In your quest for career excellence, one vital success factor is clarity of goals. Once you have that sorted, the next major focus is YOU. The reality is this – you must change in order for things to change for you, therefore the person you become in the process of achieving your goals is critical. In essence, you need to develop a personality that suits the person or success that you wish to become. Success is not what you pursue, rather success is what or who you become. I recommend the below book if you are serious about improving your brand. It gives you step-by-step easy to implement guide on enhancing your personal brand.

The greatest value of achieving a goal is not really the goal itself, but  who you become in the process. While in high school, I learnt no one had ever achieved straight A’s in the senior secondary examination in my local school. So I set a goal for myself to be the first to do that. In order to achieve that, a lot had to change and the most important thing that changed was me. I re-ordered my priorities, studied harder, spent my time more wisely and ultimately I achieved my goal. That singular incidence obviously impacted my perception of  myself from that time on.

If your goal for example, is to become the CEO of your company, you must begin to develop and cultivate a personality of a CEO. You must develop an above average handshake, smile, gait, character, knowledge, skill and overall a pleasant personality. Some people want to achieve success but they don’t pay attention to things like this and they wonder why progress is limited. This is my personal definition of personal branding.

In developing a personal brand, you create the desired perception of who you are and what qualities you have to offer. Every popular and successful brand in the world today, has a niche. So develop a character and be known for something. Be the guy who can be relied upon to get the job done in good time, with a high quality and according to the required standards. Don’t follow the crowd, dare to stand on your convictions and be different. Carve a niche for yourself. Next we will explore ways to build your personal brand.

Meanwhile, I will appreciate your comments on this series so far. What do you think? Share your insights and let me know if there’s some topic you would like us to explore further. Happy reading.