Is your reputation a sellable asset?
Should it ever be?
I’ve watched many times in dentistry the key opinion leaders (KOL’s) build up a following through one means or another, often through brilliance, and then sell their souls to the devil.
I think that’s what it’s called to be a ‘sell-out’.
This is different to someone who deliberately builds a business to ‘flip’ because the person who does that is clear about their motives and their model almost from the outset.
The person who does something else, who builds a circle of trust to enhance their own standing and reputation and then cashes it in is an entirely different animal.
And so, some examples in the wider world that may make you think about what that looks like.
Many years ago, David Beckham appeared on the front page of Attitude magazine and at that stage that behaviour catapulted him to the status of ‘Gay icon’.
Beckham put himself right out there from the earliest time and he was all over my radar as he got married the day before Alison and I did so we were of that time.
Beckham challenged what it was to be a man and what it was to be a father and what it was to be a husband in most cases in the most positive of ways.
Beckham and his wife transcended football and pop music to become global style icons but always dancing with the maintenance of the reputation that they were people who cared about other people.
Recently, Beckham decided that it would be right for him to comment on the coming out of a young Blackpool FC football player to support gay players in football as much as possible.
The difficulty is though that this falls against a backdrop of Beckham’s recent endorsement deal with Qatar.
David Beckham has signed a deal with Qatar for hundreds of millions of pounds (allegedly) to support the tourism industry and be a positive role model for that state.
This appears to be the phenomenon more recently termed ‘sportswashing’.
Sportswashing is where nation states ally themselves with organisations or individuals who are able to improve their reputation in the world and many questions have been asked about Beckham’s decision to sign that deal for money.
Follow on from that the recent signing of Lionel Messi to the Saudi Arabian tourist board and his visit to Jeddah after which he posted on his Instagram page #visitsaudiarabia.
Messi is allegedly being paid 220 million pounds for a 10-year deal with Saudi Arabian tourism.
In part this is because Messi has in the region of 350 million followers on Instagram and an enormous influence around the world.
This though seems to counteract all that Messi did previously with UNICEF and his own foundation.
Last year, Messi was said to have earned 122 million pounds so, why he needed money from the Saudi Arabian tourist board is beyond me.
Perhaps we shouldn’t think about these things and we should just carry on with our day-to-day lives trying to do what we think is the right thing, in the right way but how is it possible to do that when both us and our children are bombarded with icons who tell us that it’s alright to do anything we want for money.
And so, what is the alternative?
In the wake of the horrendous Texas school shooting in the last few weeks in the United States, Steve Kerr, the highly decorated head coach of the Golden State Warriors basketball team in the NBA, attended a press conference before his teams vital deciding game in the semi-final of the NBA play-offs.
Please watch his press conference edit here.
I urge you to spend 3 minutes of your time doing that if you’ve not seen it.
Steve Kerr won NBA championships with Michael Jordon and the Chicago Bull’s. He scored the winner in a vital play-off game.
His father, a university academic was shot dead when Steve was a boy in Beirut.
Steve Kerr’s dad was trying to make a difference, if you haven’t seen his episode on the Last Dance, it’s absolutely worth the watch on Netflix.
Steve has gone on to win multiple championships as a player and as a coach and is fast becoming one of the most decorated people in basketball history.
He makes a lot of money in sport and does not have to step out of sport in any way.
He can turn up 4 hours after 14 children are shot dead and do his press conference about the game that’s coming up that evening and go away and cry in secret, but he doesn’t.
Different people decide to use their position and reputation in different ways.
Some people have the ability to ‘spend their fame wisely’.
Why the f@ck do Messi or Beckham need more money from sportswashing when they could spend their time in a much more productive way.
It seems there is an interesting polarisation occurring between sporting icons in football.
After some previous criticism in his earlier years Ronaldo stood out against beer and soft drink sponsorship at the European championships when he removed the sponsors bottles from his press conference.
He refuses to have a tattoo because it would stop him giving blood and, at the time of writing this, he’s not signed with a sportswashing nation state for more money.
Perhaps that will change and my attitude towards him will change but as I’ve always said, reputation is fragile, takes a long time to build and a short time to lose.
Blog Post Number - 3114
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