Big Shoes on a High Wire: The perils of the Personal brand.

Some do it without meaning to. Some mean to without doing it very well. Some do it effortlessly – their personal behaviour is so indivisible to their Personal Brand that there is no distinction between them. But that has its pitfalls.

Roger Federer is universally respected not just for his ability with a racket but for his grace in victory and defeat - the gold standard Personal Brand. But as his contemporary Tiger Woods found out to his cost, Personal Brands are held to higher standards than the ordinary person. Fail to live up to them and the fall is swift and the climb back into everyone’s good books largely a moot point. Fundamentally, humans are locked into their personal ‘trademark’. While a company can make a mistake – some of them horrendous – it can still issue a mea culpa, spread the blame and trade its way out of disrepute. A human being can apologise, sob on national TV and promise to be a better person, but will still be judged for the rest of their time – a slippery slide of public opinion one misstep away.

(Just in case you were wondering, there’s a world of difference between a Personal Brand and a Cult of Personality – although they’re step-children of the same self-interested parents. At best, Personal Brands are aspirational, reminders of the heights humans can achieve with hard work and talent. A Cult of Personality is adulation of a figure, generally promoted by that figure themselves, into almost mythical status with no basis in actual fact. Remind you of anyone?)

The Personal Brand is a high-wire act.
A few navigate it with ease, but all are wearing big shoes.