A Collective: The Antithesis to Personal Branding
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This is a message to anyone in your 20s: Now is not a time for more selfies.
Build, together: an inquiry into the misguided myopia of Personal Branding.
…This feels like a battle of swimming upstream.
When it’s all that’s around you, and those are the only markers and measures of success you’ve seen, it seems to be the way to go. But does anyone ask — to what aim? Why? What for?
In a survey of 1,068 college students by SDSU Psychology Professor Jean Twenge and Youth Pulse 57% agreed that their generation are self-promoting, narcissistic, overconfident and attention-seeking and 40% agree that being so is helpful for “succeeding in a competitive world.”
For years, I’ve fought with, hired and fired marketing executives around this point. Yes, sure, a brand serves to provide a life story within a logo, unique flavor under one fold and confidence in a click.
But do we want to live in a competitive world?
Yet, what the age of personal branding fails to acknowledge is — that if you really want to do something in the world and create change for the future of our species — your brand’s pathway to dominance with the aim of financial gain is inherently delusional. It will lead you astray from a purpose-driven mission. The endless growth and profit-driven incentives are bound to cripple any sense of integrity with which you began. This is not a David and Goliath story, where we fight in their way against the Tech Giants or InstaBum Queens. To succeed, we must disrupt the system — play a different game. One that makes the old one obsolete.
And though it seems like personal branding (and endless social media) paves the pathway to success in the current entrepreneurial world, it couldn’t be further from the Truth. Mark my words. Within 5 years, the system will fold in on itself. Human influencers will give way to digital avatars. Those who hold current market dominance will fall to their knees in self-realization, embodying the understanding that the picture they’ve painted to the world about who they are is inauthentic.
Never intentionally. Our personal brands are meant to diagnose our unique pathology of persona. Decorate who we are, what makes us up. Personal brands are (at best) the poem of the life we’re here to share. They illustrate our mission to the world. And the problem there? Anyone, anywhere, living truly aware, realizes that said “brand” is thus only a snapshot in time. That anyone sane/honest will effectively outgrow his/her/their personal brand in a matter of years.
If anyone on the path is truly on THE path — of integrity, authenticity, equanimity and inclusion — then (s)he/they must realize that the only way forward in purpose-driven work is collaboration. Take yourself out of the picture. Build projects. Give yourself space to grow, independent of some icon to define you. Collaboration shall grant you freedom to evolve.
In the end, it is a change in mindset that’s required. What if you could easily find others on the same mission as you and join forces to create something bigger than each of you ever could become on your own?
Gestalt knew.
The Decentralization Revolution is one of empowerment, fostering both collaboration and sovereignty — for the greater good of our species.
Margaret Mead knew.
But we can’t do it alone. You shouldn’t ever have to do it alone. There are people alive right now — who GET you. Who understand your desire to impact the world. They want to do it in a very similar way. Your chances of success exponentiate the moment you convene in Presence and build something inclusive, together.
This story is yours. It’s mine. It’s ours.
Let’s pave this path together and constantly course-correct towards our goal.
We need to find a balance between inclusion and diversity and unilateral focus. Existing projects working to do the same thing need to bind together. This is not the time to do something similar to everyone else, just in “your way”. This is the time to put yourself aside and think about legacy. Power in numbers. The capability for an idea to have more of an impact than an individual ever could.
It’s far too late for duplication of missions.
Now is the time for humanity to connect.
If you have a project, institute, collective or organization who is focused on upleveling humanity, please reach out. The Institute For Aliveness is actively seeking partners, collaborators, contributors and places to contribute. Our network is 50K strong, spread over 30+ countries.
Let’s Uplevel Humanity together.
Love, Andi.
