I Found My "Unique Ability"

By Bruce Lund, NEXTPERT
Topic: Career Development, Marketing, Networking, Personal Branding, Success Strategies, Reputation Management, Social Media, Entrepreneur, Gen Y, Millennial, Job Searching

www.nextpert.net

I was fortunate to speak to the Youth Leadership Rutherford (top high school students in Rutherford County) this morning and while I was giving my message about what it takes to stand out in an age of wisdom and technology I experienced a breakthrough. I was talking about developing a personal brand and pairing it with your unique ability (Dan Sullivan) when I had that “AHA” moment.

Sullivan says that every person has a “unique ability” to be better in a particular area than others. This is a skill that we learn and recognize at a young age. Ultra successful people can detect and utilize their unique ability very early in life.

During the speech I realized why I had a natural interest in personal branding. Personal branding is the creation of an asset that pertains to your particular self as an individual. You may be a great publicist for a company but outsource your skills to others because your skills are needed by many. Just as companies have brands we as individuals are branded by how we are perceived by other people. What experiences do those around us have and what are their impressions of our personality and character.

I was speaking about my humble beginnings and the many adversities my family and I faced starting at a very young age when I realized the “unique ability” that has catapulted me to this point. I am now living out my vocation in life being able to speak, consult, write while also complete work on my doctorate.

Discover Your Unique Ability Early

My entire life I have been able to take lower level resources, repackage them, and appear to be a desirable brand that others begin to recognize. This has been in direct correlation with my career path working in public relations and in journalism. I have learned the ability to communicate the positives in stories, people, and experiences including my own. I have also learned that we can say anything if we word it correctly. Being a great communicator is a skill we all need to develop.

But I never had many of the resources that the wealthier kids were afforded early on in my life. I had to find a way to get on people’s radars through the way I carried myself and how I dressed. I had to act over-confident in my abilities (which could be perceived as arrogance) but this was my way to stand out. Every person needs to be able to self-promote themselves or to articulate their value to the world in any profession. Call it narcissistic or whatever you may but we are selling ourselves every day to other people.

I took hand-me-down clothes and the few opportunities I was given and made the absolute most of them. I figured out how to get my foot in the door and then made enough of an impression to be asked back. For some reason I just realized today why I am so enamored with personal branding---it’s because unbeknownst to me I have been branding myself for success all my life.

I found ways to get around Corporate environments and try to absorb as much information as I could. To get around successful people and mirror their success in my actions. To learn how to appear like I belonged with the white collar people while also holding the work ethic of the blue collar. I understood early on in life how to impress the decision-makers and to remain in their minds as the BEST of the NEXT Generation.

We all have unique abilities. It’s how we use those unique abilities that differentiates ourselves from others.

Bruce Lund is the Founder & CEO of NEXTPERT, a training and consulting firm offering insight and strategies to help recruit, train, and retain the BEST of the NEXT Generation leaders. Bruce is a Next Generation Expert completing his Ph.D. on the leadership of this unique group. Bruce has worked in and through many top organizations and teaches the whole self (Mind, Body, Heart, Spirit) approach in leading. He is seeking to become THE Leadership Expert Generation Y can count on for guidance to take them from where they are right now and teach them the distinctive habits of successful people to live an extraordinary life.