Be Careful about Selling Your Good Name for 'Easy' Money
You may not see the thorns that can end up coming with it
Financially capitalizing on your good name is a goal or daydream of some people and precious few are able to ethically take advantage of it. There are risks however.
Shaquille O'Neal, an accomplished businessman, for one is learning the costs of allowing his name to be associated with a brand that failed customers and now, him.
It’s going to financially cost him close to $2 million to settle claims in a lawsuit, reported Kameron Duncan in Men’s Journal.
O’Neal trusted the crypto exchange FTX and was failed by it, just as were FTX’s customers. “Remaining athletes and celebrities in the litigation — including Tom Brady, Steph Curry, and David Ortiz — could still be on the hook for billions in damages,” according to a Front Office Sports’ post on X.
No one who granted permission to FTX to use their name to help the company excite people enough to become customers expected it to collapse and have people angry at them and end up being sued. It’s a hard, infuriating and stressful lesson to come to painfully realize that not all money is good money and not all opportunities are figurative rocket ships to easy, risk-proof, sure wins.
Not all that glitters is gold.
Institute safeguards to protect your name and the value it offers.
Michael Toebe is the specialist at Reputation Intelligence, helping individuals and organizations with matters of credibility, trust, decision analysis, communications, relationships and reputation.
You can DM him on Substack or contact him below for consulting, risk analysis, coaching, ongoing advisory, a variety of proactive and responsive communications and reputation (not legal) representation.
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