THE QUESTION OF PERSONAL BRANDS

To: Everyone Spending Time, Money and Energy on Personal Branding

From: An Elder’s Viewpoint to Be Considered

PREAMBLE

If an Elder’s wisdom were present, much of what is now purely subjective would be forced to be made objective. This shift from subjective to objective would dissolve illusions and distortions.

This piece aims to achieve this purpose in the instance of “personal brand, " to move it from the subjective to the objective.

My accusation is that if you are heavily involved in generating a personal brand, you might consider you’re wasting your time, money, and other people’s time. Personal brands are an illusion that hinders growth and development.

A personal brand is the ego trying to win.

A personal brand keeps you stuck in your past.

A personal brand stifles your ability to transform yourself.

A personal brand is who you want to be, not who you really are. It requires self-deception.

Think about it. A personal brand is an oxymoron, a combination of contradictory or incongruous words such as cruel kindness.

Personal means "pertaining to or impacting you as a self.” Branding a self makes the self a thing.

A thing is an inanimate, material object distinct from a living sentient being. A thing is a fixed entity, unable to change; maybe it can modify itself, but not change into something else. A thing can never transform.

Through wisdom, an elder can transform a subjective idea into an objective reality. However, this process sometimes reveals that the supposed objective is pure fiction, as is the case with personal brands.

AN ELDERS’S WISDOM

Wisdom is one of the rewards for those who become elders. Wisdom is not just information culminating in knowledge shaped by experience. It does not exist on a transactional or linear plane of thinking and language. Wisdom is distinct.

For an Elder, knowledge is an instrument played in the orchestra, and wisdom is the conductor.

Wisdom is innate and must be uncovered. Knowledge is externally derived.

Wisdom is the essence. Knowledge is the meaning.

The Elder’s wisdom is not conventional wisdom. It’s higher wisdom.

Higher wisdom challenges conventional wisdom by questioning its assumptions and exposing its limitations. This creates friction because conventional wisdom tends to resist change. People rooted in conventional wisdom see higher wisdom as impractical or threatening.

An example of the dissonance between the two.

Conventional wisdom: "Aging means slowing down and becoming less relevant."

Higher wisdom: "Aging is a powerful stage of life where true purpose and clarity can emerge."

In this instance, higher wisdom challenges limiting beliefs, inviting you to see aging not as a decline but as a transformation platform.

Higher wisdom helps conventional wisdom grow beyond its current and cultural limits. Meditation and mindfulness were once seen as fringe or "spiritual nonsense" (conventional wisdom), but higher wisdom recognized their profound benefits. Today, they are part of mainstream health practices.

Conventional wisdom provides structure and stability, while higher wisdom offers deeper meaning and a broader perspective.

Contemporary elders live in a space where conventional wisdom meets higher wisdom. They’ve experienced the power and limitations of conventional wisdom. They are uniquely positioned to offer higher wisdom to those still immersed in what their personal brand tells them about who they are, really who they wish to be, which only reinforces what they are not.

PIERCING THE MYTH OF THE PERSONAL BRAND

A personal brand is the image and reputation that an individual intends to build around themselves. It's how they want the world to perceive them, and it requires that they present themselves in accordance with their brand.

Your personal brand supposedly expresses your values, expertise, skills, and personality traits that distinguish you from others. But there are parts of you that you feel you must hide and suppress from exposure.

Writers, podcasters, consultants, advisers, YouTubers, and TEDXers repeat the mantra, “Developing a strong personal brand defines what makes you unique.” Convincing you that your personal brand will powerfully communicate your actions, online presence, and interactions to shape how others perceive you.

Social media depends on the personal brand being critical. That’s what gets the clicks and the money.

However, as an elder, I ask you to consider that the concept of personal brand may well be a fabrication, a construct of human imagination designed to package one's perception of oneself and sell it as reality. It’s your “wanna be” self not your whole self.

Personal brands don’t exist in nature, and their power comes not from truth but from shaping yourself to cause a collective agreement to believe your brand is really you. Your brand now incarcerates you. You must contort yourself constantly to be brand-appropriate.

The time and money you’ve invested in your personal brand, those nuanced emails and posts, blogs, podcasts, Websites, and social media strategies, don’t leave any room for you to be other than how your brand defines you.

The final strike of the wisdom spear is to check and see if your personal brand isn’t a real distraction. This shiny veneer keeps you tethered to the illusion of influence while stifling your ability to adapt, innovate, and create something beyond your current identity and past.

I support Shakespeare’s Macbeth’s statement about personal brand: “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

WHAT IF?

What if personal brands, by their nature, are boxes? Boxes that define, delineate, and constrain what’s inside. Once you’ve established your personal brand, you are a slave to it.

With a personal brand, you set expectations for your relationships and must continuously meet or exceed them.

As a human being, you are many things besides what you portray in a personal brand. Your personal brand eliminates the importance of these other factors.

But maybe these factors make life more equanimous, joyful, and understandable, with more profound compassion for self and others. Maybe your personal brand shuts off the valve to your higher purpose.

The Prison of the Personal Brand

I built these walls with crafted care,
A polished mask for me to wear.
Each word, each move—a careful show,
A shining self the world must know.

I guard my image, day and night,
A slave to shadows, framed in light.
Freedom fades beneath the role,
Chains of image steal my soul.

What’s the cost? Too high to tell—
A life confined inside this shell.
To break it down would set me free,
Yet who am I, if not what they see?

ANNOUNCEMENTS – A REVIEW BY CHATGPT