Final Thought

I found this class to be very different than any class I have ever taken before, but in a good and enjoyable way.  As I am an accounting student, the content of the class was obviously different from the majority of what I had taken at college, however I have taken other economics classes at the university, so it was nice change of pace in that regard. However, aside from the content, the most unique thing about this course for me was the structure.  While I have taken courses that involve posting topics on discussion boards, this is the first one I have ever taken that incorporates extensive blogging.  I think aside from the educational content this will prove to be beneficial down the road as our exposure to blogging will help as it continues its ascent into the mainstream.  I liked being able to offer my opinion on topics in a freer and less restrictive environment, and I think the open-ended nature of the blogs made for better insight.

I felt that the excel homeworks were helpful in seeing graphically and mathematically how the applied concepts affected the market.  The visuals provided by the graphs really helped me the impact of certain factors on the market which really helped reinforce topics to me.  My biggest complaint with the excel was simply the physical layout and formatting. On some of the homework assignments, a few of the spreadsheets had so much written information on them in such a small space that it made it difficult to retain some of the information.  While I understand this is a very petty complaint, it is one that I also think is easily fixable for the future by either formatting the document differently or breaking up the homework into more parts splitting up the written text.

My favorite topic we covered was the theories on management and how management styles can affect an organization economically.  It was interesting to compare and contrast the different techniques and makes assumptions about which style is best for certain situations.  This is a topic that applies all across the business world and is very important to keep in mind for all future career endeavors.  The trickle down effect from management styles is simply something that cannot be ignored.

Overall, I thought this was a beneficial class and one that I was happy to have taken.

Reputation

A reputation is one of the most important things a person owns, and while intangible, can play a major role in influencing the happenings in a person's life.  Reputations are built up over time based with past performance or actions playing the most vital role in the formation of a reputation.  The most accurate reputations are the ones that have formed over an extended period of time as the result of many different actions, whether they be good or bad.  However, one of the most important characteristics of reputations is how fragile they can be.  While this is true much more so with good reputations than bad ones, one mistake can ruin a person's reputation forever.  With that said, it generally comes out after the fact that the individual can has had similar transgressions in the past that remained private and a track record of poor decisions or performance can uncovered.  A perfect example of this is the reputation of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.  For almost all of his life, Paterno was held in the highest esteem by the American public for his values and good deeds, as well the fact that he was an exceptional football coach.  However, after his former assistant Jerry Sandusky had been arrested on child molestation charges, it was uncovered that Coach Paterno had helped try to cover up Sandusky's horrible actions.  As soon as the cover-up became public knowledge, all of Paterno's good work in his career had become completely overshadowed and tarnished.  As more details unfolded, it turned out that the cover-up had gone on much longer and was much more detailed than people thought.  While it only took one mistake to completely damage Paterno's reputation, looking back a precedent had been set earlier in his career for acting in this manner.

As far as my own personal life, one place where I greatly value my reputation and I like to think that it is fairly strong, is with my family.  While my reputation has been built up over many years, I am aware that one mistake could unfortunately change it entirely.  I have a reputation within my family of being very dependable and reliable.  This came from years of completing any action that I said that I would do, and stepping up, whenever possible, to help or do a favor.  I know that my family members have great confidence in me to fulfill their expectations if they ask me to complete a task.

The one time I "cashed in" on my reputation was when my parents went away for a weekend and left me at my house to take care of my dogs and stay at the house for the weekend.  My parents expected that I would essentially treat the house in the same way as if they were still there based on my reputation of being dependable.  Instead, I took advantage of the opportunity and had some friends over at my house when this would not have been okay with my parents had they known of this.  Unfortunately, when my parents returned from their trip, they realized that I had had people at our house and were very disappointed in me. My reputation certainly took a hit at the time, but I was able to recover partially based on the goodwill I had built up in the past, and future acts of reliability I demonstrated in the future.