The legend of Tim Tebow grows. If you’re not an NFL fan, Tim Tebow is the quarterback for the Denver Broncos.  He has won six straight games.  On Sunday, the Broncos were losing 10 – 0 with about two and a half minutes in the game.  Tim led them to 10 points in the final two minutes, and then to a game winning field goal in sudden death overtime.

Like a lot of people, I wasn’t a Tim Tebow fan at first.  While I’ve always known that he is an incredible athlete, I didn’t think he had the right skills to become an NFL quarterback.  It’s early days yet, but he seems to be proving me wrong.  One thing for sure, he’s an incredible leader.

Tim Tebow also is an eternal optimist.  He never gives up.  Think about this.  On Sunday, he completed three of 16 passes in the first 45 minutes of the game – and 18 or 24 in the last 15 minutes.  That’s a remarkable turnaround in my book.  It reminds me of point 7 in the Optimist Creed.

“Promise yourself to forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.”

In Sunday’s game, he forgot about all the mistakes he and his teammates made in the first three quarters – they dropped a lot of his passes, and pressed on to win a game the Broncos had no reason to win.

When I think about it, Tim Tebow personifies all 10 points of the Optimist Creed…

The Optimist Creed

Promise Yourself:

• To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
• To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
• To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
• To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
• To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
• To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
• To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
• To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
• To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
• To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

Tweet 42 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Choose optimism.  It builds your confidence.  Believe that today will be better than yesterday, and that tomorrow will be better yet.”

Like Tim Tebow, I’m a big believer in the power of optimism.  I think it is the foundation of all self-confidence.  You can’t be self-confident if you’re not optimistic.  And, optimism is a choice.  I get up every day believing that good things will happen – and then I go about making them happen.

When I was a kid, I participated in the local Optimist International chapter’s oratory contest.  I won my section, and finished third in the state.  The topic that year was “Optimism, Youth’s Greatest Asset.”  That’s hard enough for a ninth grader to say (think Joe Pesci in “My Cousin Vinnie”), let alone write and deliver a ten-minute talk.

Optimist International is a great service organization.  They help kids build self-confidence and become more optimistic.  The Optimist Creed defines them.  It is powerful stuff.

I love The Optimist Creed.  I have it framed and hanging in my office, just above my desk.  I have made a .pdf of The Optimist Creed that is suitable for framing.  If you want a copy, just go to http://budbilanich.com/optimist.

One thing that you’ll notice about The Optimist Creed is that it is proactive.  It asks you to promise yourself to do ten things that will help you create the life and career success that you want and deserve.  It suggests that optimism is related to action – action you can take to become more optimistic and to build your career success.  I think it is some of the best career advice I’ve come across.  I do my best to live the 10 points in The Optimist Creed every day.  You should too.

I especially like the fourth point – promise yourself to look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.  This point goes directly to the idea of committing to taking personal responsibility for your life and career success.  I know it’s difficult to look at the sunny side of things when you’re mired in a problem or are dealing with a failure.  However, if you look for what you can learn from problems and failures, you’ll be looking at the sunny side.  More important, you’ll be on your way to making your optimism come true.

Tim Tebow started the year as the Broncos third string quarterback.  After they won just one game in their first five, the Broncos’ coach John Fox gave him the opportunity to become the starter.  He has won six of the seven games he’s started.  Tebow looked at the sunny side of things.  When he wasn’t playing, he worked hard in practice and paid close attention to the games.  When he got his chance, he made his optimism come true – six out of seven times.

Optimism works – and not just for athletes.  Christopher Reeve is no longer with us, but he exemplified the idea of looking at the sunny side of things.  Even though he was paralyzed from the neck down after a riding accident, he devoted himself to finding a cure for spinal cord injuries.  I love the way his optimism comes across in this quote…

“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”

Christopher Reeve looked at the sunny side of his injury and did what he could to make his optimism come true.  His foundation carries on the work he started.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are self-confident.  Self-confident people are optimists.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 42 in Success Tweets.  “Choose optimism.  It builds your confidence.  Believe that today will be better than yesterday, and that tomorrow will be better yet.”  The Optimist Creed is a great guide to becoming more optimistic and self-confident.  Its proactive approach to life is a great guide to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  Remember the old saying, “Whether you’re an optimist, or a pessimist you’ll be proven right.”  I choose optimism, and suggest you do too.

