The Modern Entrepreneur

Part of being an Entrepreneur is marching at the beat of your own drum, following your own instincts, insights, and the voice in the back of your head that knows where your life should be headed, not where some Corporation wants to direct your life. Nigel Marsh a writer and motivational speaker gave an inspiring speech at the TED conference in Sydney in 2010. His message was simply “Balance your life, Balance your career”.

Marsh, like most people around the world, was living and imbalanced life with the most skewed portion of his life more heavily imbalanced toward his work and career. Corporate America is designed to try and get the most out of their employees in terms of time and efficiency. Entrepreneurs and those in corporate America need to have a better understanding what is truly valuable in life and the reason why most people work so hard.

The point is whether in life or business you must take a personal inventory on what is truly important in life and what your true motivation is for success and what you are willing to do for your goals and what you are willing to sacrifice for what is important. If you Find Balance in your life, you will find more happiness, meaning, and satisfaction for what you are doing in your career or business. This is especially important for Entrepreneurs because often times they can become over consumed by their business and goal and forget the reason they are doing them. It is understandable that you will be passionate about your business and it may take up a significant amount of time, however it is important to realize that timing is crucial for balance. Thus you must make the time and learn to say no and take control of what matters, and if you do not have a family and your business is everything and that makes you happy, then live at the office! But if your family and marriage are negatively affected it may be time to re-assess your goals and outlook on life.

Brands have always been a part of Business since the beginning of the industrial age. Companies, and famous influencers have always been able to promote their brand and thus increase the financial capital of their business. Entrepreneurs, celebrities, and politician have also utilized their exposure in order to increase the human capital of their personal brands and individual reputations. A prime example of this would be Donald Trump, who has spent years developing a personal brand around his persona and human capital, first by building wealth through business then exploiting his name to create a worldwide brand of consumer products, television shows, resorts, real estate, etc.
Obviously Trump's brand took years and a lot hard work to create, a quality, which is still important today in order to create a colossal brand such as Donald Trump, Coca-Cola, Ralph Lauren, or even Google. However the difference is, that today there are so many resources with the advancement, accessibility, and availability of technology such as smart phones, tablets, and smart tv’s, Social media and the evolution of established media through this technology has changed the game forever. Perhaps the best example of this would be the last presidential election. Barrack Obama was a seemingly unknown and inexperienced congressman who had a sparse political track record. Ten years ago Obama would have remained and unknown and would have been shuffled out of the political picture in the primaries. With the use of modern technology and social media, the Obama camp produced an unprecedented campaign, which built a personal political brand seemingly overnight. Thus it is important more than ever to begin utilizing modern resources to promote your personal brand in order to boost your human capital, whether your aspirations are to be President of the country, CEO of a company, or even just a viable job applicant in todays society.
Regardless of your aspirations human capital is often one of the most overlooked asset classes, mostly because it is not definitively measured because it is an asset that is quite tangible and circumstantial. No matter what your position in life, your experiences, talents, insight, and personal vision are of some value, which is why it is important to work hard, pursue knowledge, and promote your abilities to the fullest extent. It is also important not just to promote your abilities through modern technology, but manage and regulate the use of this technology because it can hurt your human capital as much as it can help it. It is important to utilize the modern resources such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc. in order to promote your personal brand, unique ideas, and stay connected. It is even more important to do so in a smart and strategic way by promoting yourself in a positive light.