Personal Branding vs. Human Being

In many ways, it seems easier to become a “personal brand” version of yourself than to be yourself.

Brands are built on simplicity.

A “good” brand rarely changes.

A “strong” brand is easy to define.

A “smart” brand is never confusing.

A “strategic” brand shifts only when customers demand it.

But a person who doesn’t change, is confined by stiff labels, and adapts to what others want them to be likely doesn’t feel good, strong, smart, or strategic — they often feel trapped, lonely, and forever at the mercy of someone else’s opinions of them.

To BE YOURSELF > BRAND YOURSELF means surrendering to ongoing change, constantly confronting your many contradictions, making choices that may confuse, alienate, or amuse others.

And then making those choices, anyway.

Brand culture says the life, the self, the world we desire can be easily acquired — BUY NOW!

Unbranded living is walking with the knowledge that there is no elixir that can fix us, no serum to erase life’s wrinkles, no pill that can make the world easier to swallow.

Unbranding means to step outside the box of either consuming or being consumed and relearn what it means to make your way through life and all its mess.

Branding is simple. Being is chaos.

You can make a mess of your life — or be consumed by it.

Make a fucking mess.