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The importance of one's personal brand
Everyone has a personal brand, but most people are not aware of this and do not manage it strategically, consistently or effectively. Yet in today's instant-message, online, virtual age, a strong personal brand plays an important part in personal success.
Most personal-branding concepts focus on personal marketing, image building, selling, outward appearances, promoting oneself and becoming famous, which can easily lead to perceptions of egocentricity and selfishness. But successful personal branding is more than just marketing and promoting yourself. It entails controlling and influencing how others perceive and think of you. Your personal brand is the synthesis of all the expectations, images and perceptions created in the minds of others when they see or hear your name.
Consider the images that come to mind when we think of some wellknown individuals:
* Oprah Winfrey - powerful and influential, but also warm and caring;
* Bill Gates - a gadget man, geek and philanthropist;
* Donald Trump - decisive and ruthless;
* Mother Teresa - selflessness and saintliness; and
* Albert Einstein - a great and gentle genius.
Barack Obama is seen as a man of intelligence, integrity and vision, who is fighting for change. His passion for change is the pillar of his authentic personal brand, and it is the primary theme of many of his speeches.
America is a land of big dreamers and big hopes . . . And it is because our dreamers dreamed that we have emerged from each challenge more united, more prosperous, and more admired than before . . . The true test of the American ideal is whether . . . chance of birth or circumstance decides life's big winners and losers, or whether we build a community where, at the very least, everyone has a chance to work hard, get ahead and reach their dreams ... I don't want to settle for anything less than real change, fundamental change - change we need - change that we can believe in. It Is change that I have been fighting for for over two decades. Because those dreams - American dreams - are worth fighting for.
Note how many times he refers to authentic dreams. Barack Obama has succeeded by living according...