Nairobi, January 2015

Despite evidence that the world is safer than ever, pessimism rules. The demise of common sense, the destruction of the natural world, and persistent social injustice keep us up at night.

What gets us up in the morning are the people around the world who are putting their shoulders to the wheel to create real, systemic change. Now, more than ever, we need to believe we can turn things around. Change starts when we are optimistic about our ability to make a difference.

In a perfect world, great ideas would spread purely on their own merit. We do not live in a perfect world. In order to make real change happen, we need to be smart about how we get people on board with our ideas, products and services for change.

Brands can entice people to adopt new habits. Brands can make innovative products understandable and attractive. We can discuss the good and evil of brands for a couple more years, or we can roll up our sleeves and get to work.

The psychology of branding is inherent to all ages and cultures. Brand thinking is a leadership skill, and it can be taught.

But the knowledge is locked up in big corporations and expensive agencies. It’s distributed unevenly across geographic and economic lines. We need to open up brand building knowledge, and make it useful for all.

By building a strong brand, you’re making a statement about your ambition. You zig when everyone else is zagging. You’re standing out from the crowd. We know it’s scary, but don’t sell yourself for less than you deserve.

If your courage ever fails you, ask yourself:
what’s the best that could happen if you sold yourself well?

There is a persistent myth that a brand can be built by a single person. Some visionary who knows it all, controls it all, ignores everyone else, and one day launches some mind-blowing, uncompromising brand out of thin air.

The truth is that for 99.9% of us, it takes a village. Someone to come up with the idea, someone who can pitch it, someone who can bring it to life with great design. Customers who give input. Marketeers who go out and test in the field. Team members creating a culture together. You don’t have to do this alone.