That’s my career advice based on watching Tim Tebow’s remarkable run over the past seven weeks.  What do you think?  Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success. I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

The legend of Tim Tebow grows. If you’re not an NFL fan, Tim Tebow is the quarterback for the Denver Broncos.  He has won six straight games.  On Sunday, the Broncos were losing 10 – 0 with about two and a half minutes in the game.  Tim led them to 10 points in the final two minutes, and then to a game winning field goal in sudden death overtime.

Like a lot of people, I wasn’t a Tim Tebow fan at first.  While I’ve always known that he is an incredible athlete, I didn’t think he had the right skills to become an NFL quarterback.  It’s early days yet, but he seems to be proving me wrong.  One thing for sure, he’s an incredible leader.

Tim Tebow also is an eternal optimist.  He never gives up.  Think about this.  On Sunday, he completed three of 16 passes in the first 45 minutes of the game – and 18 or 24 in the last 15 minutes.  That’s a remarkable turnaround in my book.  It reminds me of point 7 in the Optimist Creed.

“Promise yourself to forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.”

In Sunday’s game, he forgot about all the mistakes he and his teammates made in the first three quarters – they dropped a lot of his passes, and pressed on to win a game the Broncos had no reason to win.

When I think about it, Tim Tebow personifies all 10 points of the Optimist Creed…

The Optimist Creed

Promise Yourself:

• To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
• To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
• To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
• To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
• To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
• To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
• To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
• To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
• To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
• To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

Tweet 42 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Choose optimism.  It builds your confidence.  Believe that today will be better than yesterday, and that tomorrow will be better yet.”

Like Tim Tebow, I’m a big believer in the power of optimism.  I think it is the foundation of all self-confidence.  You can’t be self-confident if you’re not optimistic.  And, optimism is a choice.  I get up every day believing that good things will happen – and then I go about making them happen.

When I was a kid, I participated in the local Optimist International chapter’s oratory contest.  I won my section, and finished third in the state.  The topic that year was “Optimism, Youth’s Greatest Asset.”  That’s hard enough for a ninth grader to say (think Joe Pesci in “My Cousin Vinnie”), let alone write and deliver a ten-minute talk.

Optimist International is a great service organization.  They help kids build self-confidence and become more optimistic.  The Optimist Creed defines them.  It is powerful stuff.

I love The Optimist Creed.  I have it framed and hanging in my office, just above my desk.  I have made a .pdf of The Optimist Creed that is suitable for framing.  If you want a copy, just go to http://budbilanich.com/optimist.

One thing that you’ll notice about The Optimist Creed is that it is proactive.  It asks you to promise yourself to do ten things that will help you create the life and career success that you want and deserve.  It suggests that optimism is related to action – action you can take to become more optimistic and to build your career success.  I think it is some of the best career advice I’ve come across.  I do my best to live the 10 points in The Optimist Creed every day.  You should too.

I especially like the fourth point – promise yourself to look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.  This point goes directly to the idea of committing to taking personal responsibility for your life and career success.  I know it’s difficult to look at the sunny side of things when you’re mired in a problem or are dealing with a failure.  However, if you look for what you can learn from problems and failures, you’ll be looking at the sunny side.  More important, you’ll be on your way to making your optimism come true.

Tim Tebow started the year as the Broncos third string quarterback.  After they won just one game in their first five, the Broncos’ coach John Fox gave him the opportunity to become the starter.  He has won six of the seven games he’s started.  Tebow looked at the sunny side of things.  When he wasn’t playing, he worked hard in practice and paid close attention to the games.  When he got his chance, he made his optimism come true – six out of seven times.

