Sunday, February 21, 2010

Do Leaders Need To Be Remarkable?

I read Seth Godin’s Purple Cow, and he describes the concept of being remarkable in personal branding and marketing. But this concept extends further into the areas of innovation, creativity, reengineering, reinvention and redesign.

Being remarkable means doing a significant dose of the unusual, extraordinary, and that is worthy of attention. You can be notable, noteworthy, striking, and wonderful in your thoughts, words and deeds.

Fellow Twitter, Diggy wrote a useful and relevant piece on being remarkable.

Reeves Leong’s blog is dedicated to the idea of spreading ideas on branding and tribal experiences. Tribes are groups of people with a shared sense of purpose, values and identity. Sportspeople (which includes almost everyone who does anything physical) are tribes of people with a fascination for exercise, games and activity.

I have been thinking deeper and broader into the notion of staying relevant. How do I reinvent myself to stay relevant and sustain my motives and motivations? Am I remarkable in what I do? Do I inspire others into doing remarkable things? How do I stand up for others, and stand out from the rest?

A few days ago, we featured Tobias Frenz and Kua Harn Wei – two amazing ultra-endurance athletes. It may be unthinkable to venture into physical challenges and adventures that test the limits of human endurance. Yet, as we have found, these ‘limits’ are not absolute; they may be self-imposed and determined by convention or benchmarks. Being remarkable need not mean doing insane things, but doing seemingly insane work with preparation, clarity and a sense of purpose. You can position remarkable through humility, humbleness and hilarity. Those presenters on TED are unique and attractive because of their radical and tangential perspectives and positions on technology, entertainment and design.

Expect more commentaries and stories of remarkable people here, in the weeks to come. If you know somebody remarkable, please blow their horn here on this platform.

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