Too much talk, too little execution for our personal brands

  • 1 min read

Too many people say they are going to do something, without the ambition and confidence to actually follow-through. I’ve had many friends and acquaintances alike saying “I want to start a business” or “My idea is to ______.” We only live for so long, so you really need to take chances. Also, I feel that it hurts your credibility to keep saying your going to do something and then fall short. Personal branding is about delivering results, so that you can show others why they should hire you. I would never want to hire someone that doesn’t get the job done, especially when the competition for jobs is ruthless and will always get worse. Here’s a quick example of a manager asking three people to work on one project and their responses.

Manager: Could you please develop a presentation showcasing our new product, highlighting features and benefits?

Person A: Yes.

Person B: No.

Person C: Yes, when would you like this by so I can prioritize it and put it on my calendar?

I don’t know about you, but Person C’s response would instill trust because he or she is concerned enough to ask for more details and a date they can execute on. If I were the manager, I wouldn’t ask three people to work on the same project, as that would be a poor utilization of assets. Person C would have already asked me to work on it or I would have given it to them, based on previous work completed.

Intra-preneurship Explained

The difference between an entrepreneur and a corporate employee is not pay scale, nor title, but rather their will to develop a new product or become a leader in their own department. In 2008, you will see the rise of the intra-preneur. An intra-preneur is an individual within a corporation who has idea’s for either revolutionizing the companies business, starting a whole new division or position or simply spreading idea’s to executives that will execute on them. As the CEO of a brand called you, you must realize that companies are coerced to let you be your own manager or they won’t flourish. It’s far too easy today for you to switch jobs, if you’ve branded yourself. You need to take advantage of this. If you’re working at a company that doesn’t support intra-preneurship, you may want to go back to your development plan and switch jobs.

One thing to pay attention to is that if you’re an intra-preneur, your ideas are owned by the company you work for. If you’re an engineer and forged a new product within your 9-5 job, the company can sell the product and make money, possibly giving you acknowledgment and a raise, but nothing else.

Picture of Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel is the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm. He is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin’s Press) and the #1 international bestselling book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future (Kaplan Publishing), which combined have been translated into 15 languages.

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