I wanted to write an epic post about my experiences in Dubai last week (and I may yet), but instead let me just say this, because it’s on my mind:
It’s a big world out there. Those of you trying to be the next Seth Godin, the next Tony Robbins, the next Peter Drucker, you’re wasting your time. They’re all great people. They know their stuff. And they are very good at being Seth Godin, Tony Robbins and Peter Drucker, but you’re chasing the wrong dream. You’re wasting your time. And you’re acting like a complete jackass trying to be something (and someone) you are not.
Let me explain. I spent last week listening to two three types of people:
The first had problems they needed to solve – How do I get more customers? How do I keep my customers from abandoning me? How do I grow my program? How do I bring more investment into my country? How do I secure 5% more market share? How do I change perceptions? How do I accelerate adoption of my technology?
The second had ideas, some of which might very well solve some of the problems brought up by the first category. These were smart, intuitive, compassionate, clever little entrepreneurs with warm smiles and dependable handshakes. People who watch and listen more than they speak. People who solve rather than sell. People who care more about results for their clients and customers than their own fame or status. I like those guys. We get along. We find in each other a common trait, and every meeting feels a lot like running into an old friend.
And then there was the third type. The salesmen. The people selling crap nobody needs. The guys who talk more than they listen. The guys who haven’t had an original thought in over a decade but still think their limited view of the world is more relevant than that of a 20-something tapped into his demographic. The guys who can step off a jumbo jet, spend less than 24 hours in a foreign country – most of which they spent hiding in their hotel rooms – and tell everyone there how to fix all their problems. The guys who think that because they wrote a book twenty years ago, they are now infallible one-man think tanks. The guys who start believing their own PR, or their own “press,” as they say. Here’s a reality you need to come to terms with: If you started off selling bullshit, your bullshit doesn’t magically turn into gold a few books and a couple of decades later.
Be careful what you decide to sell today, boys and girls, because you might still be selling it twenty years from now. And what you sell ends up defining you a lot more than you realize.
Don’t put all your eggs in the celebrity consultant basket. That gig isn’t what you think. Don’t go there unless you want to reach the end of your “career” as a punch-line. There’s far less money in it than you think, and no dignity whatsoever. What’s worse is this: Instead of being the guy who spent his career solving problems for the first category of person I mentioned here today, instead of creating legitimate value, you end up spending the best years of what could have been a fruitful career selling something that people don’t need: Your “personal brand.” Put a lid on that little ego trip right now, before it swallows you whole.
What you should focus on is this: Being the second kind of person mentioned above. The kind that listens more and speaks less. The kind that cares about doing a great job. The kind with an eye for positive change. The kind that doesn’t spend every waking moment trying to sell themselves to conferences, to publishers, to CNN, to whomever might be dumb enough not to see through the shameless self-promotion. It doesn’t mean you won’t speak at conferences and won’t be published. It doesn’t mean you won’t get to travel to cool places every few months if that’s what you want to do. What it means is that if you focus on being that second type of person, if you focus on improving the lives (and businesses of others) instead of focusing on improving your brand, status and personal myth of success, you might actually get it all. Everything you’ve ever wanted. And as a bonus, you won’t spend the next twenty years being a parasite.
The world needs you to stop focusing so much on yourself and to turn that brilliant little mind of yours outward instead of inward. Every company in the world is struggling right now. Companies in every country, from the US to Senegal, and from Australia to the Emirates are looking for help, for solutions, for insights. The last thing they need from you or anyone else is more bullshit. There’s already more than enough of that for everyone to choke on ten times over. They need real help. They need that second category of person: Problem-solvers. Dependable helpers. True partners. Be that. That’s where the value is, not in selling your “personal brand,” your trademarked 10-rules or 20-step program, certification or cookie-cutter ROI calculator. The value of that is zero. Zip. Stop it.
Instead, try this on for size: Get off the “I want to be a social media rock star” train and start helping. I swear your career prospects will improve FAST. Not only that, but you will rediscover how good it feels to be part of something bigger and greater than “me, Inc.”, to see your efforts improve the lives of other people, not just your own. True success comes to those on this path, not on the other. Starting as soon as you can wrap your head around this idea, focus on solving real problems. If they involve social media, great. If they don’t, so what? It’s a big world out there. Social media and the US fishbowl are only a very small little sliver of it.
Think bigger. The world needs you to.
” Instead, try this on for size: Get off the “I want to be a social media rock star” train and start helping. “
Yes! I’ll take care of this.
Thanks for the valuable advice.
