The introduction to Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success describes how careers are changing. Trunk writes that Generation Y workers "demand control and flexibility" in their careers, and she points to the fact that 40% of all new businesses are started by people younger than 35.
We also know that millennials aren't too keen on paying their dues, so in an effort to get what we desire, Gen. Yers are getting out there and trying to identify their own specialized niches and marketing themselves accordingly. This is basically Dan Schawbel's mantra, if I am understanding what personal branding is all about.
So for many of us, our new ideal is to pursue our new-found specialties full-time. It's a fast-track way of getting to control our careers and have flexibility.
Schawbel's idea and this new model are definitely appealing. When I can get beyond my professional ADD and make some decisions, I'd definitely like to start aggressively marketing myself as an expert of something. And boy, I'd love to spend my days making money off my ability to fill a niche I created. For someone who grew up reading Choose Your Own Adventure books, this is as good as it gets.
Or is it?
The people who have championed this model seem to love what they're doing. No cubicle blues for them. But as I observe the people living this specialized self-employment dream, I wonder whether it is really as desirable as it looks. Especially for Gen. Y.
The inevitable erosion of work-life balance strikes me as very problematic. People who make a living because they're the person delivering a specific service in a specific way can't do too much delegating. If you're the expert people are buying whatever it is you're selling because of you.
Theoretically you want the demand for your product (you) to be insatiable. After all, that's how you'll know when you're doing well, right? But that ends up being a very challenging situation to navigate if you do want there to be a distinction between life and work. It's doable, it's just all that much more complicated.
Burn-out is another concern especially for millennials. The Internet is allowing us to establish expertise and begin these careers at very young ages. How long will people, who decide to start their own ventures in their mid-twenties, be able to keep up without going totally insane? Running a business in addition to being the product in demand is tough to sustain for decades on end.
It's not quite the same as making money by flipping properties or developing software, where you can invest the time and energy at the beginning, sell the finished product and sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
I'm not saying you shouldn't aspire to be the next Jeff Jarvis or Kevin O'Keefe or whomever. There are many "traditional" risks that accompany running your own business. But it gets a lot more complicated, if you're thinking of creating a business that sells your personal philosophy. It merits even deeper consideration. Maybe work-life balance is all about some stuff remaining a hobby. But maybe your hobby should be your business.
Image from Flickr.
Friday, April 4, 2008
The Problem With the New Ideal
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9 comments:
Good take on personal branding. The idea is for us to be the "top dogg" in a niche, catering to a specific audience. The audience part is very important because if it's too broad, then the competitors will seize your opportunities.
When you brand yourself properly, the competition becomes irrelevant.
Thanks for weighing in, Dan. Your last point, "When you brand yourself properly, the competition becomes irrelevant," speaks directly to my concerns about this approach.
Basically if you're the only one delivering a service, how are you going to keep up with the demand if you become really successful? You can't outsource being yourself to someone else...
Great post!
I think you talk about a very major question in starting a business and that is do you want to be the business or do you want to create a business.
Most consultancies, law firms, accounting firms or anyone offering expertise find themselves being in very high demand. Some people love that but some realize that what they have created is just another job...that is actually more demanding because without them they don't make money.
A true business makes money when you sleep. And in order to do that, I think first building a brand and establishing yourself as an expert is critical.
Then and only then, can you leverage your name and hire other people to benefit from all of the trust you've already built up.
For example, if you were to hire McKinsey consulting (one of the top consulting firms), the original founders worked their tails off to build up a reputable name.
Now when you call them you know you're not going to be speaking with the founders but you know you're going to get brilliant people working on your company.
I think most importantly if you truly are doing what you love, you won't care how long and hard you're working.
-Adam
Hm. I'm weighing my thoughts on this one. Because though entrepreneurialism is one way to profit from a strong personal brand, I don't think it's the only ultimate goal of professionals who are pursuing a strong image and relevant expertise. The problem with what you propose as a problem is that it's still a little too rigid for most in Gen Y to accept. Is my plan to go into business for myself or to own my own consulting firm? I don't know. And that's the way I prefer it. Flexible. Open to change. Able to evolve.
Either way, personal branding is critical to a successful career. Corporate or otherwise. Because there is an increasing leadership gap in most companies, and it will only intensify in the next five to ten years as Boomers retire an Gen Y (the smallest generation in the workforce) moves in to take over. The fact is, many young professionals establishing strong brands will benefit by getting a leadership or management position rather than going to work for themselves. And they will be very happy with that.
Though it seems counterintuitive, the reason this idea appeals to Millennials - who don't like the traditional structures and lack of flexibility workplaces now - is that we truly believe we will change those parts of the corporate landscape.
Those are my initial thoughts, but I'm still mulling it over. . . it's been a long week and my brain is fried!
I think you can still have both. If you are the best at one thing, you can still scale your business by recruiting people and training them.
So say consulting. Stacy Blackman is the only example I can think of right now, but lots of consultants started their businesses and scaled them because they were good at what they did.
Now Stacy Blackman has consultants that work for her, and they are Stacy Blackman consultants. An MBA applicant doesn't actually work with Stacy, but they work with someone who is trained by Stacy and uses the same processes Stacy would use.
It seems like Stacy maintains her personal brand while expanding her business because her personal brand extends to all of her consultants.
You see this a ton in fashion too. Marc Jacobs doesn't design his whole line. He has people working for him, and eventually those people will learn enough about the business to go off on their own and create their own lines.
Anyway, interesting question. I can especially relate to having career ADD, though over the last 6 months or so I've been able to focus that much more.
Very thought-provoking post here...
You could also talk about personal brand a totally different way: Your brand is creating lots of different successful brands. Like Marc Andreesen. I think the entrepreneurs we know on a first-name basis are more this type than the type you are writing about in your post.
There are a lot of problems with creating a brand around yourself. Scalability is one, but career change is another. And losing control of your name/brand is a third, because businesses change more radically than people do.
Penelope
Dan, Adam, Tiffany, Monica & Penelope - thanks for your insightful comments. I'm enjoying the different directions you're taking this discussion.
Tiffany, despite your "fried" brain, you make some excellent points. I agree personal branding is necessary and that people are doing it for different reasons. But, I think a lot of Gen. Yers enter the workforce, feel very disatisfied because of the generational clashes and then use personal branding to in Adam's words "become the business." In a different time, this gorup of people wouldn't necessarily start their own operations but their disillusionment with corporate America is pushing them out of the workforce and they're going off on their own. But because these aren't the natural business-types they're not looking to start the next McKinsey, they just want to enjoy what they do each day and make a good living. So the pursue the new ideal, maybe without seeing the potential problems that could arise.
I'm linking "In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop." It's not exactly what I was talking about in the post, but it definitely makes for some interesting, related reading.
Nice post Jaclyn. I do what I love. Just need to be careful not so much that I lose who I love. ;)
And to be compared with Jeff Jarvis is a heck of a complement for me.
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