eBusiness Weekly
- Part II
In the previous article I promised that I was going to take you down history, to a story that I am going to use to illustrate what I consider the laws of personal branding. It’s a story that does also stem from my faith. Even, if you do not share my faith, I think it’s a story that is going to help you understand the laws of personal branding, in particular what you need to do in order to build an effective personal brand.
Saul’s disobedience, insecurity, and fall
The majority of the problems in the world stem from the above. Disobedience and insecurity. I will put a bit of more flesh so that you can understand what I mean. Saul is given a very clear instruction by his Master, “Now go and completely destroy (a) the entire Amalekite nation — men, women, children, babies, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and donkeys.” (1 Sam 15:3). But what does he do? “Saul and his men spared Agag’s life and kept the best of the sheep and goats, the cattle, the fat calves, and the lambs — everything that appealed to them.
They destroyed only what was worthless or of poor quality.” (I Sam 15:9). This is where the problem starts. King Saul creates a brand that is associated with disobedience.
Saul’s master regrets ever making Saul king, “for he has not been loyal to me and has refused to obey my command.” (I Sam 15:11) This is how terrible Saul’s brand was. Imagine your employer regretting ever hiring you in the first place because of disloyalty and failure to execute instructions.
This is what many employers go through now. You do not want your brand to be associated with this. Even in the face of confrontation, Saul exhibits arrogance and declines having erred in disobeying the instructions of his master (v20). It’s one thing to be ignorant and it’s another thing to be arrogant. Saul was both ignorant and arrogant.
The instruction was to kill everything. Nothing was to be spared. His men did not kill the best sheep and cattle that they captured; instead, they brought them to Gilgal to offer as a sacrifice to God. Saul correctly executes what he was never assigned to do. Remember what Peter Drucker says, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”
You can even work hard on the wrong things. Saul is reminded that, “Obedience is better than sacrifice”. The disobedience resulted in being fired from the office of king of Israel. He tried to reason with Samuel but to no avail.
It’s only after termination of Saul’s tenure that he decided to be humble and submit to Samuel, “Yes, I have sinned. I have disobeyed your instructions and the Lord’s command, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded. 25 But now, please forgive my sin and come back with me so that I may worship the Lord.”
Saul was insecure and felt afraid. This was even to characterise his career post rejection where on several occasions he even tried to murder a young man who was serving him.
Do not act out of fear
Never make decisions out of fear. You see decisions that are made out of fear are not necessarily rationale. They are motivated more by the need to manage the situation, but involves lots of compromises. Saul compromised his brand by fearing his people.
He violated a clear instructions in order to retain people, but ultimately it cost him more than just his job. He lived a miserable life after his job was terminated.
He did what people demanded, yet he knew who had commanded him to act. Popular decisions are not always the correct decisions. Leadership is best exhibited in moments of uncertainty, and where there is great fear. Leaders show the way.
Saul’s woes mount!
It is so interesting that every time you are having a problem, it’s someone’s opportunity for business. This is the part where the story that forms my 7 laws of personal branding begins. I am going to take you through this story. I do not want you to miss any part of it. There was no Facebook, Twitter, or any of these social media platforms but someone was able to understand the importance of developing a personal brand.
The writer of 1 Samuel presents the problem, “Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit (b) that filled him with depression and fear.” (16:14). You see, earlier I made the point that Saul did not just lose a position, he lost more. He lost peace, which cannot be bought. His disobedience, put him at odds with the very same person he was not supposed to be at odds with, his Maker. Not only was Saul rejected, the Spirit of the Lord left him.
When Saul was anointed to be king, the Spirit of the Lord came on him and he was changed into a different person (10:6). The MSG says, “And you’ll be transformed. You’ll be a new person!” The transformation could only be for the better, and not for the worst.
In fact this transformation was going to be one of the signs that Saul had been inaugurated by the Boss himself. Now the very spirit that made him a different or transformed person had left him. In place of that spirit, a tormenting spirit came, which filled him with fear and depression. Imagine fear and depression in the same paragraph. This is why you don’t need the spirit of the Lord to leave you.
Who is in your circle?
Saul’s problem is stated by the writer of Samuel (v14). It only took, some of Saul’s servants to tell him that, “A tormenting spirit from God is troubling you.” This is deep now. Let’s talk a bit. Saul is a powerful king, and ordinarily he has access to several servants at his disposal. These servants possibly could actually see that the king is not okay, but they may not have been able to diagnose as to what was the problem.
Who is in your life? Are they able to see what’s happening in your life, and potentially what is troubling you. You need these servants who form the “some”.
Your goal should never be to be part of the most, but the “some”. Critical decisions are not made by the “most”, they are made by “some”. You may be aware that the American Constitution was written by 18 people yet it starts by saying, “We, the people of America.”
The same constitution has been in existence for over 200 years and is governing over 330 million citizens of one of the most powerful nations on earth.
The level of operation of Saul’s servants was different to the rest, and they had access to the king. They also had boldness to approach and speak to the king. The trajectory many people take is to surround themselves by people who fear to tell them the truth.
Your business or brand survives more when you are able to create an atmosphere where people are not afraid to tell you the truth. I once did an article on “Psychological safety”, and published it in this publication. Please read it if you missed it.
The boldness of some of Saul’s servants was critical in helping the king realise the nature of the problem that he had. It is also possible to have a problem and not to know that you do actually have a problem. The other level is also deep, it is possible to be the problem, and fail to realise that you are actually the problem. The quality of circle you keep also determines the quality of solutions that you get.
To be continued . . .
Arthur Marara is a corporate law attorney, keynote and peak performance speaker, business strategy facilitator commanding the stage with his delightful humour, raw energy, and wealth of life experiences. He is a financial wellness expert and is passionate about addressing the issues of wellness, sales, business leadership and strategy. Arthur is the author of the “Personal Development Toolkit”, “Keys to Effective Time Management” among other inspirational books. Follow him on social media, or WhatsApp him on +263718867255 to join his groups where he posts or email [email protected]