Optimism works – and not just for athletes.  Christopher Reeve is no longer with us, but he exemplified the idea of looking at the sunny side of things.  Even though he was paralyzed from the neck down after a riding accident, he devoted himself to finding a cure for spinal cord injuries.  I love the way his optimism comes across in this quote…

“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”

Christopher Reeve looked at the sunny side of his injury and did what he could to make his optimism come true.  His foundation carries on the work he started.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are self-confident.  Self-confident people are optimists.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 42 in Success Tweets.  “Choose optimism.  It builds your confidence.  Believe that today will be better than yesterday, and that tomorrow will be better yet.”  The Optimist Creed is a great guide to becoming more optimistic and self-confident.  Its proactive approach to life is a great guide to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  Remember the old saying, “Whether you’re an optimist, or a pessimist you’ll be proven right.”  I choose optimism, and suggest you do too.

That’s my career advice based on watching Tim Tebow’s remarkable run over the past seven weeks.  What do you think?  Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success. I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

In yesterday’s post I mentioned that I am a VIP guest at an event in LA this week. All of the VIPs were invited to create a flyer to be included in the participant package.  I took the invitation literally, and put together a nice front and back four color flyer.  I was pretty proud of it.

Then I saw Pete Treloar’s welcome package insert.  It was an envelope with a hack-e-sack — you know, one of those little balls you kick around.  It came with a card that said, “Still licking around the idea of having your own fully automated local, national or global coaching and training program?  Visit us at the Online Coaching Systems booth to find out how.”

This was cool.  Pete stood out from all of the other VIPs because he was willing to break and few rules.  He didn’t prepare a flyer – he prepared a small gift in an envelope.  By so doing, he branded himself as a creative guy.  Tweet 65 in my career success book Success Tweets says, “A good personal brand highlights your uniqueness.  Be unconventional.  Break rules.”  That’s exactly what Pete did.

I love the movies.  I was really pleased when I was asked to review a book called The Big Picture: Essential Lessons for the Movies.  Authors Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo do a great job of discussing the life and career success ideas in over 200 movies.  This is a very thoughtful book.

Kevin and Michael make some great points about how life and career success ideas pop up in some unlikely movies.  For example, they use the movie Babe to make the point that it’s important to be different – and break some rules — if you want to get recognized and succeed.  Babe is a pig.  He succeeds because he doesn’t act like a pig is expected to act.  In fact, he acts exactly the opposite.  His brand is the anti-pig.  Your brand is important too.  A unique personal brand is an important key to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.

Here’s some of what Kevin and Michael have to say about Babe…

“Babe is a simple story, but it contains an important lesson.  Think of how many businesses have stuck to the way things always are and completely missed the opportunity to become something entirely new, bigger and better.

“MTV didn’t invent video or records, but pulled them together in an entirely new cable channel.  CBS, in contrast, owned a television network and a record company, but missed the chance.”

I experienced another rule-breaking moment several months ago.  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 Tamba Mbawa’s business card in every one of them.  I purchased one of the books and took it home.  When I got there, I went to Tamba’s website to see what he is about.  Not surprisingly, Tamba is a personal trainer and fitness coach.

Just like Pete’s hack-e-sack, this was a great example of breaking the rules and personal brand building.  Tamba 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.  And one that is a perfect manifestation of what Kevin and Michael have to say about 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 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.  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 and how broken rules can become the new way of doing things…

“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.

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 did when building your brand.  But I encourage you to think like Tim – or Tamba – or Pete.  Being a little outrageous, like wearing only a barrel to football games in December in Denver, can help you stand out from the crowd and get recognized.  Placing your card in all of the books on fitness at a Barnes and Noble can help you get recognized.  Giving away a hack-e-sack when everybody else has a one page flyer helps you stand out from the crowd.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  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.  In the movie “Babe,” Babe the pig succeeds because he doesn’t act like a pig.  He is friendly and mannerly – characteristics not usually associated with pigs.  Pete Treloar broke a rule when he included an envelope that contained a hack-e-sack in a welcome package that was supposed to be for flyers.  What rules are holding you back from building a great personal brand?  How can you break them to demonstrate your uniqueness?  Follow the career advice in Tweet 65 in Success Tweets.  “A good personal brand highlights your uniqueness.  Be unconventional.  Break rules.”  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 the career advice I took from Pete Treloar’s hack-e-sack gift.  What do you think?  What is your brand?  What have you done to make is stand out as different and unique?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site on September 1.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  To celebrate the grand opening, I’m giving away a new career advice book I’ve written called I Want YOU…To Succeed in Your Corporate Climb.  You can find out about the membership site and get the career advice in I Want YOU… for free by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Here’s some career advice that comes from the young NFL season.  I live in Denver.  People here love the Broncos.  I’d go as far as saying that people in Denver love the Broncos almost – but not quite — as much as people in Pittsburgh love the Steelers.