There you go.
It took me 20 years to figure it out, but I am at once the most important and least important person on the planet. It’s okay to be a cog, especially if you are a lever/fulcrum that moves the Whole forward.
The Ego is a real bitch and hinders our growth more than anything or anyone else.
I wish more people travelled. Thanks for taking the time to jot down your thoughts. Best, M.
I’m as much of an egomaniac as the next person – and being French, perhaps even more so – but yes, traveling to different parts of the world (and I don’t mean 4-day cruises to Cancun) is kind of important if you want to grow, both personally and professionally.
I recently asked an acquaintance of mine (once a friend, now less so) how many Muslims he actually knew. This was during the unfortunate “Ground Zero mosque” controversy several months ago, when we found out that a chunk of Americans couldn’t tell the difference between a Muslim and a terrorist. He was of the opinion that Muslims apparently didn’t qualify for freedom of religion anymore. Sad. Anyway, his answer was “none.” He didn’t know any Muslims. Yet, here he was, telling me that Muslims hate America. You know what lesson I drew from that unfortunate exchange? Ignorance sucks. Including my own.
4 days in Dubai didn’t make me an expert on the Islamic world. Far from it. But you know, having been there, having experienced a little corner of that world for myself (albeit one of the most western incarnations of the Muslim world) opened my eyes to a whole new world out there, which is infinitely more complex than our own. I used to think Christianity, with all its little denominations and factions was a mosaic. It is nothing compared to the breadth of beliefs and cultures that makes up the Islamic world.
Yet here I am, having conversations with people who look at Muslims as a one-size-fits-all religion of bearded brown dudes who might be carrying bombs in their backpacks, because that’s what they see on ’24′ and hear about on Fox News. If they spent 4 days traveling like I did, their perspective would change. Even if only a little bit, it would change, and that would be enough. It would be a good start.
Same with this social media stuff. The exact same provincial attitude, the same ignorance, the same self-centered world view that paralyzes and poisons our political culture also paralyzes and poisons the social media “thought leadership” world.
There is far too much selling being done by people with small minds and VERY shallow professional experience, and not enough active learning from these would-be gurus.
You want to understand social? Start with this: Understand people. All people. Human beings. The technology is completely irrelevant. Anyone can learn how to use the technology. What makes it all work, what gives a campaign or program purpose is what value is provided for people. Twitter experts are about as valuable as toilet-paper folding experts.
Food for thought.
Branding, personal and otherwise, is too often discussed in a vacuum. “I want people to know how cool I am.” Ok, fine, but what are going actually going to *do* for people? A brand is the wrapping around a gift. What gifts are you going to offer people? If there’s no gift, no substance, the brand, like the wrapping, will very quickly become irrelevant and forgotten.
If one wants to be valued, be valuable.
“Valuable?” That’s going to be a problem for some. What are you supposed to do when you have nothing to sell but the promise of value, not the value itself?
Like a $3K social media certification, for example, or outrageously expensive “consulting” services that earn you the right to sit in the same room as a blogger who has nothing to sell you but a 12-step SEO process rehashed to sound like “social media?”
The world is indeed bigger than our social ecosystem, and the US has a lot to contribute to the world. Unfortunately — and this is true of every country — people tend to look inward and think their issues are the sun around which every other planet revolves.
The best antidote is occasional removal from one’s physical space to the most unlikely, unnerving environment, one we are not used to, one that we couldn’t have imagined. Only then do we recognise the bigger picture out there, how we figure in it and, more importantly, how we can contribute value.
I’m looking forward to your post on Dubai.
There might be more than one.
Preach it.
As much as I want to make a living running my little online magazine, I’d rather make a difference than make a buck.
I’ve been “in business” for just over a year. Haven’t made a dime. Not particularly worried about it, either.
Dubai looks amazing. Maybe I’ll find a Mitsubishi owner or rallyist over there one of these days to interview…
Dude, the cab drivers all drive their Toyota sedans like they’re behind the wheel of a V8 Audi tricked out for the Paris-Dakar. You’ll fit right in.
Olivier,
Your first line says it all “It’s a big world out there.” Most people don’t know it and think the world revolves around whatever it is they are doing at the moment. You could solve many of the problems of this country, including the political ones, by getting people to realize that they don’t need to sell themselves or whatever load of crap they are carrying at the moment. They need to listen and see the larger picture and realize they could do more good by helping instead of forcing their own agenda on everyone else. Ooops, getting dizzy up here on my soapbox. I’m going back down to earth now.
