Sergiusz Trzeciak (editor) - Personal Branding for Everyone: An Expert’s Toolbox for Unleashing Your Inner Leader, a Successful Career, a Thriving Business and a Fulfilling Life

Personal Branding for Everyone

An Experts Toolbox for

Unleashing Your Inner Leader,

a Successful Career,

a Thriving Business and

a Fulfilling Life

SERGIUSZ TRZECIAK (LLM, PHD)

Copyright 2016 by Sergiusz Trzeciak. All Right Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of very brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK AND WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM IT

I n his book Life After Life Raymond A. Moody, a doctor, describes over one hundred cases of people who had experienced clinical death. Some of them saw a tunnel with a light at the end, others had an impression that they had left their bodies or floated over them, others had their lives flashing before their eyes. Facing death, those people remembered special moments or they observed them as if they were mere by-standers before returning to their bodies. This experience had changed their lives. I remember that when I was a child, my mother read Moody's book and told me the stories from it. This spurred my imagination so much that I imagined leaving my body and looking at myself from afar. As a child I liked imaginative games.

Paradoxically, thinking about death forces us to think about life. Several times in my life I have had close encounters with death or barely escaped serious injuries. The last such experience happened several years ago when I almost got hit by a speeding bus. In such situations a thought crosses your mind: What would I leave behind?, What would they say at my funeral?, What would be the inscription on my gravestone?. Do we really have to have a face-to-face encounter with death to look at ourselves in a detached manner? Perhaps it would be a good idea to evaluate our lives not on a deathbed but here and now?

Just think for a moment how you would feel if you could leave your body. Which scenes from your life would you see right now? Which memories? Who are you? Do you see yourself like others see you? What picture of yourself are you painting in your mind?

Why did I write this book? More than ten years ago I gave an interview to a newspaper in which I talked about my scholarship at the University of Oxford. The title of the interview was: I dont participate in the rat race . And that is true I have never taken part in it, I am not doing it now, and I do not ever intend to. However, my first job was managing one of the most important Polish think-tanks the Sobieski Institute. Although many people thought that it was an important position, I never had things done for me and I did not get this post through any special connections. I created my first job myself I organised the work of the Institute with a group of young and very talented people. We started with a virtual platform of experts, which we had created earlier. Then we opened an office and built an organisational team, acquired new experts and funding, and carried out ever larger projects, which in turn gave the Institute strong organisational and technical foundations. I worked with passion and determination, not to be in the rat race but for fun. After almost two years of working there, I decided that I wanted to move on and do something else. I felt that I had accomplished my mission and it was time to close that chapter of my life and find another challenge. I left to work on a project with a different establishment that better suited my interests. I found an organisation where everything was prepared for me by its generous sponsor: office, tools, contacts, a well-paid team, and an attractive salary. But, unlike in my previous job, I did not have an opportunity to fully develop my potential. Still I value those two professional experiences greatly because they taught me a lot.

Today I know that work should also be your passion, source of fun, and a learning process. I truly believe in such sayings as: Do what you love and money will come to you or Dont work for money.

Lecturing university students, writing books, teaching courses (especially in foreign countries and cultures), as well as consulting and coaching are something that gives me great satisfaction; I certainly do not see it as a necessary evil, but as an opportunity to learn and develop. Learning and development is the essence of my life.

I have been interested in the subjects of leadership, personal development, social psychology, management, and marketing for a number of years. So far I have written nine books in Polish and with this relatively short ebook, I am striving to start serving international audience. For the past few years I have read and listened to the recordings of several hundred books. Inspired by some of them, I developed my own model for creating a personal brand, which was then verified on numerous people. I was helped by students from Executive MBA and Executive DBA courses, managers from the PwC Academy, and my clients. I taught courses and made presentations on personal branding for various groups: students, businessmen, social and business innovators, local and foreign MPs, local government leaders, mayors and those who later turned out to be elected as Presidents of countries or became Prime Ministers. Those people, from over a dozen different countries, represented various backgrounds and cultures. I had an opportunity to observe their reactions, and to listen to their feedback. There was some criticism, which I humbly accepted, but many of them assured me that the knowledge, skills, and inspiration I had given them had proved helpful in their careers, had improved their performance, or even had helped them to verify the choices they had made in their professional lives. So, I wrote this book hoping that I could help you attain your goals as well, thus fulfilling my motto: Your goals. My passion.

Who is this book for? For those who have a certain state of mind. For people who see life as a chance for continuous development, self-improvement, and a constant learning process. For these people their personal brand is not an end in itself, but a result of their personal development and acquiring leadership skills. This book may therefore prove helpful to various people, including those who have just started their professional careers (high school or college graduates) as well as experienced professionals and managers. I particularly recommend it to consultants, teachers, coaches, experts, scientists, lawyers, doctors, PR specialists, journalists, and freelancers. I think it should be read by everyone who wants to become a leader in business, science, NGOs, administration, and politics. This book is for all those who want to develop their leader mindset.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN FROM THIS BOOK

A fter reading this book, you are going to know:

what a personal brand is;