And the Oscar goes to.........

Probably like many of you, I watched the Oscars last night - long enough to see Al Gore's documentary win, but not long enough to see Scorsese receive the consolation Oscar that he should have won a long time ago.

Al Gore's rise to popularity has been nothing short of amazing, but it is also a lesson in what not to do when building your personal brand.

When he was running for President, Gore struck me as a little stiff and almost unenthusiastic. But I have been reading about him a lot recently given the success of his film and that he was in Toronto last week to speak at an event where tickets were exchanging hands for more multiples of their face value than even hockey tickets - and that is saying something in Canada!

I do not remember his saying much about the environment during his campaigning in 2000 and certainly do not recollect his ability to articulate and command an audience as well as he is doing now. Yet he has been passionate about this subject for 30 years!

One of the key foundation pieces that we work on with clients in the personal branding process are Passions - if you are working in an area that you are passionate about, you are going to feel more engaged and focused and ultimately more successful. People will support what you are passionate about, want to be with you, connected to you, Gore is proving that right now - if he announces his candidacy he will have an incredible start to a campaign given his current level of 'brand awareness'.

But if you do not follow your passions - who loses?

Cross posted by Paul Copcutt on Reflections of a Square Peg

Comments

[Louise Fletcher]

That's such a good point. Gore got away from who he really was when he ran for President. He started to watch what he said and to whom he said it, and completely lost his ability to connect with people as a result. I truly believe people are always more successful when their actions, words and behaviors resonate with who they are deep down inside.

[Recruiting Animal]

You see it on blogs too. People who are interesting and lively in real life -- or even in the comments sections of other blogs -- clam up and get boring when they try to show how business-like they are in their postings. Not me. But others.

[Raghavendra]

And the Oskar goes to Raghu
from India