Bingo. You said it all right there.
Once again a swift kick in the ol backside or better yet a whoopin out back behind the woodshed where the woodchucks chuck wood……
It is funny the timeliness of this posting. It was the main area of focus I had for speaking to the MN Chapter of the American Marketing Association last week. I kept bringing home the fact that people need help and you can help them by being out online. That being apart of the online communities is more about others than yourself.
Having the ability to meet and understand online, but also making sure to try and take to opportunities offline to enrich the relationship + solve some problems together.
They were very appreciative of me talking more about this than “personal branding rock star techniques”
Thanks again for your honest and open approach, it is refreshing
Thanks, man. I try to be refreshing, even though I feel like a broken record sometimes.
All over the world, unicorns are getting twitchy.
In my previous jobs, one of my clients was in San Juan. I’d never really traveled further than the US Southeast until I was over-30. The trips to San Juan were eye-opening at first, but with more travel to the same place, I fell into another complacency that complained more like any other trip I was going to make. I hope to return soon with a rental car and no client meetings so I can enjoy it again for the first time.
I’ve got a question though, after this and other posts: do you think they KNOW? I mean, do they know you’ve called them out? I wholeheartedly agree with your stance of of not naming names but instead informing the masses and calling out the trend. But do you think they read this kind of piece and AGREE with a healthy PREACH IT, too?
Oh wait – they probably don’t read… never mind.
All I can do is deliver the message.
What a great post. So glad I just happened across this today! It’s inspiring to not only read the post but the comments below. Just “seeing” more like-minded people on the subject of providing REAL value is awesome.
I believe that genuine problem-solving will help you/your brand stand out. It’s true for so many startup success stories. People are sick of the bull!
And travel, well, I think it should be a requirement in high school & college.
It would be nice, yeah. Send everyone overseas for a year to learn as much as they can from other cultures, and apply that knowledge to their first job. Not a bad idea.
The funny thing about the two living legends you mention at the top – Messrs Robbins and Godin – they don’t freaking stop. They’re out there with new ideas, expanding their reach, doing real stuff.
How many books has Seth Godin written, eleventy-thousand?
They may be really good at self-promotion, but, eventually, if that’s all they had they would have been shown the door ages ago.
Gurus. Ninjas. Rock Stars. I’ve noticed that most of those folks who have arrived on the scene are (1) self-appointed and (2) are really good at bots and faux numbers, but rather shitty at engagement or authenticity.
Keep the faith.
Good observations, Dave. Thanks.
[...] Back from Dubai. The BrandBuilder Blog [...]
It seems so obvious, doesn’t it, that the value comes from listening, connecting (and connecting dots), and problem solving? It’s too bad so many people are too busy checking off “places to go” & “people to see” on some master list rather than actually going, seeing, and being. It sometimes makes m think of the people on 7-day tours of Europe where they see Paris in 4 hours and Greece in a day. And learn nothing, share nothing, and leave no mark.
I miss the old days of carving “I was here” in 3,000 year old monuments.
As usual, great post Olivier. I always look forward to your pieces.
However, I couldn’t help but disagree with part of your stance regarding ‘personal branding’.
I agree with you that an individual needs to bring value and skills that are relevant and important to the client. Absolutely. The client hired you to help them, not to help yourself and your ‘personal brand’.
However, in the incredibly competitive job market of today, I feel it’s important to find ways to stand out among other candidates. Part of the way a person can stand out is by building their ‘personal brand’ on social media platforms, such as Twitter. There’s a lot of talented people out of work. Where one would normally be interviewing against a handful of people, they may be interviewing against a dozen nowadays. Having a name that is already resonating in the social media/digital sphere in a positive way *before* interviewing with the client is only going to help you out.
Again, I’m not disagreeing with you that the client needs to come first. Absolutely. But I feel there is a way where you can not only help the client, but at the same time, help yourself (i.e. your ‘personal brand’).
Just my two cents.
Totally agree with you Olivier. I think that so much people are focusing a lot on self promotion and not problem solving. This is the “social media egocentrism” an evil that affects a lot of us (people with a huge social presence). Sometimes I have the feeling that some so called social media rockstars can’t see so far than their blogs and social profiles, their vision are blurred by the number of twitter followers and blog readers. And they tend to think that social media can save all people’s pain and problems in the world. This post is a great reminder for those “qui ont chopé le melon” (Olivier you’ll understand that french sentence).
PS: Thanks you for mentioning Senegal in this post, I don’t usually read that in an american blog.