Getting Started in Consulting, 4th Edition

Chapter 10 Living the Dream

The mark of truly successful people who are willing to take prudent risk to build their careers is that they prepare for setbacks and are resilient, but that they also prepare for success. It makes zero sense to go to the beach with board games, books, and iPads in case it rains but then neglect to bring your swim suit and snorkel in case the weather is great, as you’d hope it would be!

Building Your Brand

I’ve discussed the value of a strong brand, especially one built around your name, throughout the book, and even suggested that creating passive income early can assist in building your brand. Let’s focus on the two major definitions of a brand, one academic and one pragmatic:

Academic. A brand is a uniform representation of quality. No one goes into a McDonald’s, for example, to browse. They go in having already made the buying decision, based on an expectation of what to expect. Brands can be of high or low quality. One expects the best tailoring available in a Brioni suit and the best engineering possible in a Rolls Royce. And one would have expected a very average experience when flying the old USAir. Volkswagen has damaged its brand with its emissions scandal. After World War II Japanese brands were considered cheap, but they rose to represent very high quality and forged the second (now third at this writing) strongest economy in the world.

Pragmatic. A brand is how people think of you when you’re not around. This business is often about ...