Personal branding is in part about keeping at it. This week was a lesson in perseverance – and I learnt it from a 7 year old!
My son has not taken a great interest in learning to ride his bike, he has a scooter that he zips about on and seemed very happy, rarely getting on his bike.
That was until – PEER PRESSURE kicked in!
Many of the other children of a similar age and younger have been out on their bikes – without the training wheels. One more child and that was enough for my son – he had to learn how to ride his!
I encouraged and helped him stay up, I ran alongside holding his arm and picked him up when he fell. "It's okay" I told him "15 minutes a night for the next 2 weeks and you will be riding"
But that was not what he had in mind. "You go and do what you have to do Dad, I am going to carry on trying" he said.
One hour later he was zomming up and down our street as I proudly stood at the end of our drive. He had done it and proven it does not have to take for ever (2 weeks seems like for ever for kids!!).
It reminded me of a client I am working with at the moment in the personal branding process and some I have worked with in the past. Some it takes 'for ever' to get past the early foundation work – others are zooming along.
Personal branding is a little like learning to ride a bike – wobbly at first, you might fall off a few times and even throw it down and walk away. But if you keep working at it – the rewards are as wide a childs smile who has just learnt to ride a bike.