Friday, 9.28pm
Sheffield, U.K.
The only thing new is you finding out about something. Like nothing’s really new, but you reinvent it for yourself and find your inner voice. – Mike Watt
We just watched the film “Up”. Again.
It’s a sad film. And a happy one. In other words, a complex one.
Here’s the thing.
You build your life with every decision you make. Every choice. These choices are like moves – you probably had more than one option – so which one did you pick? And are you happy with the choice you made?
I wrote about moves some time back. We’re in the middle of a seismic shift in the way things are done, just like we were ten years ago, and like our parents went through the ten years before that. Things always change. The question is how do we respond?
I often start by picking up a book. Or discovering one.
This time, I uncovered one. Or, at least, it turned up as we tidied a corner of the house. It’s Tom Peter’s ‘the brand you’
Over the next few posts I’m going to work through this book – first trying to understand the ideas and then seeing if I can apply them.
Let’s begin.
Jobs are changing, like they changed before and will change in the future.
If you want to stay relevant you need to think of yourself as an independent contractor, someone who provides professional services – whether you’re in a job or not. This is what Peters calls “brand you”.
As a professional, there are three things you must do to stay relevant.
First, you need to get very good at something. You need to have a craft and practice and practice so that you are one of the best out there at doing what you do.
Second, you need projects that stretch you and showcase your learning. Projects that are impressive, that people pay attention to. This is the evidence people need to believe that you can do what you say you do. You’re only as good as the last thing you’ve done.
And third, you need to network. You need to find a way to reach other people and make them aware you exist. The problem for most of us is not that we’re rejected but that we’re ignored because there is so much interesting stuff out there.
In the next post let’s look at how to say what we do in a single sentence.
Cheers,
Karthik Suresh
Handcrafted insight 