Will Your Name Be Remembered?

I have just read a short but thought provoking blog post by Chris Brogan called “What’s in a Name?“.

In the post, Chris talks of the many names or hats we all wear in our everyday business lives.

If you are familar with the works of Rich Schefren and the impressive body of work known as the Internet Business Manifesto you will remember the myriad areas of business you as an entrepreneur are responsible for.

The “hats you wear” throughout any given business day are varied requiring different skillsets. One moment you are an Internet Marketer, the next you may do some web design, the next customer support on the telephone and later still you could be doing book-keeping.

So what name do you ultimately give to yourself?

An entrepreneur?
A business owner?
An employee?
A deranged lunatic struggling to do everything and never reaching the goals you want?

Your Reputation

Getting back to the original intent of the post which inspired this one, names and how we label ourselves are very important when it comes to the identity we cling to from day to day. Working ourselves out of the business and giving ourselves less labels to cling to is the way to go but regardless of where you are in terms of how many hats you wear during a given day, you have to be wary of how you are perceived by others.

Reputation management is a big part of marketing online today.

Testimonials, good feedback and social proof acceptance are to be actively sought. Flame wars, trash talk, bad customer service and support are to be actively avoided.

Major foul-ups will come back to haunt you in the digital world of today. Yes mistakes can happen but you need to keep your finger on the pulse and rectify and problems as soon as is possible. If the mistakes were genuine and with no malicious intent, people will on the whole forgive you (there are always the small persistent naysayers you will have to ignore).

There is no point becoming totally on edge whenever you do experience bad press or negativity, deal with it the best you can and move on. We all want to make a difference with our businesses and leave a name to be remembered (for all the right reasons I hope!). An on that note, I’ll end this post with a verse from one of my favourite songs when I hit ghe gym, it’s by Linkin Park and the parallels for the entrepreneur hold true too:

Remember the name

It’s just ten percent luck
Twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure
Fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name…

Share and Enjoy: