What is the perfect individual? If we follow our mass marketeers, we would have little difficulty in identifying the consummate body type and the ideal lifestyle. Both involve effortless beauty and copious amounts of unfettered money, coupled with the most important prize of all: time. The vast majority, who fall outside this idealized spectrum, must find value and worth in a not-so flawless life, and make it meaningful. Young people, in particular, are pushed to adopt these images. (1) Many have great difficulty in accepting the “bumps and bruises” that are associated with adolescence. I remember very clearly not being, or feeling like, an Adonis (2) in high school and the suffering that those raw emotions entailed. Without the wise and guiding hand of my mother, I would have had even greater difficulty than I did in developing an integrated life.
For some, however, the stereotype was very real. In my grade-eight year, the class beauty, Judy Pleiser, began to date an older boy who owned a car. Now in this backward part of Canada, absolutely devoid of even the concept of public transportation, if you didn’t have a vehicle, you either walked or rode a bicycle: neither trait conducive to self-worth or romance. To our unworldly eyes, this young man possessed the carriage to nirvana: to paradise. It was imperial blue with four tires faced with golden, interwoven wheel covers: fantastic! You had to shield your eyes from its gaze, fearful that, like Medusa, she (in English, cars are usually feminized) would turn you to stone: your being having so little value. He proposed and she accepted (her parents had to sign the legal documents necessary to allow a minor to marry): she was fourteen and he was seventeen. The great human tragedy is that all of us know the “Hollywood–ized” archetype does not really exist. The corollary to this story is that her husband became a paraplegic after smashing his car in a drunken stupor, leaving her with three young children: not the fairytale ending. Many biographies of the famous and powerful tell us similar tales of addictions and vices that no one would want, regardless of the social exaltation: think Marylyn Monroe or Rock Hudson.
The answer to this great spiritual angst (Am I good enough?) is the concept of the personal brand. I am my own teacher, I am unique and I am the most beautiful person that I know, regardless of my body color or shape. “Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. The personal-branding concept suggests that success comes from self-packaging. This specific term was first used and discussed by Tom Peters, (3) though the concept was introduced by Napoleon Hill (4) in Think and Grow Rich in 1937. The idea entails the ongoing process of establishing a prescribed image or impression in the mind of others about an individual, group or organization.
Branding has reached a new level of importance because of the rise of the Internet. The growth of the virtual world has created the necessity of managing online identities. Despite being expressly ‘virtual,’ social media and online identity have the ability to affect the real world. Due to the fact that individuals want to portray themselves in a certain way to their social circle or professionally, they strive to maintain a certain image on their social media sites.” The marketing Guru Seth Godin suggests that we buy our own online name. Go to Godaddy.com and look up your name: interesting. The point here is that each of us at our beginning is perfect and our mission in life is to fully display and magnify that perfection. The great scholar, theologian and philosopher, Thomas Aquinas, (1225-1274) leaves us with a thought: Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.
A small joke: A young student said to his mother, “Mom I got one hundred on my test today.” “That’s excellent,” his mother exclaimed. “Tell me about the test.” “Well I got a twenty in math, a thirty in English and a fifty in spelling.”
This week, reflect on your own, unique personal brand.
Every day look for something magical and beautiful.
Quote: We must guard against comparing ourselves to others. Though this is difficult, it is the only way to be truly fulfilled and happy.
Footnotes:
2) Adonis, in Greek mythology, is a Phoenician demi-god of beauty and desire.
3) Thomas J. “Tom” Peters(b. 1942) is a business-management expert, best known for the book “In Search of Excellence” (co-authored with Robert H. Waterman, Jr).
4) Napoleon Hill (1883 –1970) was an American author in the genre ofpersonal-success literature. He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success. His most famous work, “Think and Grow Rich,” is one of the best-selling books of all time (at the time of Hill’s death in 1970, Think and Grow Rich had sold 20 million copies)