We are in the midst of a quarterback controversy in Denver.  The coaches and players think that Kyle Orton is the best quarterback on the team.  He is the starter.  Many of the fans think that Tim Tebow, a second year player who won the Heisman Trophy when he played for the University of Florida, should be the starting quarterback.  Neither Orton nor Tebow have  commented publicly on the situation.  But a whole lot of fans and reporters have.

The sports talk shows are full of Orton/Tebow discussions.  People write letters to the editor of the Denver Post about it.  Sportswriters all seem to have their position on the issue.  Last Sunday, a columnist who doesn’t write about sports devoted his column to it.  That one got me.  I asked myself, “Why would people bother with this?  What difference does it make who the Broncos quarterback is?”  Then the answer hit me.  They bother because they care.  They care a lot.

And that’s where today’s career success advice comes in.  Tweet 100 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Care about what you do.  If you care a little, you’ll be an OK performer.  If you care a lot, you’ll become an outstanding performer.”  Bronco fans who care so much that they call talk radio shows and write letters to the editor are outstanding fans.  If they bring that same passion and caring to their jobs, I’m sure they are outstanding performers and on the road to life and career success.

If you want to become a life and career success, you have to care about what you do.  You have to be passionate about it.  I’ll use myself as an example.

I am passionate about helping people create the life and career success they want and deserve.  I care a lot.  That’s why I wrote Success Tweets and give it away for free.  That’s why I wrote a series of blog posts explaining the shorthand career advice in each of the 141 common sense tweets in Success Tweets in more detail and turned it into a career advice book called Success Tweets Explained.

I care so much about helping people create the life and career success they deserve that I’ve committed to writing a 700 or 800 word blog post five days a week, 50 weeks a year.  Besides that, I’ve created a membership site called My Corporate Climb to help people create their corporate career success.  I also do webinars and speeches.  I am really passionate about being the very best career success coach out there.

I do all of these things because I care.  I care a lot about helping you achieve the kind of career success you deserve.  And I know that this caring will pay off in me becoming an outstanding career success coach – somebody who provides his clients with really great career advice.

When you care you do your very best.  2009 marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of one of my favorite books: To Kill a Mockingbird.  There is a passage in that book that has always stuck with me.  It’s in Chapter 11 and is spoken by Atticus Finch, the father, played by Gregory Peck in the film.  He’s speaking to Scout, his daughter…

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.  It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.  You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

It takes courage to care. Because when you care, you put yourself out there.  You do your best.  And doing your best can be a scary thing.  When you care, when you consciously do your best and fail, it is heartbreaking.  But at least you have the satisfaction of knowing you did your best.

I remember when I applied to graduate school at Harvard.  I decided that I was going to demonstrate to myself how much I cared by writing the very best application I could.  I wasn’t going to let myself off the hook if I didn’t get accepted by saying, “I could have written a better application, but I just didn’t spend the time I should have.”

When I put my application in the mailbox – we still did quaint things like that back in the old days – I was proud of what I had written.  I knew it was the very best I could do.  I was also frightened because I knew that my best might not be good enough.  After all, both of my other degrees were from state schools.  Who was I to think that those kind of credentials would get me accepted at Harvard?

I cared about the quality of my application, so I did the very best I could.  In this case, the story has a happy ending.  I was accepted and got my degree.  Even if I had not been accepted, I would have been proud of myself because I cared enough to write the best application I could, and I dared enough to admit it to myself.

