Find your SHTICK

Paul Renaud taught us something very interesting yesterday about the importance of having that something that has you remembered to other people and gets them attracted to you. This is of course a marketing concept that can be applied to any type of branding, including personal branding, that very popular thing nowadays, with all the freelancers "running" around. That special power is nothing more than a shtick. 

The easiest road to success once you identify your special power is to "listen to the music". Pay attention to everything around you and of course give your best shot everytime. Music is after all an international language...so do not worry about barriers...they are all in your head.

Not very long ago, I joined the world of recruiters....in a modest way. I love research and I love talking to people, so the job is nothing but a pleasure for me. During Paul's presentation yesterday I realized that I always ask my candidates to identify their shtick. I usually ask for qualities other people find in them and then qualities they find in themselves. Surprisingly, or not, these don't match. For me this is surprising because people are clearly aware of their shtick (the qualities seen by others), but would rather define themselves differently and aim for something else. Weird...

I remember I was once in this situation when I did my 360 degrees LSI  and realized that I see my self as a very red aggressive person, with not so much empathy to share, while people were seeing me as a very blue helpful individual. I did not go through with the test until the end and didn't try to understand what I should change (tests are stupid right?! especially when the result is not exactly what you would have liked to hear :P). Now this got me thinking...There are though many other feelings that change our normal state of mind in various moments, and for me injustice is the worse. Every time I get the slightest feeling of betrayal I flip...sometime I can just smell it around me...and not always, but most of the time, I get to be proven right...which is very heartbreaking for me and it totally ruins my balance.

So, in the end, I guess it is not that easy to carry the shtick. The burden of being as others see us all the time, can be a cloth too heavy to wear on a daily basis. So maybe that's why subconsciously we choose to see and think of ourselves differently!?

Anyway, if you would ever like to become a "brand" at any level (global, local, at work or at home) you have to identify, accept and carry your shtick with you all the time. No time off what so ever, but this could be your road to success. I am sure at the end it's just a matter of perspective.

So, what is your shtick?!

My 26th Summer

My summer is not over, but the best part of it just ended - the summer holiday. If I could only have my share of the three months of "nothing to do in summer" that I used to have when in school.

2012 Summer Holiday:
Bucharest - Transalpina - Sibiu - Apuseni Mountains - Alba Iulia - Doftana - Bucharest

To get to Sibiu we took a special route - Transalpina known as "The Road of Kings". This is the highest and most beautiful road in Romania. The road is around 2000 years old and has been used both by the Romans to pass the Carpathians and the Germans in WW2. Its maximum hight reaches 2145 m and the view from there is spectacular.

We started with a well known festival in Sibiu - ArtMania. The festival is already an August tradition for the city, and the city is an island of non-romanian stuff in Romania. Sibiu still looks like the European Capital of Culture. Die Toten Hosen brought a lot of Germans to Sibiu, so for at least a couple of days we were surrounded by Deutsch blondes. I was also really happy to see Alternosfera (a small Moldavian band I've known since highschool).

The real adventure only started when we reached the mountains. Our plan was to visit Apuseni National Park, known for the glaciers that it hides and the wonderful karst fragments. We made as many routes as we could in the three days we had. We arrived on Sunday evening and had two nights of sleep in a mountain house (it was pretty modern so not the typical chalet) and were planning to sleep outside in our tents for the rest of the trip. Unfortunately in August, 40 degrees Celsius in Bucharest turn into 10 degrees Celsius in the mountains, with really low temperatures at night. So we spent one night in the tent and the other night in a trailer.

1st day
Cetatile Ponorului
(caves and top of the mountain views)

2nd day

Barsa Pit 

(glaciers, caves and lakes inside mountains)

The 2nd day gave us a story to tell forever. When we arrived at Barsa pit we heard a child crying inside the cave where the glacier is. A family was trapped...they entered the pit with no equipment what so ever to take photos, and the mother slipped on the glacier's ice and had a foot stuck in a crack. She was lucky she got stuck because otherwise the ice would have swallowed her into the mountains deep. It was really difficult for the boys to get them out of there, because she was freezing, almost hypothermic, and extremely scared. 

3rd day

The Yellow Gorges

(rocks, water coming out of the mountain's heart and top of the mountain views)

We ended our beautiful mountain trip with a long drive to Alba Iulia. This was my second time in the city and for the same good reason - Dark Bombasting Evening (DBE 4) - an underground music festival where you feel like home. While last year I focused more on the citadel - DBE 2011 this year I focused more on the festival.

A lot more people joined the festival, mostly foreigners, which was a really pleasant surprise. We all cracked on Friday, the first night of the festival, and then had to relax and recharge our batteries on Saturday. Great atmosphere, great music, great food and great people. It was a really nice way to end our holiday before heading for the city.

We got home more tired than we left, but much more relaxed. Unfortunately siting at the office is not as wonderful as climbing mountains...and it's even much more tiering.

My Summer of George has one more thing on the list...splash around the Black Sea...then it will be officially over :)

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O mica teorie:

Oamenii observa culorile unei zile numai la sfarsit si la inceput, dar pentru mine este destul de clar ca ea combina o multitudine de nuante si tonuri, cu fiecare moment care trece. O singura ora poate consta in mii de culori diferite. Galbenuri ceruite, nunate de albastru patate pe nori. Intunecimea de nepatruns. In domeniul meu, mi se pare important sa le observ. 

O carte al carui povestitor este Moartea. O poveste care rasuceste moneda si analizeaza situatia nemtilor de pe strada Himmel (= Rai). O strada dintr-un oras nu foarte mare, prins in istorie la inceputurile unei noi ideologii - nazismul. Personajul principal, Liesel, un mic arian care interactionaza cu lumea prin ochi de copil si imbratiseaza Moartea celor din jur si in final pe a sa.

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Markus Zusak