If you name me, I know that I exist. Thanks to Gabriel Bojórquez for such an illustrative image.

I think in this land you'll perceive everything clearer, easier, honest and better for your work.

Here is why.

Johan Sebastian Bach, yes... that Bach; was invisible in its own time. He died in 1750 and his work was being forgotten even when Frederick Chopin, yes... that Chopin; was among his greatest admirers (which included Beethoven and Mozart). Chopin recommended playing Bach's work to anyone that wanted to master playing the clavichord. But he died pretty much ignored by the rest of the world.

And his music almost died too.

It was needed one Johan Nikolas Forkel plus fifty years to have a biography of J.S. Bach. That's how Beethoven, Goethe and other heavy weights, noticed his remarkable work and legacy. That's how Bach's reputation started a long process to become visible.

But before that biography nothing happened.

After those words written by Forkel, Bach's story and work got finally connected to Felix Mendelssohn who was the man that revived the Bach's musical legacy for good. That's basically how we didn't lose it.

I argue that you can develop your work way better if you know the rules of Reputationland.

In this land, is true that you need a Forkel but isn't true that you need fifty years after your death to make your work to be known.

In this land you are an owner already because your story can only be yours. Your story is the root of your all your work.

This is what Reputationland will ask you every day:

How are you going to design your reputation?

In this place, isn't illegal to shape your reputation in your own way. Have you given yourself the permission to do it already?
 
Interestingly, nobody can stop that. It happens by just being. Every act, every conversation, your craftsmanship, your productions. Every piece of work, useless or useful, pointless or communicative, boring or fun, is what will make your story.

Is not what you say but what you do. Your results are your narrative for everybody's eyes. Turns out that, now, you have the chance to show what you are doing to the world in clever ways.

One thing that some people don't understand, is that the world isn't going to change.

It's already changed.

Some are going to realize of that change in a decade from now. But truth is that it's changed already. Forever. Why?

Because of Google.

That's the main door of Reputationland. This isn't fantasy. Is just a hard problem made easy.

One of the problems we faced with internet was to have fast universal access to information. We needed a no-brainer access to anything; and Google solved that request like no other. It's indexing everything. All the time.

It also caches everything, which means, it remembers all. And you can more or less presume that everything touched by its servers is going to be remembered forever.

Looks like a "search engine" but in fact is working more like a huge memory of all what was once published on internet. A memory that gives easy access to any part of it. To anyone. And yes, you are there too.

It wasn't like this some decades ago.

Before internet, the door of Reputationland was the traditional media. Big fishes were the only gatekeepers holding all the keys. You needed to seduce them and fit in to them if you wanted a piece. That monopoly of our attention is now showing clear signs of decay. Fame is going to get democratized. And yes, you can have some too.

Which brings us exactly to my point here; and I sincerely hope you like what I'm going to say because if you don't, your homework will just feel heavier. Here it is:

meet Google, meet your curriculum vitae.

You can search for your name right now and start navigating yourself.

In a way, this is old news. This is happening for years now. What can be new is that you embrace it today. The difference is you using it because the information about you on internet matters way more than you "official C.V.".

Even if you pretend is not; your-googled-self is reaching your future boss before anything else. It's too quick, too cheap and too easy to miss. Not only your future boss; also your past, current and future customers too. They are going to form an opinion of you based on what they read about you. Especially when said by others.

There aren't valid reasons to allow your work to be kept outside any internet search results. Lack of space on internet is an illusion. There isn't such a thing. Your work can have its own space too. If you want to know how, drop me a line and I'll give you ideas.

The ease of use and democratization of the technology we are seeing these days, made lots of hard problems trivial. Today is extremely easy to expose your work. It's too late for justifications about that part. Excuses about tech stuff are not worthy anymore.
 
If you find your way to embrace the Reputationland's rules, that democratization will start to be helpful to you.

And is not about copying new stereotypes.

It's about playing those rules in your own style, making it interesting and accessible.

I'm going to blog about those but for now here is a primary thing you need to remember in Reputationland:

Every one of your actions is a brick to build your story. You don't need to ask permission to use them. You already have it.

Reputationland = civilization + humanized internet