What about you?  Do you really care about what you do?  Do you dare to admit how much you care?

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people are proud of what they do.  They care.  They are like the Broncos fans who call talk radio and write letters to the editor.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 100 in Success Tweets. “Care about what you do.  If you care a little, you’ll be an OK performer.  If you care a lot, you’ll become an outstanding performer.”  Does your work show that you care?  Or does it reflect an “it’s good enough” attitude?  Take it from a career success coach, if you want to create the life and career success of which you are capable and which you deserve, make sure that how much you care shows through in every single piece of work you do.

That’s my career advice on caring about what you do – a lot.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of the companion piece to Success Tweets, Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site on September 1.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  To celebrate the grand opening, I’m giving away a new career advice book I’ve written called I Want YOU…To Succeed in Your Corporate Climb.  You can find out about the membership site and get the career advice in I Want YOU… for free by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Tweet 62 in Success Tweets, my latest career success coach book says, “Your personal brand should be uniquely you, but built on integrity.  Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.”

Over the weekend the Denver Broncos announced that they had violated NFL policy by secretly videotaping the San Francisco 49ers practice the day before they played the Broncos in London a couple of weeks ago.  Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels told the press and the league that the Broncos video manager gave him the videos, but that he never watched them. 

NFL ethics rules say that any person who is aware of a violation of NFL rules has the responsibility to report the violation to the league.  In this case, a Broncos’ staff person reported the violation – not the coach.  The Broncos and Josh McDaniels were each fined $50,000.

As the career advice in Tweet 62 suggests, both the Broncos and Josh McDaniels brands were damaged by this episode.  However, the situation goes deeper.  The Sunday Denver Post had several letters to the editor from Broncos fans expressing deep disappointment in Josh McDaniels’ conduct.  Fans feel a kinship with their team.  In this case, Coach McDaniels’ action – or more accurately, non action – left many people feeling betrayed.

While I live in Denver and follow the Broncos, I’m a Pittsburgh guy and my first allegiance it to the Steelers.  I know that I felt betrayed by Ben Roethlisberger’s sexual misconduct came to light last Spring, so I know how people who love the Broncos feel.

I wrote a chapter in 42 Rules for Creating WE entitled, “Act in a Manner That Honors Yourself and Your Associates.”  The career advice in the chapter was simple.  When you act in a less than ethical manner, you not only harm your reputation and personal brand, you hurt other people around you.  Here is that chapter…

My original message here was, “Never do anything to embarrass yourself or your associates.”  Nancy Ring, a colleague in the Creating WE Institute pointed out that this is a negative statement; it told you what not to do.  Nancy suggested that I change it to a positive statement that tells you what you should do to be a responsible member of an organization or community.

Nancy is right.  It’s much better to provide others with positive, affirmative actions they can use as guides for action than with negative actions to avoid.  Thanks to Nancy for this bonus advice.

WE-centric thinking holds that we are all part of something bigger than ourselves.  This being the case, your actions reflect not only on you personally, they are a reflection of the various groups with which you are associated. 

When I was in junior high school I was caught shoplifting an item that cost less than a dollar from a local discount store.  I did it on a dare.  My parents were very upset with me.  They raised me not to lie, cheat and steal.  With this little shoplifting escapade I dishonored our family.  It didn’t matter that it was on a childhood dare or that “everyone else was doing it.”  What mattered was that my actions had implications that went beyond me and reflected negatively on my family.

This is the heart of the matter here.  You represent all of the groups with whom you are associated.  You represent your family, your school, your company and any number of other groups.  Your behavior, positive and negative, reflects on these groups and their members as much as it does you.  Act honorably, and people will associate honor with the groups with which you are associated.  Act dishonorably and people will form negative opinions of these groups.

I felt honored when I was asked to contribute a few rules to this book.  As a member of the Creating WE Institute, I know that my writing reflects on all of my co-authors in this book as well as every member of the institute.  I feel a little extra responsibility to do the best job I can because of my responsibility to represent my friends and colleagues well.  I want them to be proud of this book and those of us who contributed to it.

