FINAL THOUGHTS: THE LAST BITE OF THE BROWNIE

Quotable Notable: Pablo Picasso

A Challenge: A Final Lesson from My Own Life

6.5 Final Bites

“My mother said to me, ‘If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.’ Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.”

—PABLO PICASSO (1881–1973)

QUOTABLE NOTABLE: PABLO PICASSO

Spanish painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso is one of the world’s best-known and most successful artists. As one of the founders of Cubism, an abstract style of painting that was revolutionary in its time, Picasso withstood intense early criticism and condemnation of his art and continued to develop his unique signature style. Committed to freshness in his work and completely passionate about achieving his aspiration to become a great artist, Picasso disregarded all the negative feedback he received, and in time became renowned as one of the world’s most influential painters. Picasso lived a vigorous professional and personal life until his death at age 91, and since that time, he has only grown in stature and reputation in the art world. His name is synonymous with abstract art, and Picasso is the ultimate example of what you can accomplish by staying true to your principles, believing in your individual talents, and refusing to compromise your professional integrity.

A CHALLENGE: A FINAL LESSON FROM MY OWN LIFE

I have to share one more thing with you. I have carried this voice in my head for the many, many years since I graduated high school. A statement was made to me by my elementary school principal, who had moved up to the assistant high school principal by the time I reached high school. His name was Mr. Benny Montgomery.

A few days before high school graduation he said, “Michael, you have every bit of what it takes to succeed. If you fail it is only because of you.” For the rest of the day I could hear his voice in my head. And even now some decades later, I can still hear his voice and the high expectations that he set for me. His profound statement gave me the confidence and the belief that I am responsible for my personal and professional success.

I will now present you with a challenge similar to what Mr. Montgomery gave me: You are the problem and solution to your success. Follow the precepts of Fresh PASSION and you will not fail; you will achieve exponential personal and professional success. Go ahead, unleash the Picasso budding inside you, and build your brand while the bottom line builds itself and your aspirations come closer and closer to being met. Picasso was a painter and became Picasso; what will you do to become the most personally and professionally successful version of yourself possible and make your perfect day a reality?

6.5 FINAL BITES

You have just consumed an enormous amount of information, far too much to adequately digest in just one sitting. The idea behind this book is not for you to read it once and forget about it. Rather, Fresh PASSION is intended to be a workbook, a compass, a road map, an action plan, and a success guide for your daily life that you can refer to on a regular basis. As you advance in your personal and professional life and develop new skills and capabilities that increase your brand appeal, I encourage you to go back and update the worksheet exercises such as describing your perfect day or creating your Super Bowl commercial.

In the spirit of using this book as a working document, I’d also like to caution you not to expect to fully enact Fresh PASSION all at once. It will take time and effort to complete all the steps and work all the concepts and strategies into your life. And of course you are never fully done, since part of Fresh PASSION is always setting new goals once your previous goals have been met as well as becoming a greater, stronger, and more competitive personal brand!

I will now leave you with 6.5 “Final Bites,” which are the most important nuggets of information for you to remember. If you are feeling a bit overwhelmed or aren’t sure where to focus your energies, let these 6.5 Final Bites be your guide. By themselves they will not allow you to bring Fresh PASSION into your life and career, but they will serve you well as general guideposts. Follow these 6.5 pieces of advice, and you will at least be headed in the direction of building a fresh, competitive brand, rather than suffering through the agonizing generic death that results when your brand is stale, out of date, and does not offer the substance or packaging necessary to stand out in the marketplace.

  1. There is a reason that “Fresh” is the first word in Fresh PASSION. You must keep your attitude, outlook, skill set, reputation, network, and brand fresh at all times. In the Internet age, information and ideas are distributed, digested, and spat out at a pace that was never before imaginable. What is innovative and interesting today can literally be outdated and dull by tomorrow. So you must always stay fresh—never assume past success guarantees anything in the future, always take opportunities to develop new skills or contacts, keep up with the constantly changing needs of the marketplace and regularly evaluate how well your brand meets them.
        Furthermore, you must radiate freshness by dressing neatly and in fashion and displaying true confidence in yourself and your abilities. Otherwise, you may find yourself lumped in with the “day old” stale bakery products, selling for a dollar a dozen!
     
