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Thanksgiving 2006: A Tribute to Brand Yous
Did the Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock? Did they break bread with the Indians on Thanksgiving? Are we white folk responsible for genocide concerning the Native Americans?
I don't know the answers to any of those questions, other than "open to debate." But there is something I do know ... for sure. The folks who came from England on the Mayflower, landing somewhere or other, and breaking bread with someone or other ... were a flinty, tough, strong-minded, determined, resilient bunch. And America's subsequent long march to global leadership is indeed a reflection of wave after wave of such determined, tough immigrants ... many of whom, after a generation or two, broke into the clear and made a mark. For example, my Grandfather Peters, who came here from Germany in 1870 or so, and became a leading Baltimore contractor; my grandmother Peters, in turn, founded one of that grand city's leading charities of the day.
So my perhaps odd "Thanksgiving message" (how pretentious!), or rant (far less pretentious), is about, um, "Brand You."
Huh?
Yup. "Brand You" was not, as some critics contend, an idea born of the '90s desire for self-adulation. To the contrary, in the late '90s I saw technology begin to supplant workers, increasingly skilled workers; then as the calendar turned to the new millennium-century I saw the astonishing explosion of energy and determination arising in the likes of India.
American economic isolation came to an end in a flash. We all, even "management gurus," became part, overnight, of a global labor market. Wages stagnated. Outsourcing soared, and technology got smarter and smarter. A pal, Dan Pink, said, more or less, "Here are the options: Do you choose to lose your job to an Indian? Or a microprocessor?"
It's not quite that dire in reality. But it is psychologically. Any sense of lifetime job security is caput. Health insurance is a distant dream for millions. Pensions are no guarantee of a cushy, or at least adequate, retirement after 40 years as a loyal Cubicle Slave.
Enter—as I saw it and see it—Brand You. What Brand You really means (to me) is a glorious (yes, glorious) return to the idea of those flinty Pilgrim men and women. A return to Franklin's (the true Father of Brand You) principles and Emerson's self-reliance. And the spirit of the brave ones heading West in the rickety Conestoga wagons. Or the spirit of Charles Lindbergh. Or Jackie Robinson. Or Martin Luther King or Elizabeth Cady Stanton ... or Carly Fiorina.
Ms Fiorina flatly said, "There is no job that is America's God-given right." Wired guru Michael Goldhaber adds, "If there is nothing very special about your work, no matter how hard you apply yourself you won't get noticed, and that increasingly means you won't get paid much either." And Sally Field tells us, "The only thing you have power over is to get good at what you do. That's all there is; there ain't no more."
Yes, I do see this as good news, and not just for Ivy Leaguers. Ivy Leaguers? America—God bless America—now has about 11 million women-owned businesses—damn few were started by Ivy Leaguers. (But that's another story.) In our abiding attention to Google's or Yahoo's next micro-move we blithely ignore the thousands of brave entrepreneurs I talked to last year who had the guts to roll the dice, skip out on ordinary means of security, and take on the responsibilities of starting and owning tanning salons!
Is it a lonely life that I propound? To the contrary. Those hearty first white New Englanders were at once self-reliant ... but had the support of an extraordinarily tight-knit community. My "Brand Yous"? On their own—but, if they're wise, creating their own, resilient communities of reputation and support. Face-to-face or, increasingly, online. (Web 2.0? 3.0? Who cares; it can work.) I mostly work alone, or, rather, with the assistance of a wee group of colleagues in Vermont and Boston. And a powerful band of supporters from hither and, increasingly, thither. To tell the truth, I feel a lot more secure with my self-created network and devotion to self-improvement than I ever did at, say, McKinsey or Stanford. It's up to me, per Sally Field, to constantly get better-different than yesterday; and it's up to me to expand and mind my network.
Hence my flavor of Brand You is at once distinctly Solo and distinctly about creating and minding a Network-Community of, mostly, one's own construction.
My Thanksgiving suggestion is to remember the true nature and character and determination of those Pilgrim Fathers & Mothers as their little band, alone on the East coast of a great continent, carved out the beginnings of a truly New World that eventually became a Beacon of Freedom and Opportunity for all others around the globe.
(Have we dimmed the light of that Beacon of late? Perhaps. But "they" still line up at the portals of our embassies around the world—wanting in. God help us when those lines get shorter.)
