Sometimes I try to do things that don’t work out as intended. When we licensed our car in Hawaii, I wanted to personalize the plates to say “Fired up.” Unfortunately, that was already taken. So I asked a local how one would say “fired up” in Hawaiian, and then had the plates made.
After driving around acting all cool with a license plate that reads “Luna Ahi” for over a year, I finally got my first comment from a local. “Ah, we got ourselves a fisherman,” she exclaimed.
“What? I don’t fish in the ocean,” I replied.
“Well, your car says you’re the big boss of the fish!”
After some discussion, it turns out I’ve been driving around for the last year proclaiming myself as the “Big boss of the fish.”
Fail.
Another fail was the time I downloaded what I thought was a cool ringtone for my phone. I had seen all these Facebook memes with this song playing right after someone does something super cool, so I got the ringtone for “The Next Episode” without ever listening to the entire song or reading the lyrics.
When people laughed at it, I assumed they were laughing along with me that I have a cool ringtone, but one day someone told me that the song was all about smoking weed.
I looked up the lyrics, and I was shocked and more than a little embarrassed to find that I had been walking around with a ringtone that suggests I love to smoke pot.
My mother always tried to teach me to “think before you act.” The principle is that impulsive decisions can get you into trouble. It pays off to be diligent about things.
If I had simply asked around a bit more, my license plate would probably say something different. If I would have looked a little deeper into that song, I would have saved myself some embarrassment.
Warren Buffett said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
Proverbs 22:1 “A good name is more to be desired than great wealth.”
Your reputation is a big deal. Don’t be like me and blow it by unwittingly misrepresenting who you are!