  2. Success is impossible without setting a real, specific aspiration and remaining laser-focused on it. Remember, aim at nothing and you’re guaranteed to hit it! And when I say aspiration, I don’t mean something vague like “make a six-figure salary” or “start my own company.” I mean something specifically tied to your unique skills, capabilities, interests, and passions that genuinely represents who you are and what you stand for.
        Your aspiration should also tie into your perfect day, which is how you would live your life if everything were exactly as you wanted it. Don’t be afraid to set your aspiration extremely high.     Even if you only achieve 75 percent of it, three-quarters of a lofty aspiration is a lot more rewarding and fulfilling than three-quarters of a low aspiration! Remember, you should answer these three questions about your aspiration(s):
     
    • Am I passionate about it?
    • Do I have the skills to make it happen?
    • Am I determined to make it happen?
       
  3. To help you be prepared to demonstrate your brand value to any audience in any situation, you should have a set of processes and tools in place that will help you succeed in any job interview, client meeting, or other formal or informal situation where you may have the opportunity to promote your brand.
        By constantly reviewing your skills and experiences and determining exactly how you could leverage them to provide value to a potential employer, you can keep your arsenal fresh to keep up with the changing needs of employers, as well as your own changing needs. This arsenal is a weapon that will help you maintain the highest levels of internal and external competitiveness at all times.
     
  4. Humans typically form a lasting impression of someone within the first three seconds they meet them. That means that by the time you walk through a door and shake someone’s hand, they have essentially already decided how much they trust you, how much they like you, and whether they want to do business with you. You send out hundreds of signals about yourself, and people read those signals and react to them long before you’ve had a chance to say anything of substance.
        As mentioned in Step 1, it is important to dress neatly and stylishly and to radiate genuine confidence. But this alone will not guarantee a good three-second impression. After all, it is difficult to know how you may appear to somebody else, despite how well you think you come across! So ask trusted colleagues, friends, relatives, and your Branding Board to honestly assess     your three-second impression and give constructive feedback. Like the old saying goes, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
     
  5. You will undoubtedly encounter negativity throughout your career. It can come from rivals and competitors as well as from well-meaning friends, relatives, and colleagues who think they are “helping” you by dissuading you from following your aspirations. And the more success you achieve, the more negativity you will encounter. It is of paramount importance for you to omit this negativity from your life and your thoughts, but in a positive manner. Rather than seeking revenge on a backstabbing colleague, either win them over through your hard work and team approach or simply outshine them with your superior skills and brand so that their efforts at sabotage have no chance to succeed. You cannot control the thoughts and actions of negative people, but you can control how you respond to them.
     
  6. You are a human being. Human beings are innately fallible. This means you will undoubtedly make mistakes on your journey toward achieving Fresh PASSION, building a successful brand, realizing your aspirations, and living your perfect day. You will not always follow the precepts of Fresh PASSION 100 percent of the time, nor will you always act in a positive manner that best suits the needs of your brand and career.
        When you stumble, don’t panic. Most important, don’t assume you’ve “screwed it all up” and there is no hope for recovering whatever brand equity you have lost. There is always hope, and unless you make a genuinely catastrophic mistake, you will be able to undo it with a little time and effort. I’m not asking you to be perfect, just the best you can be.

6.5 Remember to have a little fun! Success should be fun, and if you are working toward building a brand and achieving an aspiration that genuinely reflects who you are as a person, much of the work will be fun. But you still need to allow yourself a little time for rest, relaxation, and recuperation. Celebrate important milestones, like new jobs, promotions, or major client wins. Schedule the occasional agendaless day or agendaless week and allow yourself to unwind. Leave yourself time to pursue outside hobbies and interests, and understand that family, health, and spiritual needs come before anything else. You can’t be fresh and passionate if you are a work-obsessed robot, so loosen up. Very few people have a perfect day that involves 24 hours of work!