An American author, Lois McMaster Bujold (b. 1949), once observed: ‘Reputation is what other people know about you. Honour is what you know about yourself.’
Reputation is the opinion that others have about you. How is this opinion formed? It is formed on the basis of your deeds, not of your words. Reputation represents your external personality, while a sense of honour is your own inner perception of yourself. It is like self-praise, that is, believing that you are ‘so and so’, without taking into account what others think about you.
Your reputation is like a cheque that can be cashed at the bank. The market knows you by your reputation, and not through your self-perception. You cannot ‘cash in’ your self-perception or your sense of honour in the market. If you want to have a place for yourself in society, you have to create a reputation for yourself by your actual deeds. Your own sense of honour or self-praise cannot give you any status in the world.
Some people live in self-pride. They are always busy praising themselves. But, self-praise can only satisfy the person himself. Others will never pay heed to the accolades he heaps upon himself. Moreover, if you yearn to develop a quality that you do not actually possess, that will lead to some fruitless, unrealistic course of action. As a result, you will never gain the respect of others. However, everyone is born with some special quality. If you discover that quality, concentrate upon it and put it to good use, that will engender gratefulness to God in yourself and in others.
