WHO, NOT WHAT, YOU ARE

"Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't."

Richard Bach, American author.

Maybe the first question should be, do you know what your life's mission is?

Hint; it's not what you do it's who you are and who you are is not who you say you are, it's who others say you are.

PICTURE YOU

"Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself."

Samuel Butler (1612-1680) British poet and satirist.

That being so, how do you want others to picture you?

TELL ME AGAIN; YOU'RE FAMOUS FOR WHAT?

"Obscurity and competence: That is the life that is worth living."

Mark Twain (1835-1910) U.S. humorist/writer/lecturer.

Being the first (obscure) does not mean you are not the second (competent), although the reverse is rarely true.

For far too many, being famous is all they have; an "advantage" of little to no value if you aren't also something other than just famous.

THE TRUE YOU

"Our lives teach us who we are."

Salman Rushdie (1948-?) Anglo-Indian novelist.

We do our best to project the person we want others to believe we are but it's what we do and say that decides that.

And I'm not so sure it does teach us regardless; the power of self deception is great.

THE MANY OF US

"A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him."

William James (1842-1910) American philosopher/psychologist

Appropriate to remember in this time of social networking that we are as many versions of ourselves as there are people passing judgement on who we are.

And they do that based on what we say and do.

Best to think about what you say and do before you say and do it.

(UN) MAKING AN ASS OF YOURSELF

"If an ass goes traveling it will not come home a horse."

Proverb

True, but unlike the ass who cannot change what he is, we humans can.

(I don't make these up but if I did, this would be near the top.)

Brand Management: Going for the Hearts and Minds

"Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind."

Walter Landor
Branding Expert

Another word for "brand" is "aura"; that largely intangible but incredibly important element that defines a product.

Think about the auras of Coke, Porsche, NYC, Obama, the Taliban and iPod. All pretty powerful wouldn't you say?

How about your aura and/or that of your product?

Leadership: Real or Fake?

"The leader of men in warfare can show himself to his followers only through a mask, a mask that he must make for himself, but a mask made in such form as will mark him to men of his time and place as the leader they want and need."

Sir John Keegan
British Military Historian

He's telling us that great military leaders must not only hide their true identity but craft one that others will want to follow.

1. Can a military leader successfully pretend to be something he or she is not?
2. Can they fake a leader's "mask"?
   

What about business leaders?