There is an absolutely stunning article in this issue of Fortune about Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp. As a Princeton senior, 17 years ago, she had a dream. Seventeen years later fully 10% of the graduating classes of Yale and Dartmouth, in the midst of a more or less bull market for college hires, applied to Teach for America. All told 19,000 seniors applied for 2,400 slots. After only a few weeks of "basic training," these bold, young Brand Yous, circa 2006, will enter classrooms in some of the toughest schools in America. Hats off, way off, to the Golden Ten Percent at Yale and Dartmouth. And hats off, way, way off to Wendy Kopp. Can one person make an enormous difference in a still complacent nation of 300,000,000? Damn right.
Happy Thanksgiving to our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locales. To, especially, our active-duty National Guard types, often serving a second tour in the desert. Happy Thanksgiving, Wendy Kopp. Happy Thanksgiving, Yalies and Dartmouth youngsters and the rest of the 19,000 volunteering for tough active duty of another sort. Happy Thanksgiving, brave tanning salon owners and pioneering women business owners.
The hell with those pensions-for-time-served-in-cramped-cubicles. Welcome to a New Age of Self-reliance in a flattening global society of equals.
Thanksgiving considerations, honoring the chutzpah of our Pilgrim forebears:
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"—Mary Oliver
"A year from now you may wish you had started today."—Karen Lamb
[Tom is home—and the family's Designated Shopper; part of Susan's list is above.—CM]
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Comments
I wonder if you will also say "The hell with those New Deal and Great Society government programs that encourage dependency on the government rather than self-reliance"
Or
"The hell with the Soviet style gulag we call the American public school system in favor of self-reliant parents who decide how and where their children are be educated"
Posted by Jerry Martinez at November 20, 2006 1:14 PM
Jerry Martinez - new hero of mine.
Perhaps though Jerry now the Democrats/blue-county culturists have us in too deep - hopefully we can rescue ourselves from "entitlements" and public "schools". Like maybe having a tax residence & major healthcare services off-shore for example!
" ... brave tanning salon owners ..." Hilarious - maybe add more Kool-Aid to the shopping list? Fabulous year of affluence & living simply here THANKS USA.
Posted by sean at November 20, 2006 1:24 PM
Good God, still raking the New Deal over the coals in 2006? Any one who wants to scuttle the likes of Social Security or Deposit Insurance is ....
Posted by tom peters at November 20, 2006 4:43 PM
Hmmmmm. I "get" the Brand You for the professional "creative class", and for all those enterprsing entrepreneurs (tanning salon owners, et al.), but I'm having a hard time imagining 300 million Brand Yous. Even with new technology and ubiquitous communications, it's kind of making my head spin. How do you envision the ways in which the economy and society overall will organize itself - will everything be ad hoc and fluid, or will a certain number of permanent (more or less) institutions survive?
In any case, it's interesting to play it forward and think about what may come to pass, and those of us who have busted out of our cubicles will shape it.
And I'm with you on the genius of American society. I'm the daughter/grand-daughter/great-grand-daughter of immigrants, and I harbor no illusions about how great things were in the Old Country. Bravo to all those immigrants who had the chutzpah to follow the Pilgrims and get on the boat. Long may we have the "tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to breathe free" knocking on our door.
Posted by Maureen Rogers at November 20, 2006 6:55 PM
Many brand yous in China, look out!
Posted by susan bell at November 20, 2006 7:07 PM
Happy Thanksgiving America. It's your passion & your willingness to "risk-it-all" for the things you care that sets you apart from the rest.
Posted by Namith at November 20, 2006 8:41 PM
Are we (the western nations) training/educating brand you's effectively... nup... pity, sad, those that can't cut it will end up (and obviously DO end up) "Tired, poor and huddled masses yearning to be free."
It spins around folks, and its what you do next that will put you in good stead for the run home.
Warriors that thrived in battle were and or are those that stand as individual leaders working the system to take brave steps into the unknown...
Posted by Steve Gray at November 20, 2006 8:48 PM
"but I'm having a hard time imagining 300 million Brand Yous."
Would you call a clerk in a purchasing department at a big insurance company "brand you"? Probably not. But what about a single Hispanic Mom, age 32, raising 3 kids in the LA area and holding 2.5 jobs to do so? I'd call her a hero, self-reliant, resilient--and a Brand You!
Posted by tom peters at November 20, 2006 10:16 PM
So, is "Brand You" someone with a unique identity? That's everybody, no, since everyone is more than "just" their job definition, once we know something about them. Or is it someone who pulls it together in an admirable way (the single Hispanic Mom, one of whose jobs is in the big insurance company)? Or does a "Brand You" have to have some consciousness that they're their own brand, no longer any company's apparatchik, flying solo but connected, etc.
Posted by Maureen Rogers at November 20, 2006 10:50 PM
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
To live it, share it, celebrate it, and sacrifice it, if need be...
