If you throw away your business card, whatever you have left, is truly yours, because nobody can take it away.
We all derive identity and pride from our jobs, and it is perfectly logical. But it is worth remembering that our worth as a professional is derived from two things:
- Our own capabilities and experience, network, and personal brand.
- The brand and resources of the organization we work for.
For all my working life, 90% of my self-worth was derived from the organization. But when I became an entrepreneur, all that was suddenly gone.
I no longer had a business card with a well-known brand. No more government or corporate resources to back me up. Now, I had to pay salaries to my employees, manage my own travel, and show up for meetings without an aura of a respected organization.
For every one of us, building our personal capabilities and brand is the more sure-shot way to build confidence.
When the thing that matters to you can be taken away at somebody’s whim, you live in fear and insecurity. But when you own that thing, you are truly free.
– Rajan