iVillage

Today, during my coffee break in University of Toronto Annual Alumni Networking Event, one of the 3rd year students asked me the reason that I believe reputation is an underrated factor in the people's daily life. My answer was simple.

While unplanned pregnancy is not a big problem in larger cities such as New York, Toronto and London, it remains a major challenge in smaller cities and villages. To this date, the governments of the most developed countries have not been able to tackle this problem. Why? Imagine you live in a small town that everybody knows each other. You can never enjoy the anonymity that a big city offers when you go to a pharmacy or supermarket to buy contraceptives. People know you and will talk about it. So people tend to risk unplanned pregnancy for protecting their privacy and in some cases, their reputation.

Based on Milgram's study, each person in the United States is connected by approximately three close friends to all other Americans. Adding the concept of “six degrees of separation”, you can see what a small world we live in. It has and is becoming smaller with the advent of the Internet. Gadgets such as iPhone and Blackberry do more than just text messaging. They make our world even smaller. In other words, we are becoming just like that village. We can no longer afford to make serious mistakes. On the bright side, it really pays to be good and establish a positive reputation. People will know you much faster than you think they do.


Reza Sabernia