Thank you Tom, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Jay, from Bangalore
Posted by Jayakumar Hariharan at November 21, 2006 2:47 AM
"Or does a "Brand You" have to have some consciousness that they're their own brand, no longer any company's apparatchik,flying solo but connected, etc."
Since there's no handbook, the real answer is "whatever." My more or less definition is someone who does not depend on any institution (US Air, say) to "take care of them" if they simply "do a good job." It is someone who therefore is CONSCIOUS of building their own track record. That's true obviously of a political candidate. But also of our single mother of three. She consciously works at building a reputation as punctual, works as a team member, always of good cheer (despite the 2.5 jobs), willing to learn new things. She aims to be "employee of the month" or whatever. When she leaves a job, perhaps she is careful to get a letter of recommendation from her boss. I've always liked this quote from Isabel Allende: “You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend or not.†I'd think, conceptually, that's as true of a farm hand here in Tinmouth VT as a Hollywood cameraman.
But as I said, there's no rule book so you could create 100 definitions as good as mine.
Posted by tom peters at November 21, 2006 7:48 AM
I believe that “brand you†is a mind set that can be deployed within and outside any corporation. Those that do, fight against a gravitational pull toward mediocrity that exists within every organization. What are the “trademarks†of a brand you? What are the physical representations of brand you? I have a few which include your network (relationships), publishing (public recognition), persona (resume, cv, web sites, blogs, press releases), and a portfolio of accomplishments.
Posted by RTodd at November 21, 2006 8:48 AM
"It is someone who therefore is CONSCIOUS of building their own track record."
Thanks.The "Brand You" concept is quite interesting, and I haven't heard it framed quite like this before. It's obviously something that we will all need to keep in mind throughout our careers - whether we're "still" in a job in a large organization, on our own, ratcheting back and forth between...Bottom line: the only guarantee you'll have is the one you make to and about yourself.
Posted by Maureen Rogers at November 21, 2006 8:51 AM
Brand You and Brand New 2007 - Summer [& year] of Love ... to me Tom the Brand is Authentic [thanks Seth] 1st - think that is a part of the thread here.
Brand New's should live well below their means so they can be flexible & Free Agent well ahead of the curve - able to play out a plan A, B, and/or C because they have finance to DO IT ... to say I'm leaving you freaks because I'm a more radical lucky freak with a dream that is more fun [& 1 year of savings!]
Posted by sean_brand_new at November 21, 2006 8:59 AM
This is presumptuous of me to offer a definition of Brand You on Tom's website, under his own words, but I've read a very great deal of Tom's stuff, and this is what I've arrived at:
Brand You means nobody can take your work away from you. They can fire you; they can downsize, outsource, or offshore your job. But you take the work that you did--the experience, the learning, the credit, the reputation, with you. To your next job, and your next one. And you can't run away from your work. Screw it up in a large corporation or on your own, or be the go-to person who gets things done in a large org or on your own, and that's what you carry with you; that's Brand You.
"But you can't run away from yourself."--Bob Marley
And, do you have your shopping list ready? Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
Posted by cathy mosca at November 21, 2006 9:54 AM
To me, Brand You means: taking responsibility for my work, my career, my health, my life. It means holding others accountable for their side of the deal. It means executing well and on time, every time. It is about taking pride in and having humility about who I am and what I do and how I do it.
It doesn’t matter that I’m a Big (Japanese) Company man, in this phase of my career. It doesn’t matter that I work in logistics, I am part of a bigger picture. Brand You is about doing the best I can, and encouraging others around me to do the same.
Posted by Mark JF at November 21, 2006 10:09 AM
Quick question for Tom: have you read "Laborum Exercens" by John Paul II? buy cheap viagra online uk
"...the general situation of man in the modern world, studied and analyzed in its various aspects of geography, culture and civilization, calls for the discovery of the new meanings of human work."
Even better:
"While it may seem that in the industrial process it is the machine that "works" and man merely supervises it, making it function and keeping it going in various ways, it is also true that for this very reason industrial development provides grounds for reproposing in new ways the question of human work. Both the original industrialization that gave rise to what is called the worker question and the subsequent industrial and post-industrial changes show in an eloquent manner that, even in the age of ever more mechanized "work", the proper subject of work continues to be man."
That was in 1981.
Posted by Joe Marier at November 21, 2006 12:23 PM
Quick question for Tom: have you read "Laborum Exercens" by John Paul II?
Joe, I have not read it; what's the best way to access it?
Posted by tom peters at November 21, 2006 2:29 PM
"Brand you" idea is very simple : "Be distinct or be extinct..." :)-
Posted by /pd at November 21, 2006 7:29 PM
I've been doing the "brand you" thing reasonably successfully over the last 15 years, but beware of the health insurance trap for private coverage.
