As I mentioned the other day, I was in Florida over the weekend.  As I was driving I found myself behind a lawn service pickup truck.  The back tailgate had an interesting message.  It said, “Free Snow Removal.”  I didn’t think a lot of it at first; then I realized I was in Florida.  It doesn’t snow in Florida.  I thought to myself, “If I lived here, I’d call this guy to do my yard work.  He’s pretty clever.”

And being clever is at the heart of the career advice in Tweet 65 in my career success book Success Tweets.  “A good personal brand highlights your uniqueness.  Be unconventional.  Break rules.”  Offering free snow removal in Florida is pretty unconventional in my book.

I experienced a rule-breaking moment a while back.  I was in a local bookstore looking for a book on fitness.  As you can imagine, there was no shortage.  As I opened various books to check them out, I found the business card of a local personal trainer in every one of them. 

I thought this was a great example of breaking the rules and personal brand building.  This guy spent the time to go to a local Barnes and Noble and place his card in every one of the fitness books they have on the shelf.  He was getting his name in front of a very targeted audience: people who purchase books on fitness.  Pretty cool idea in my book.  This is a perfect manifestation of breaking the rules to get recognized for your uniqueness.

When I first started blogging, my dad read a few of my posts and said, “You’re giving away some of your best ideas.  You shouldn’t do that.  You need to be selling your advice, not giving it away.”  At the time, content-rich blogs ran counter to the rule of jealously guarding your proprietary information. 

I told my dad that I’m happy when people read my blog and find ideas they can put to use.  More power to them.  I also told him that people who find my ideas helpful are more likely to look to me for career advice and my career success coach servcies when they run up against a problem they can’t solve on their own.  I was breaking a rule to build my brand.

Interestingly, giving away solid useful information is the new rule for blogging and social media.  Ask any internet marketer or marketing guru.  They will all tell you to build a relationship and establish credibility with your target audience by providing them with useful information at no cost.  Funny how things change.

George Bernard Shaw is my favorite playwright.  There is nothing so good as a well-performed Bernard Shaw play.  He also had something to say about breaking rules…

“All great truths start out as blasphemies.”

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.  Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

So go ahead, break a few rules.  Be a little unreasonable.  Be unconventional, make your brand uniquely you.  Offer free snow removal in Florida.

One last story.  Tim McKernan had one of the most unique personal brands I have come across.  He was The Barrel Man.  You might say that Tim was a superfan of the Denver Broncos.  For 30 years and in all kinds of weather, he attended every Bronco home game wearing nothing but an orange barrel with a Broncos logo and a cowboy hat and boots.

He wore his costume for the first time in 1977.  He had a $10 bet with his brother.  He bet that the costume would get him on TV.  He won that one, and was on TV every time the Broncos were for the next 30 years.  John Madden always mentioned him when he was doing a game in Denver.

Tim’s unique brand got him inducted into the Visa Hall of Fans at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  He passed away in 2009.  He was in the stands for both of the Broncos’ Super Bowl victories.

You don’t have to go to the lengths Tim McKernan or the guy who offers free snow removal in Florida did when building your brand.  But I encourage you to think like Tim and the Florida lawn service guy.  Being a little outrageous — like wearing only a barrel to football games in December in Denver, or offering free snow removal service in Florida — can help you stand out from the crowd, get recognized and create the career success you deserve.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people build personal brands that are unique.  Breaking a few rules is one way of building a unique brand.  By breaking the rules, I don’t mean doing something illegal or unethical.  I mean thinking outside of the box and not being constrained by conventional wisdom.  Follow the career advice in Tweet 65 in Success Tweets.  “A good personal brand highlights your uniqueness.  Be unconventional.  Break rules.”  What rules are holding you back from building a great personal brand?  How can you break them to demonstrate your uniqueness?  Don’t do anything that will land you in jail, or get you fired.  But think outside the box, find ways to create a Cherry Garcia brand, not one which is plain vanilla.  Think of new ways to combine ideas.  An iPod after all, is nothing more than a hard drive with a set of headphones.  Figure out how you can become the iPod in your work team.  Create a brand that shows how unique and fascinating you really are.

That’s my career advice on creating an unconventional brand by breaking a few rules.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily career success thoughts.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 395 pages of common sense career advice explaining each of the tweets in Success Tweets in detail. Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.

Commitment to taking personal responsibility for your success is one of the keys to career and life success that is part of my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Your Success GPS, and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success. 

If you want to succeed, you must commit to three things.  First, you must take personal responsibility for your success.  Only you can make you a success.  You need to be willing to do the things necessary to succeed.  Second, you must set high goals — and then do whatever it takes to achieve them.   Third, stuff happens; as you go through life you will encounter many problems and setbacks.  You need to react positively to the negative stuff and move forward toward your goals.

