I have been playing football (not American football, but soccer) since I was a child and thus have a good reputation when it comes to the sport. Playing for various school teams back home, I was often lauded for my good ball control and shooting skills. Through the multiple years of playing football and often times being a key player in the matches, my reputation as a football player grew considerably amongst my friends, peers and even teachers and family. I think reputation does affect behavior both in a positive and negative manner. If one lets hos or her reputation get to their head, then they might act arrogantly or deviate from the original goal and get sidetracked. But having a good reputation with the right attitude according to me keeps the person motivated to do his or her best so that they can meet and surpass the reputation already set in place for them.
After coming to college, my footballing reputation developed further as I began to play more often and even formed a team in intramurals, which performed very well. I think developing your reputation in football is easy since all one has to do is play. If they are good and influence the game in a positive manner, the reputation should grow automatically as more people become aware of your skills, want you in their team while choosing sides and can be objectively assessed by the number of goals scored, as I play a striker position. Since football is not the dominant sport on campus, fewer people play it and most play it for fun, thus the level of competition is not too high. In such a situation I found that even a player like me could gain a positive reputation.
I do not actively seek to enhance my reputation, but do strive to improve my game and play better football. This in turn should or would enhance my reputation automatically. I feel actions speak louder than words and reputation is built solely upon action and performance. Thus to build your reputation, one should focus on doing the task well, efficient, and in a timely manner.
Yes, there are quite a few occasions where having a good reputation can be bothersome and sometimes you try to avoid it. For example, during intramurals when our team is awarded a penalty, I was asked to take it. Although I did not feel confident and didn’t want to take the penalty I was pressurized into taking the penalty kick due to my “reputation” of being a very good player. I did not want the responsibility of the penalty since if it missed we would loose the game and be knocked out of the tournament. Thankfully, I did not miss that particular kick, but I was not happy with the added responsibility of taking penalty kicks. Thus having a good reputation can be harmful, as people will expect you to do more work at a consistently high level. Continuing with the football example, during my second year I was asked to join one of the top intramural teams that had won the previous year. This offer was due to my reputation, but I did not join said team and instead continued to play with my previous team. Here I tried to abandon my reputation as a good football player and instead of joining the new team that were the favorites, I “cashed” in and stayed with my old team. This was because although my reputation got me a better prospect of joining the best team, I stayed because I enjoyed playing the low-pressure game with my friends where having fun was the primary objective.
Hmmm, staying with your old team, people who knew you and who were your friends, that hardly sounds like cashing it in to me.
ReplyDeleteWe had a visiting scholar from Duke my second or third year at Illinois and she wanted to recruit me to go there, but I told here I wasn't ready to move yet. I say this just to offer some parallel to your situation. I didn't cash it in. I just declined the offer.
And back to your case, IM sports are played for the enjoyment of the activity. If you did what pleased you the most and nobody else got hurt in the process that's okay. It's how it should be.
Prof Arvan,
ReplyDeleteYour example regarding the job opportunity you received from duke where you decided not to go is similar to mine. I'm assuming you were offered the job due to your reputation as a good teacher and the new job offer should have had a better salary among other things compared to the University of Illinois and thus you did not "cash in" by deciding not to go.
The reason I said I cashed in was because for me, immediate gain was playing with the team where all my friends were, and I had to "abandon" my reputation in order to politely decline the offer. I am still a bit unsure as to the difference in cashing in and simply declining the offer as you had stated.
Lastly, IM is meant simply for the enjoyment of the activity, however people do take it extremely seriously. The atmosphere of the whole tournament and the way the games are officiated make it extremely competitive in nature, especially due to the large international population on campus (since football is the most popular game in the world) making it a more serious affair than I think it ought to be.
I think reputations with regards to athletic abilities is an interesting topic because it can be extremely relative. For instance, a middle school soccer player could have a very big reputation among other middle school players for his abilities, but there is no way he would be able to play with professionals. So being "good" at a sport can be subjective to the people that you will compete against.
ReplyDeleteOf course someone can be good for their age and have a reputation for that, but what people consider "good" is quite relative unless talking about the top professional levels. For example, I was on the Track and Field team in high school and I was the best at the triple jump event at my school so people gave me a reputation of being very good at the event. However, relative to other schools I was pale in comparison so my reputation only really held weight in specific communities.