Certainly when one is part of a group rates keep going up. Outside of a group they do as well, but at age 55 I live in fear of being priced out of the coverage.
I also found that when applying for coverage anywhere else, if over you're 50, and you or your family have had any medical charges, surgery, or just about anything in the last 10 years, you don't make the cut.
The health care system for independent hard working people is broken. Being "brand you" does not seem to help much in that area.
Posted by Perspective at November 21, 2006 8:33 PM
"Brand You" is the only concept that will save you (or your company) from mediocrity!
If you're doing the same thing as the rest of the 299,999,999 people in the country...how can you expect different results?
Without striving to be unique; nothing would have ever happened in this country.
Patrick McEvoy
President
Rainmaker Gateway
http://www.rainmakergateway.com
Posted by Patrick McEvoy at November 22, 2006 5:42 AM
The link was erased? Hmm... Well, Tom, if you google the phrase "centissimus annus vatican.va", that will work as well. I like it for its focus on the meaning of work from a philosophical perspective, and its insistence that work is made for man, not man for work. His later encyclical, Centissimus Annus, is even better.
Posted by Joe Marier at November 22, 2006 10:02 AM
So sorry Joe, the link was mistakenly erased. I think I've found it:
buy viagra online forumhttp://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091981_laborem-exercens_en.html
Please verify that this is what you had in mind.
Here's the link for the Centesimus Annus encyclical:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_01051991_centesimus-annus_en.html
Posted by Shelley Dolley at November 22, 2006 12:17 PM
It's a hell of a lot harder to begin a career and challenge the status quo when no one in a large organization is interested in hearing the ideas of the young, ambitious fella who hasn't wasted their years doing the same repetitive tasks as long as they have.
Your advice about challenge mediocrity is best fed to those who are in more influential positions. Leadership CAN happen at any level, but someone without much of a track record who is challenging normal operating procedures in order to surpass the status quo can quickly hurt their reputation, and impede their progress up the ladder.
Posted by Dau at November 22, 2006 2:51 PM
Tom,
I think Muhammad Yunus would agree with you.
This evening on The New Hour on PBS, he said
that the natural state of economic activity is for
everyone to be an entrepreneur. But modern
economies hide this from us and encourage
us to become employees.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/
http://tinyurl.com/yzvuox (audio)
Yunus: All human beings are entrepreneurs. When we were in
the caves we were all self-employed. . . finding our food,
feeding ourselves. That’s where human history began . . . as
civilization came we suppressed it....We became labor because
they stamped us, “Your are labor.†We forgot that we are
entrepreneurs.
[My probably imperfect transcription (of this part of the much
longer interview)]
John
Posted by ShakespearesFool at November 22, 2006 9:27 PM
Tom:
I thought you might become really emotional and write: Cindy Sheehan.
Since we mediocrities can never become supermen, or superwomen, Nietzschian or otherwise, I am all for glorying in our mediocrity - it is usually unique.
Posted by wmmbb at November 23, 2006 7:54 AM
Dau - I have to disagree with you, in part. Sure it can be hard for someone in a "lowly" position to challenge mediocrity and sure there are companies where politically it just isn't an option to do so. But to me, "Brand You" is a state of mind: it doesn't matter what the circumstances, it doesn't matter what's the attitude is those around me, I'm going to do my best. Period. No exceptions.
Posted by Mark JF at November 23, 2006 2:45 PM
John/ShakespearesFool: Great Comment re Yunus! Thanks!
Posted by tom peters at November 24, 2006 8:52 AM
Like most of you, I am a big believer of Brand You. Believe it or not, it is hard to make technology professionals believe in the value of Brand You. They are too busy building strong relationships with the next best
Unfortunately, they are the ones that are going to be killed if they don't make an attempt to build a very strong personal brand.
For techies out there, I have written an eBook on this topic (Yes, following my hero Tom's footsteps) and it has been downloaded over 75,000 times so far. It is free (PDF, 40 pages) and here is the link:
http://blog.lifebeyondcode.com/blog/_archives/2006/4/23/1906520.html
Thanks again Tom!
Posted by Raj Setty at November 26, 2006 2:25 PM
I am really impressed of your work.. You are the one who made me start writing my own articles about personal branding. Keep up the good work!
Tobias Baeck
http://blog.baeck.no
http://wwww.baeck.no
http://blog.baeck.no/2007/01/10/stand-out-from-the-crowd-with-personal-branding/
Posted by Tobias Baeck at January 10, 2007 7:41 PM