The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you are working for somebody else. Job security is gone. The driving force of a career must come from the individual. Remember: Jobs are owned by the company, you own your career!

Earl Nightingale

It was branding guru Tom Peters that launched the personal branding movement in an essay published in Fast Company online magazine titled “The Brand Called You”. He wrote: egardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.

For today in the market, we must continue to head marketing for the brand “I”[…] You are a brand. You are responsible for your brand. Therefore you need another way to think about yourself. You are not an “employee”, you “ought” not to work for an organization for the rest of your life, you are not defined by the title of your job and you are not confined by your job […] It’s the CEO of I Inc. that demands that

you develop yourself, promote yourself with the purpose of letting the market reward you. “

There is no job guarantee. Be independent and (re)define yourself by developing, implementing and cultivating your authentic personal brand. Be the CEO of your life while creating new opportunities and attracts. There are three types of markets in need of personal branding: (1) independent service professionals (actors,

agents, artists, athletes, authors, advisors, consultants, designers, dentists, restaurateurs, brokers, etc.), (2) the personal business markets (owners of fitness centers, car garages, cleaners, bakeries, computer repair business, copy shops, nurseries, painters, gardeners, etc.) and (3) value-added product sellers (dealers, bookstores, publishers, etc.).
They all need a personal brand to the people within their domain to influence.
Everyone has a personal brand, but most people here are not aware and do not manage this strategically, consistently and effectively. In Rajesh Setty’s words, “Everyone has a personal brand, simply because everyone makes a promise to the world – some explicit, but most of them implicitly […] You are your greatest asset[…], position yourself so that you can do things you’re excited about.

When you live your life, you live your brand. Your brand is who you really are. ” You should check your brand and the message it brings to manage how others can be influenced by your experiences. This will help you to actively grow and distinguish yourself as an outstanding professional. Having a good professional reputation or brand seems to have become very important asset in today’s online, virtual, and individual age. It is increasingly essential and is the key to personal success. It is a strategy used by the most successful people of the world, including Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Donald Trump, Richard Branson and Bill Gates. It is therefore important to have your own brand just as successful an attractive as they did.

There are many different definitions of personal brand(ing) in the literature, such as:
• A perception or emotion from someone else about you;
• A reflection of who you are and what you believe, expressed in what you do and how to do this;
• Stimulating meaningful images about the values and qualities that you stand for;
• Influencing how others experience;
• The value that others feel that it owns;
• The sum of the expectations and associations that it creates in the minds of the audience;
• A perception of yourself that you wish to project in everything you do;
• The set aside of competition and the unique and better than the competition in your market of yourself.

Having a strong personal brand has advantages. It:
• Promotes meaningful images about the values and qualities that you stand for;
• It tells others who you are, what you do, what makes you different, how you create value for them and what they can expect when doing business with you;
• Affects how others experience;
• Creates expectations in the minds of others about what they can expect when you work with;
• Creates an image around you making it easier for others to remember who you are;
• Ensures that your potential customers see you as the only solution to their problem;
• Place yourself above the competition and makes you unique and better than your competitors

in the market;

Most of these definitions come from personal branding from a personal marketing (selling) and image-building perspective, which can lead to an ego trip. Personal branding is more than just marketing and promoting yourself. Your personal brand is a perception in the mind of someone else about you. Successful personal branding means to effectively manage this image. Your personal brand is the synthesis of all expectations, perceptions and emotions that it creates in the minds of others when one sees or hears your name.