Me - as a Product...

This morning I came in the office and opened my email to find the following email solicitation:

"I enclose details of our guide for CFOs on how to create personal brands.

In "How to Create a Personal Brand as a Chief Financial Officer", we examine specific ways to use speaking engagements, published articles and social media web sites as a way to establish yourself as a thought leader. Take the 60 minutes to view this webinar... ...to understand how to go about sharing your thought leadership in each of these areas and the best ways to establish yourself as a personal brand (apart from/in addition to that of your company)."

I've worked with several professionals in my career who were "thought leaders" and "go to" professionals within their field of expertise. I've seen the process you use to assume that position and the benefits that come to people who hold that position. I've also seen the cost which that pursuit imposes.

Now you may suspect that this is where I'll start looking down my nose saying, "If they'd spent their time on their homes, their families, etc., etc. the grass wouldn't be so green over their septic tank (or whatever.)"

The truth is, I once had a very dear (and very successful) friend who taught me this important lesson:

"You can do anything you want,
as long as you're willing to pay the price."

- Virginia "Sis" Becker

I first heard this in the early 1990's. Then I primarily heard "You can do anything you want...". Today I look a lot more carefully at "...the price" part of the saying. The big difference between then and today is within me.

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

- Luke 14:25-35

I know that, through God's Grace, I have the tools necessary to make myself into a widely quoted CFO. I know I could also reach up and grasp the next rung in the corporate ladder. I could create beautiful craftsmanship in my spare time doing woodworking. All any of these would take is time, patience, hard work, my undivided attention and a maximum effort...

Oh!

...and I'd have to let Jesus have the leftovers... my leftover time, leftover attention and leftover effort and energy.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”