On Acquiring a Reputation

Reputations are built on many factors − some of them seemingly unpredictable. Many men have become known for things for which they would never have chosen to be known. Men of many talents sometimes become best known for the talents which they themselves esteem the least. It has sometimes happened, for example, that actors who would like to be known as great dramatic artists, have come to be typed as comedians. Likewise there are those whose hobbies catch the public fancy, whereas their professional pursuits are all but unnoticed. A single event in one’s life, even though it be seemingly unrelated to all that has gone before and all that follows, may fix a reputation − desirable or undesirable. Often young people acquire reputations of one kind or another early in life; for example, a student, having early in his school career become known as a conscientious scholar, is likely, from then on, to find the going much easier. The reverse is also true. An answer from a student of poor repute may not be well rated even when it is right. This may not be just, in a sense, but it is nevertheless the way it often works. Good reputation is often accepted at face value and tends to open up the way, while poor reputation multiplies difficulties. And young people who, by some thoughtlessness or some careless conduct, acquire a reputation of the kind they would later have cause to regret, are needlessly complicating their own lives and closing doors in their own faces. Fighting through life against an unfavorable reputation, whether deserved or not, is difficult and discouraging. And some things which, in our thoughtlessness, we may have supposed didn’t matter much, often cling as stubbornly as nicknames, no matter how we try to shake them. Certainly reputations which are undeserved will not be the basis of ultimate justice or judgment, but the fact remains that our lives are in some ways modified by what others think of us. And once a man gets a rating with his fellow men, once he gets himself classified in the minds of others, it is often difficult to get a reclassification. Therefore, to him who is beginning his way in life, and to all others, there is wisdom in these words from scripture: “Abstain from all appearance of evil,”¹ as well as from evil itself−for good reputations are exceedingly perishable, while poor reputations are almost indestructible.