A while back I blogged about a book called The Luck Factor by Richard Wiseman who claims that you can learn to be lucky.  In fact, Dr. Wiseman even lists five steps for learning to be lucky.

First, don’t assume there is nothing you can do about any situation.  Make the decision to take control.

Second, do something now.

Third, make a list of various options.  Be creative.  Brainstorm.  Come up with as many ideas as you can.

Fourth, decide how you will move forward.  Consider every possible alternative.

Fifth, take action.  Be prepared to adapt your action as the future unfolds.

Richard Wiseman calls this a prescription for learning to be luck.  I call it committing to taking personal responsibility for creating a successful life and career.  Every one of the five steps above is a manifestation of your willingness to commit to taking personal responsibility for your life and career.

Let’s look at them again. 

First, deciding that you can control a situation is the first step in controlling it.  It’s like throwing a mental switch that puts you in charge and demonstrates your commitment to taking personal responsibility for your life and success.

Second, the mere act of doing something moves you forward.  You may not be successful the first – or even second or third time – but the fact that you try and keep trying is another manifestation of your commitment to taking responsibility for your life and career.

Third, thinking through your options puts you in control.  Often at first it may seem that your options are limited.  However, if you take the time to review everything you can do in a given situation, you’ll be able to come up some good ideas for helping you get on top of any situation you face.

Fourth, choose and option, put it into play and see what happens.  If it doesn’t work, choose another one.  If that doesn’t work, choose another one.  In this way, you are not only being systematic about creating your own success, you are demonstrating the resilience common to people who commit to taking personal responsibility for their success.

Fifth, be adaptable.  What works at first may no longer work as you move forward.  If you’re committed to taking personal responsibility for yourself and your success, you’ll change with the times.  You won’t sit back and bemoan the fact that things have changed.  You’ll be in charge, changing with the times – and even causing the times to change.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people commit to taking personal responsibility for their lives and careers.  You can demonstrate your commitment to taking personal responsibility for you success by doing five things.  1) Decide you are in control.  2) Do something to show yourself you are in control.  3) Think through all of your options in a given situation.  4) Choose an option and act.  If it doesn’t work, choose another option.  5) Be adaptable.  Change with the times.  In The Luck Factor, Richard Wiseman calls these five steps a method for learning to be lucky.  I say they are a recipe for demonstrating your commitment to taking personal responsibility for your life and career.

That’s my take on luck, personal responsibility and success.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Clarity of purpose and direction is one of the keys to career and life success in my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  To develop your personal clarity or purpose you need to do three things.  First, define what success means to you.  Second, create a vivid mental image of you as a success.  Once you define what success means to you personally, I suggest that you develop a clear mental picture of you as a success.  This image should be as vivid as you can you make it.  Third, clarify your personal values. 

I remember reading Hamlet when I was in high school.  As Hamlet was setting off on his journey, Polonius gave him some advice.  As we got to this advice, the teacher stopped and said “This advice is timeless wisdom, pay attention.”  Here it is…

There … my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts hold in thy memory…

Look thou character.  Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new hatched, unfledged comrade. 

Beware of entrance to a quarrel but, being in,
Bear it that the opposed may beware of thee.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s measure, but reserve thy judgment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all: to thine own self be true,
and it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst be false to no man.

Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!

The final piece of advice – “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst be to no man” – is at the heart of clarity of purpose and direction.  It is much easier to be true to yourself when you are clear in your purpose and direction in life.  As Polonius suggests, if you are true to yourself, you can’t be false to others.  More important, you can stay on the course to career and life success.

Roy Blackman, my father-in-law was so enamored of this advice that it was his final words of advice to his first grandson as he went off to college.  Roy lived by these words.  They were his epitaph, displayed prominently on the program at his funeral.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people clarify their purpose and direction.  Then they conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with it.  Shakespeare, speaking as Polonius, offers some timeless advice on how to live in a manner that is consistent with your purpose and direction: “To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst be false to no man.”  If you follow this advice you’ll be living your purpose and you’ll be well positioned to create the successful life and career you want and deserve.

That’s my take on Polonius’ advice to Hamlet and how it is as important today as it was when it was written hundreds of years ago.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes and leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Competence is one of the four keys to career and life success in my Common Sense Success System.  I also discuss it in some detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success; Your Success GPS; and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  If you want to succeed you need to develop four basic, but important competencies: 1) creating positive personal impact; 2) becoming a consistently high performer; 3) dynamic communication skills; and 4) becoming interpersonally competent. 

