Startup Identity: You Are Not Your Brand!
Identity is near and dear to my heart. Probably because I’ve been dealing with my own identity crisis for years now. Since I was a kid I’ve been asking big questions.
Who am I? What defines me? What makes me who I am? Is my identity fluid? Can it adapt? Does what I do or don’t do define me to my core?
The same questions apply to the business world and especially for entrepreneurs in startups. Been there. Done that. You get so immersed into your startup, especially if you’re a founder or the marketing person. Everything you think, say and do is filtered through the perspective of your brand’s identity. And that is good.
But problems arise when founders begin to place their brand identity as a filter over their own personal identity. They are not one in the same. I know you know that. But from day to day we function as if we believe the opposite is true.
So if you’re the founder/co-founder of a mobile app startup you are neck deep in it. All your energy, passion, thinking and free time is spent immersed in your brand. And that is the hustle of a startup founder. But when you begin to lose your ability to pause is when you begin to lose your own identity. Enter: identity crisis.
You become your brand. What? Oh yeah. You know what I mean. It’s a subtle reality of every good startup founder. You’ve stepped into your company so deep that your personal identity and your brand identity have merged into one unrecognizable identity. Those who know you best notice the shift. The challenge however is you probably won’t notice. Until you enter your own crisis.
We’re made to believe that we are what we make. If that were true, then our core identity would change based on the project we’re currently working on. Who can live in that chaos and unbalance? Sure we need to adapt and evolve. We must to survive. But to thrive through change and conflict, our personal identity must be stronger than the identity of our brands.
This is generally and foundationally true but not functionally. For example, when I say Mark Zuckerburg you say Facebook. When I say Elon Musk you say Tesla. When I say Bill Gates you say Microsoft. When I say Steve Jobs you say Apple. This is a fine line because our work inevitably shows our handiwork and craft and reveals our identity. But identity revelation is different from identity definition.
Apple was made by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. But Apple is not Steve Jobs. It’s infinitely bigger than one person. It has to be.
Founders: don’t succumb to the temptation to find your primary identity in what you build and make. You are not what you create. You are rather a creator. You are not what you make. You are a maker. You are not your art. You are an artist. You are not your product. You are a producer.
There is a massive difference. Figure this out quick and you’ll have an inner peace as you continue to make great things and build wonder.
