You can’t be defined by people who only read the headlines about you.

Most people are holding a summary of you: one story, one bad game, one rumor, one thing you said two years ago. Summaries travel because they are short, and short is what fits into a conversation about someone who is not in the room. The compression is rarely malice. It is just how attention works when it is spread thin.

Decide who gets the full version and put your effort there. Three or four people who know the context is plenty. When the headline reaches you, remember how little of the page it covers.