There are four key competencies that will help you become a career and life success:

• You have to be able to create positive personal impact.
• You have to be become an outstanding performer.
• You have to be a dynamic communicator – in conversation, writing and presentations.
• You have to build strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with the important people in your life.

Positive habits are an important key to outstanding performance.  Positive time management is an important habit to develop.  Habits are like muscles.  The more you use them, the stronger they get.

Here in Colorado, we are required to get our cars checked to ensure that they meet clean air emissions standards before we can renew our license plates.  It’s a good law, one that helps with the air quality in our beautiful state.  It’s also a pain in the butt.  It requires a trip to an emissions monitoring station and waiting in line for the test.  My plates renew in October, so yesterday I spent a couple hours getting my car tested.  It passed.

Cathy laughed at me as I was leaving the house with my briefcase, which had my cell phone, a couple of books and a bottle of water.  She said I would probably be the only one at the emissions testing facility reading a book.  That was OK.  I had just received a review copy of Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book Crush It.  I wanted to read it so I could review it on this blog – and to learn a few things.  By the way, Crush It is a great book – not just for entrepreneurs.  I’ll do a post on it next week.

Carrying a book with me is one of my time management positive habits.  Sometimes it’s a novel.  Most times it’s a business or inspirational book.  I am in the habit of using spare moments to read and learn.  Yesterday, I was able to read the first four chapters of Crush It while I was waiting for my emissions test.  I also took some notes — ideas that I plan on incorporating into my business.  Not a bad use of my time.

I read while waiting for appointment with clients.  I read while waiting for my dentist, or doctor – and you know how long those waits can be.  I read when I go to get my car washed.  I read before a movie if I’m by myself.  This is a small habit, but one that allows me to read at least two more books a month than I normally would.  That’s 24 books a year – and a lot of good ideas to help me grow my business.

Reading spurs ideas.  These ideas give me inspiration for this blog.  They help me make decisions about my business.  They help me clarify my thinking on my passion – helping others create the career and life success they want and deserve.  Reading in spare moments is one of my most positive habits.  What is your most positive habit?  If you are thinking that you don’t have many positive habits, I suggest you check out Dan Robey’s site www.thepowerofpositivehabits.com.  There’s a lot to be learned there. 

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are competent.  They set high goals and achieve them.  Positive habits will help you reach your goals – but only if you take the time to develop them.  Reading in “found moments” – the time I spend waiting is one of my positive habits.  I’m amazed at how much I can learn just by always having a book with me.  Today I learned a lot about personal branding by reading the first four chapters of Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It.  Take the time to develop some positive habits of your own.  You’ll be surprised at how much they help your productivity.

That’s my take on reading as a time management positive habit.  What’s yours?  What are some of the positive habits that have served you well over the years?  How did you develop them?  Please take a minute and leave comment sharing your thoughts and ideas with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Competence is one of the four keys to career and life success in my Common Sense Success System.  I also discuss it in some detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success; Your Success GPS; and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  If you want to succeed you need to develop four basic, but important competencies: 1) creating positive personal impact; 2) becoming a consistently high performer; 3) dynamic communication skills; and 4) becoming interpersonally competent. 

There are four key competencies that will help you become a career and life success:

• You have to be able to create positive personal impact.
• You have to be become an outstanding performer.
• You have to be a dynamic communicator – in conversation, writing and presentations.
• You have to build strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with the important people in your life.

Resilience is an important component of becoming an outstanding performer.  High goals are great, but you need to do whatever it takes to meet those goals.  Sometimes, it will appear as if the fates are conspiring against you when it comes to achieving your goals.  That’s where resilience comes in.

In The Power of Resilience, Robert Brooks and Sam Goldstein list eight characteristics of resilient people.  Here they are, with my take on each of them.

1. Resilient people have large networks.  They stay connected.  Last week, I did a post on mastermind groups and how they can help you perform better.  Mastermind groups are a way to build a supportive network.
2. Resilient people are optimistic.  If you read this blog with any regularity, you know I am an incurable optimist.  You need to be so too.  Check out a post I did last week on The Optimist Creed.
3. Resilient people are spiritual.  Mssrs. Brooks and Goldstein equate spirituality with religion.  I don’t.  I think there are many ways to be spiritual – meditation, conversations with your higher power, a walk in the park, or my favorite, a long bicycle ride on a nice day.  Regardless of your take on the spirituality/religion equation, you need to remember one thing.  The more spiritually centered you are, the more resilient you’re likely to be.
4. Resilient people are playful.  They enjoy themselves.  They are willing to laugh at themselves and at life.  They see the humor in even the most difficult situations.
5. Resilient people are givers.  I have long advocated that giving with no expectation of return is the best way to build strong relationships.  That’s why I’m always willing to help anybody in any way I can.
6. Resilient people focus on what they can control.  As the serenity prayer says: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.”  I’ve found that the one thing I can control is my response to people and events.  I try to choose to respond positively the negative people and events in my life.
7. Resilient people are healthy.  It’s easier to deal with upsets and distractions when you are in good physical and mental shape.  That means eating right and exercising.  I find that things always look a little brighter after one of my bike rides.
8. Resilient people see problems and setbacks as opportunities to learn and grow.  Any time you fail, look for the lesson.  What will you do differently the next time you encounter a similar situation?  File away this information.  You’ll need it sooner or later.

