2 words that will ensure your success
a few fridays ago after work i found myself in a conversation with some of my coworkers about my new promotion and one of them hit me like a ton of bricks when he handed me his simple yet powerful advice, “be you.” i’m not in love with the phrase (actually i think it’s rather cliche, misused, and overused), but right then…at that moment…those timeless and simple words made everything so clear. the key to being successful was not only right in front of me, but it was was me. and so i thought i would pass it on. why?
- because it’s easy to want to duplicate what made others successful, when you’re trying to create a legacy of your own.
- because it’s difficult to remember all that you do know, in the midst of a new situation where other people seem to know more than you.
- because it’s hard to stay focused on your qualifications that determine you can, rather than the disqualifications that suggest that you can’t.
it’s so easy to go chasing after what you aren’t, in light of seeing who you think other successful people are. but that’s backwards. we should spend life and time chasing after who we are and who we were designed to be. it’s there and only there that we will find the key to being successful. copying what makes others good can only get you so far because, after all, they are not you and you are not them. after reflecting on all of this i was reminded of a judy garland quote that sums it all up: “i’d rather be a first-rate version of myself, than a second-rate version of somebody else.”
marketing. it’s funny because, as i type this post, i’m reminded that there are so many brands who struggle with this as well. in fact, i sat in a room recently with one of the most powerful cmos in the world and he admitted that his brand was failing because it spent the last few years trying to be something it’s not. and while his brand was imitating everybody else, the brands that were being themselves snuck up and caught him; and now they pose a threat to his business. so simple yet so hard sometimes…be you!
- by detavio
- posted at 6:57 pm
- October 11, 2010
