Obsessed With Originality
“We live in a time obsessed with originality." Truer words have never been spoken.
David Perell hit the nail on the head with this statement while in conversation with The Cultural Tutor.
A testament to why I truly and deeply believe you should not build a personal brand.
Look, no one cares.
As harsh as it sounds, I don't care about your story.
I will only start caring once I know there is something tangible behind your story. That tangibility is not rooted in the personal but rather in the transpersonal dimension.
Why do we all care so much about Elon Musk (whether you love him or hate him)? Because he's actually building beyond himself. His businesses are touching our lives and will continue to do so into the distant future.
The same goes for many of the individuals we are all inspired by.
I doubt Mahatma Gandhi and Steve Jobs were thinking about their personal branding––they were most likely obsessed with how best to revolutionize the world by focusing on delivering great services and products to the people.
Yes, both Gandhi and Jobs had personal style––Gandhi with his traditional Indian dhoti, and Jobs with his black turtle neck and jeans––which helped to evoke certain values that they both held. But those values were ingrained in what they were building.
Gandhi wore his hand-spun dhoti every day to help Indians reclaim their cultural dignity after years of being in the shadow of the British empire. Jobs' uniform was inspired by Japanese minimalism which infused significant aspects of his life, from spirituality to Apple's design philosophy.
If anything, it seems that by focusing less on the personal, you become more personal.
Ah, there it is. The paradox.
I'm now reminded of Zen Master Dōgen's koan: "to study the self is to forget the self."
Of course we're all skin-encapsulated egos, so everything we do has to be for the self. But that does not mean that everything we do has to be about the self.
And that's why I think The Cultural Tutor is right when he suggests you should write for yourself, and forget about what you think other people want you to write. His innate curiosity to learn more about why men wear neckties to the history behind Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa is what has led him to amass 1.5 million X followers.
Take note that until David Perell interviewed him, none of us knew who he was (no real name, no profile picture). Clearly, he did not start from a place of wanting to build a personal brand. His mission––other than finding a way to make money through writing––has been about learning and sharing cultural knowledge with the world.
I'm only now interested in his story because he has shared something tremendously valuable with me––nothing about himself, everything about the world.
And that's why I think it's important to step away from the culture of personal branding. The hyper-focus on your self will constrain you from diving into the magical depths of the world. You will put yourself into a prison of your own making.
Free yourself from your self.
I think life is simple: be curious, learn things, implement projects, and share your knowledge with the world. Don't complicate it with this term "personal brand".
So with that...if you are serious about writing online, then I highly recommend listening to this conversation between two wise men.
