There are some doors that neither your qualifications nor your experience can open for you, but a good name can open them. A good name is one of most powerful, yet underrated assets in life. It is not what you build overnight, neither is it something you can buy with money, nor what you can fake for long. Rather it is something you build over time through constant actions, efforts, behaviour, choices, and the interactions you have with others. Maintaining a good name brings long-term benefits, and can also bring opportunities, strengthen relationships, and can lead to personal success in ways that you may never expect.
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There was something that happened in the place where a friend of mine worked that he shared with me. When he came into the company, he noticed a lot of loopholes where people do "sharp practices" and earn money in an unwholesome way. But because of his moral background, and his honesty, he did not join them to do what they were doing. Even when he was being enticed to join them, he maintained his stand that he was not going to do such things, and that he better work hard and follow the company's policies than to cut corners, even though his salary was not much. There was a time when the company sent a few staff to acquire some raw materials for production, so they added their own cut to the budget so as to make extra from it. Little did they know that the department manager had links to the other company. This was how their plans got exposed.
This led them to receive serious sanctions from the management. But instead of stopping, they devised other means to cover their tracks. Yet, they still got to find out. Then something happened one day. One of the senior executives started his own company, which was a multi-million company. So he needed a manager to oversee the company. He reached out to my friend to become his manager. This position had a lot of benefits attached to it, including free food. What gave him the opportunity was his good name. It was obvious that everyone took notice of it in his former company, and it opened doors for him that his qualification could not.
One of this benefits of having a good name is trust. Of course, you know that trust is one of the foundations on which good relationships are built. When people remark you for being trustworthy, honest, reliable, and consistent, they will trust you more, and they will entrust a lot of things into your hands. More so, they will be more likely to give you more opportunities and responsibilities. By having a good name, there are doors that you do not have to struggle with to open for you, because they will open naturally for you. You have to understand that trust is not what someone is born with, rather it is built over time by your actions and the choices you make.
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A good name goes a long way to create opportunities that you never knew existed. You will be surprised that people are usually chosen for jobs, for partnerships, for leadership positions, and even for business deals, not necessarily because of their skills, but because of how people perceive them. A good name will make people to recommend you, refer you, and support you even when they are not present with you, or when you cannot speak for yourself. In other words, a good name acts like a silent ambassador. This is why it is said that someone's good name will precede them.
A good name also builds respect. When you demonstrate integrity, discipline, and professionalism, people will tend to respect you more. You do not force respect, you do not demand for it. You actually earn it over time. When you are known for keeping your words, for example, or you treat people well, or act responsibly, you will gain credibility, influence, and you will earn respect. You have to understand that a good name will earn you respect even more than your possessions. I have seen people who have abundance of material possession but without respect, and others who do not have much, yet commanding so much respect. It is all dependent on what you do, how you treat people, and the choices you make.
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