Reputation through Association

There is a concept that if you are part of a successful or popular organization, that its good deeds will magically be bestowed upon you like royalty.  Just because you show up to a meeting, display the organization logo on your website doesn’t mean you deserve the benefits of their good deeds.

We should not label an athlete who makes a bad decision to visits childhood friends with questionable reputation as being a bad person. Hanging out with the “cool” kids in school didn’t make you a better or an awful person.  Playing golf at the exclusive country club doesn’t make your business practice more successful than the guy at the public golf course.

Logic dictates that a single persons reputation doesn’t instantly transform to the association so why do we assume an association of many reputations would transfer to one?  The lack of or power we give to an image is judged by many, so it is best that we think about our image before making an association.