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Sermon Illustrations: Reputation

72-year-old Warren Buffett has a personal fortune estimated to be $30.5 billion (U.S.) - "second only to Bill Gates". He "once raised $210,000 at a charity auction for his 20-year-old wallet, with a stock tip inside". This was because of his reputation. Time magazine 10-3-03 p45

Reputation is like mountain-climbing. It's a slow hard slog to make good progress. It's easy to slip and lose a lot of ground. Then it's really difficult to regain your ground.

"Having your faith in somebody voided makes it virtually impossible to recover," says Louise Young, a trust researcher and professor of marketing at the University of Technology Sydney. "People can redeem themselves only to a relatively small degree." Readers Digest June 2005 p 42

Before the Battle of Trafalgar: Codrington had not met Nelson, but he was young and new to command, and must have been an exception: and of course every captain, and every man in the fleet, knew Nelson by reputation at least. If there had been a man who had never heard of him, he would very soon have learned, because Nelson in those last three weeks of his life showed all the qualities his reputation had grown on - the bravery, clear thinking, understanding and tact, and the sudden unpremeditated kindness.1

1 Howarth, David & Howarth, Stephen Nelson: The Immortal Memory p312