Читать книгу How You Are Like Shampoo for College Graduates - Brenda Bence - Страница 4

It’s better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret.

— Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Olympic Gold Medalist

Alfred Nobel was a successful and wealthy Swedish man who lived in the late 1800s. He was famous for having invented two things: dynamite and the detonator, the device that makes dynamite go off from far away. Thanks to these two inventions, Alfred Nobel had made millions, and he was living a wonderful millionaire’s life.

Alfred’s brother, Ludwig Nobel, who was also famous and wealthy, died in 1888. But the obituary that showed up the next day in the newspaper was switched, and it was Alfred’s obituary that got printed, not Ludwig’s. So, Alfred Nobel had the mind-boggling experience of opening up the morning paper … and reading his own life story.

Can you imagine how powerful that would be?

But Alfred must have cringed when he read the title of his obituary. It called him “The Merchant of Death” because of all the work he had done with dynamite and detonators. In that single moment, Alfred Nobel realized that his personal brand would always be associated with death and destruction — unless he took control and did something about it.

So, he decided to change what his brand stood for. He made a plan to develop the Nobel Prizes to make a difference in important subjects that he really cared about. And when he died in 1895, Alfred Nobel left most of his millions to establish those prizes. He didn’t want his name, “Nobel,” to stand for destruction and death. Did he succeed? Well, just look at what the name Nobel stands for today — the world’s most prestigious prizes awarded for outstanding achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, and Peace.

You’ve heard of the Nobel Prizes, right? But you probably didn’t know the other work that Nobel had done in his life. That’s because Alfred Nobel was successful in changing his personal brand so that his name could stand for what he wanted it to stand for.

You can change what you stand for, too, by creating your own personal brand and using it to energize your job search. As author Carl Bard said, “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”