Reputation and What It Buys
The Pareto of Mastery
“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” — Abraham Lincoln
“Power resides where men believe it resides. It's a trick. A shadow on the wall. And a very small man can cast a very large shadow.” — Lord Varys
Dolly
“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap!”
— Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton is a musical genius. If you already thought that, well done. You might know she wrote "I Will Always Love You" (which she kept the royalties for). You may also be aware that she's Miley Cyrus’ godmother. If you're hardcore you might know she has three Guinness World Records. But, even obsessive fans might not know that the song "Here You Come Again" was not written by her. It's one of her most famous and loved hits. She received her first Grammy Award for it. It was an opportunistic move — a pivot from the country world into pop, and thus, mainstream success.
Why am I talking about this? Not sure. But let me fabricate a reason: everyone assumes she wrote it because of her reputation. She wrote almost all her songs. She's written better songs. Of course she would have written that too... right!?