Lost Generation

I've talked a lot about the right attitude we need to have to excel and succeed during this trying times when people's hopes are challenged and as I was about to write a little more about this I came upon this great video to which I have no more to add.

Enjoy!

An important thing about the law of reciprocity.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, in  one way or another, but you definitely have. Maybe in the form of old sayings like: “Do onto others what you want done onto you”, “An eye for an eye…”, “You get what you give”, etc. It’s the law of reciprocity that basically states that “to every action there is a reaction”. But this law, as the sayings infer does not only acts on the physical plane of things; it does not only makes sure that everything that goes up comes down, but it also acts on our actions and on our behavior.

This is why every time someone does a favor to somebody else, even if it is not openly discussed, the person doing the favor will remain expectant until the other person returns the favor; and herein lays the basic mistake.

Of course we all have to help each other and of course we’ll always need help from somebody else! And it’s easy to imagine that if you keep helping different people be successful in their jobs, in their relationships or any other aspect of their lives, at least one of them will help you in return, but that should never be your reason to help.

The law of reciprocity does not work that way. You cannot expect special favors from life in exchange of having helped someone.

The law of reciprocity, in my opinion works the other way around: you are helping others in return for all the favors and blessings you have already received in life!

You are helping others, not so someone else can help you. You’ve already received such help! You are helping others because way before, life has favored you by putting you in the right position to do precisely that: Help.

So next time you have the opportunity to help someone else, leave aside the idea that you might get something in return and instead of that be grateful for all the blessings you have, because thanks to those, you are in the position to help.

The biggest benefit of exercising a Personal Brand

Lately, as a result of a couple of previous posts and a few keynotes I delivered on this subject, I’ve received a lot of positive comments and interesting questions about Personal Branding. 
I’ve had the pleasure of having great conversations around this subject with very diverse people and no matter how different their backgrounds are, I’ve come to find a couple of constants:

1)      This is a subject that everyday captivates more and more people.

2)      They are yet not clear on what the real benefit of having a personal brand is.

Many agree that the benefit of taking care of our personal brand is being able to connect with potential employers and clients; many others think that the most important benefit is having celebrities and influencers inside their network, so they can claim they “know” or “are friends” with someone.

But in my opinion neither one of these is the main benefit of having a personal brand.

I mean, of course it is of the utmost importance to establish a strong personal and professional network, although you are making a huge mistake if your reason for doing so is to see what you can get out it. See, your main objective after connecting with an old acquaintance or a new contact, should not be to ask but to give, to offer help, to collaborate with them, offer your thoughts and/or experience, etc. In other words: to add value.

And of course having people with the likes of Paulo Coelho, Mitch Joel or Lester Wunderman among your Facebook list of friends or Twitter follower is great to build your ego; but in the end it is not about who you know but who really knows you.

No, it’s definitely neither one of these the main benefit of having a personal brand.

The real, greatest benefit of having a personal brand is to make sure you get do what you like the most and what you are best at doing.

No matter what it is you are passionate about or what your greatest strengths are, if you make sure those are aligned with your values and principles, you’ll be setting a very clear direction to move towards to.

Your activities at work, at school or in your personal life and your actions on and off line, will be a perfect reflection of such alignment and your brand will be clear to everybody else, which will, in turn, allow you to create an important network which will not only include potential employers and clients or celebrities, but also the people who, through collaboration, will help you get closer to your own dreams.

And that definitely is the biggest Benefit of having a personal brand.