.
Say no more often. More noes actually build your reputation. People respect it.
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Such great comments, Tim. I sense that Jealousy is one of the most ubiquitous emotions hovering around the writing profession in general. Jung said Projection was the most common negative trait in humans; surely Jealousy comes next.
No point attacking the GOAT 🐐