Here are some affirmations to help you become more resilient.  Repeat them often and you’ll become a more resilient person.

• I am a positive and upbeat person.
• I am able to deal with high levels of ambiguity and uncertainty.
• I adapt well and quickly to new situations.
• I find the humor in difficult situations.
• I learn from my experiences and the experiences of others.
• I am good at solving problems.
• I am strong and durable.
• I am able to convert misfortunes into something positive.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are competent.  Competent people set and achieve high goals.  You need to be resilient in order to achieve your goals.  Here are a few tips for becoming resilient: build your network; become an optimist; exercise your spirituality; be playful; give back; focus on what you can control, not what is out of your control; stay healthy; learn from adversity.

That’s my take on resiliency and success.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, you have my deepest and most sincere thanks for reading.

Bud

Self confidence is one of the keys to personal and professional success that is part of my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart your Professional Success. 

You can become self confident by doing three things.  First, choose optimism.  Believe in your heart of hearts that today will be better than yesterday, and that tomorrow will be better than today.  Second, face your fears and act.  Procrastination and inaction feed fear and rob you of self confidence.  Action cures fear.  Third, surround yourself with positive people.  Don’t let the naysayers into your life.  Hang around with people who are positive about themselves, their careers and life in general.

Fear can — and will — paralyze you.  It can keep you from reaching the career and life success you want and deserve.  If you develop the habit of courage, you can beat fear.  Repetition is the best way to develop the habit of being courageous.  The more you are willing to face your fears – small and large – and act, the quicker courage will become one of the guiding habits in your life. 

Learning is a good way to become courageous.  Fear is caused by ignorance and a lack of knowledge.  When you don’t know, or have limited information about something, you become tense and insecure when you have to deal with it.  Think about scary movies.  When the hero is approaching a door and he or she doesn’t know what’s behind it, and the music is playing some ominous tune, your heart starts thumping and you fear for the hero (at least I do).  The lack of knowledge of what’s behind that closed door causes our fear.

It’s that way in life too.  We fear the unknown and uncertain.  This is normal.  Most of us learned it from our parents.  They wanted to keep us safe, so they taught us to remain with the familiar.  That’s great for childrearing, but it can have negative implications for your career and life success.  For example, you might not apply for a job because you don’t know everything about it and aren’t sure we can do it well right away.  Or you might not be willing to move to a new city for a better opportunity because you don’t know anyone there.

You can defeat your fear of the unknown by learning about the job you’ve been offered or the city where the better opportunity is.  Just gathering information and learning about something will help you build your courage and help you to face your fears and act. 

For me, and for a lot of people, procrastination is the manifestation of fear.  Whenever I become aware of the fact that I am procrastinating, I always ask myself “what are you afraid of here, Bud?”  Once I am able to identify the fear, I’m better able to deal with it.  As I’ve mentioned above, a lot of times, I am afraid of the unknown, of not knowing exactly what will happen if I act.  My other two big fears are fear of failure and fear of rejection. 

When I find that I’m fearing the unknown, I learn as much about the situation as I can.  The more familiar I get with the situation, the less fear it causes, and the easier it is for me to act. 

When I find that I’m fearing failure, I ask “what’s the absolute worst thing that can happen if I fail?”  Usually, I find that the absolute worst thing that can happen is not as scary as the generalized fear of failure.

When I find that I’m fearing rejection, I ask “does what this person, or this group of people think of me more important than what I want to accomplish?”  Again, in most cases what other people think isn’t as important as what I will think of myself if I fail to even try.

The common sense point here is clear.  Successful people are self confident.  Self confident people face their fears and act.  Fear of the unknown, fear of failure and fear of rejection are the three biggest fears most people face.  You can build the habit of courageous by facing your fears and acting.  You can conquer fear of the unknown by learning more about what scares you.  You can conquer fear of failure by determining the absolute worst thing that can happen if you try and fail – and then contrasting it with how good you’ll feel when you succeed.  You can conquer fear of rejection, by putting more emphasis about how you feel about yourself than others feel about you.  The more you can face your fears and act – develop the habit of courage – the more self confident you will become.

That’s my take on fear and self confidence.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment, sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud