11 expert entrepreneurs share their best tips for building an excellent reputation

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Warren Buffett famously advised that "it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it."

These 11 entrepreneurs have built impeccable reputations, and they’ve learned the secrets to reputation management the hard way.

By following their advice, you can save a lot of time building and protecting your reputation in any market.

1. Turn negative attacks into opportunities

The Oracles

When you start getting attention, it’s only a matter of time before somebody posts something bad about you online, resulting in lost opportunities and damage to your reputation or brand. Handle all negative social posts as opportunities, not problems. A dissatisfied customer or post can be turned into a fan when handled correctly. Do not respond publicly online to something negative, as you only bring more attention to it. Communication is best handled directly either by phone or direct message.

—Grant Cardone, top sales expert who has built a $500 million real estate empire, New York Times best-selling author of Be Obsessed or Be Average, and founder of 10X Growth Con 2017; follow Grant on Facebook or YouTube

2. Always be fully transparent

The Oracles

Often, disputes arise from misunderstandings and/or lack of disclosure. Make it a point in everything you do to be completely transparent and provide full disclosure. If a business deal is ever anything less than crystal clear, refrain from getting involved. Usually it’s the deal which seems too good to be true that ends up being the worst — and everyone involved will remember you for it. I also stay away from doing business with friends or family because they’ll expect more from you in any deal and they’re more emotionally vested, which causes disputes or just generates headaches. And should the deal go sour, you will lose a good friend (or never hear the end of it) regardless of how many times you’d disclosed the risks.

—Manny Khoshbin, president of The Khoshbin Company and author of Contrarian PlayBook; arrived in America at 14 nearly homeless and now has a nine-figure net worth; follow Manny’s incredible adventures on Instagram

3. Endure the haters

The Oracles

In the modern world, everybody has a voice through Twitter, YouTube comments, Snapchat, Reddit, etc. So you have zero odds of having a perfect reputation when doing anything big.

Nicholas Klein said a century ago, “First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.” Take Justin Bieber: a few years ago, he had the most disliked YouTube video in history. People hated it; then it died down. The same with Kim Kardashian. It’s part of the natural progression as you rise from nobody to somebody. It will pass if you persist.

In the animal kingdom, a new challenger is first ignored, then laughed at and finally hated — they’re challenging people’s current status, so people are suspicious. In the human brain, that’s what’s called the negativity bias. Negativity is more viral than positivity. Eventually, you’ll be loved — once people realize they can’t beat you, they start to ally themselves with you.

—Tai Lopez, investor and advisor to many multimillion-dollar businesses who has built an eight-figure online empire; connect with Tai on Facebook or Snapchat

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