Sometimes things work out the other way.  Several years ago the city of New York honored a group of policemen and firemen for acts of valor.  After the ceremony, a few policeman and fireman over indulged a bit.  What began as good natured bantering and taunting between New York’s Finest (the police) and New York’s Bravest (the firefighters) turned into a fist fight in front of a restaurant and bar that bordered one of the city’s more popular parks. 

The incident was widely reported in the local papers and TV newscasts.  Even though less than 20 cops and firemen were involved, none of whom were the honorees, both the Police Department and Fire Department suffered a big black eye.  This negative public perception lingered until the bravery members of both departments displayed on 9/11.

If you want to behave in a WE-centric manner, you need to accept the fact that your actions are a reflection on you and all of the people and organizations with which you are associated.  Act in a manner that will reflect well on you and the others in your life.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Build your personal brand on integrity.  Always act in a manner that honors not only yourself, but your associates.  Your actions and behavior reflect – positively and negatively – on the people with whom you are associated.  Denver Broncos head coach, Josh McDaniels, not only dishonored himself by failing to report a serious violation of NFL rules, he brought dishonor to a very proud NFL franchise.  More important, he hurt the fans – especially the little boys who dream of growing up to play for the Broncos.  Follow the career advice in Success Tweet 62.  “Your personal brand should be uniquely you, but built on integrity.  Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.”  Always act with integrity.  That way, you will honor yourself and those who are close to you — and you’ll be building the life and career success you want and deserve.

That’s my take on the Josh McDaniels videotape episode.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

This is another in my series of posts further explaining the career advice in my new book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets on line at Amazon.com, or in your local bookstore.  Better yet, get it for free at www.SuccessTweets.com.  You can see an interview I did about Success Tweets on the Selling Books.com website.

Today’s career success coach advice comes from Success Tweet 65…

A good personal brand highlights your uniqueness.  Be unconventional.  Break rules.

I love the movies.  Lst year, I was really pleased when I was asked to review a book called The Big Picture: Essential Lessons for the Movies.  Authors Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo do a great job of discussing the life and career success ideas in over 200 movies.  This is a very thoughtful book. 

Kevin and Michael make some great points about success that pop up in some unlikely movies.  For example, they use the movie Babe to make the point that it’s important to be different – and break some rules — if you want to get recognized and succeed.  That’s great personal branding and career advice.  Creating and nourishing your unique personal brand is the first step in creating positive personal impact. 

Here’s some of what Kevin and Michael have to say about Babe…

“Babe is a simple story, but it contains an important lesson.    Think of how many businesses have stuck to the way things always are and completely missed the opportunity to become something entirely new, bigger and better.

“MTV didn’t invent video or records, but pulled them together in an entirely new cable channel.  CBS, in contrast, owned a television network and a record company, but missed the chance.”

I experienced a rule breaking moment the other day.  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 Tamba Mbawa’s business card in every one of them.  I purchased a book and took it home.  When I got there, I went to Tamba’s website to see what he is about.  Not surprisingly, Tamba is a personal trainer and fitness coach. 

I thought this was a great example of breaking the rules and personal brand building.  Tamba 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.  And one that is a perfect manifestation of what Kevin and Michael have to say about 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 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.  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.

One last story.  Tim McKernan had one of the most unique personal brands, I have come across.  He was The Barrel Man, a superrfan 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 Bronco’s 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 Bronco’s Super Bowl victories.

You don’t have to go to the lengths Tim McKernan did when building your brand.  But I encourage you to think like Tim.  Being a little outrageous, like wearing only a barrel to football games in December in Denver, can help you stand out from the crowd and get recognized.

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.  In the movie Babe, Babe the pig succeeds because he doesn’t act like a pig.  He is friendly and mannerly – characteristics not usually associated with pigs.  What rules are holding you back from building a great personal brand?  How can you break them to demonstrate your uniqueness?  Follow the career advice in Tweet 65 in Success Tweets.  “A good personal brand highlights your uniqueness.  Be unconventional.  Break rules.”  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 take on the career advice in Tweet 65 in Success Tweets.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to leave a comment.  Share the most unique personal brand you’ve come across.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud