Personal Branding Blog – Dan Schawbel

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Personal story

When I was younger, I realized that I couldn’t have everything I wanted immediately. Instead, I knew I had to work as hard as I could for the future. During my sophomores year of College, I told myself “it’s going to be near impossible to get a job in marketing when I graduate.” My solution during this time was to sacrifice part of my College experience for the good of my career. Within four years, I had 8 internships in various areas of marketing, working at enterprises and small firms.

Part of the reason for taking on this volume of internships was to get a diversified foundation in marketing and to learn about what aspects of marketing I enjoyed the most. Two of my internships were unpaid, but I did them anyways because I realized that I had to sacrifice compensation for experience in order to get the job I wanted when I graduated.

“Leverage” is the keyword

One of the main reasons why you have to sacrifice is because of the infamous word “leverage.” Here are a few situations, where you have to have a track record in order to make good money:

• Want to publish a book? You will make little to no money on your first one because the publisher has the leverage (channels of distribution and money) and you are an unknown author, who hasn’t sold a book. Once you’ve hit New York Times bestseller stardom, then you can have more leverage for the next book because you’ve proven your worth and that your name can sell.
• Want to get a job? Then get an internship or two or ten! The only way you can get a job without an internship is with a personal contact. Employers want to see work experience and trust me, it trumps any school you go to. Hiring managers want to eliminate risk, so they would rather higher someone who has already completed projects similar to what they are hiring for.
• Want to start your own business? Well good luck because venture capitalists want to see your business success record. They would love to lend their money to an entrepreneur that sold his or her last business for $200 million instead of some random person with an idea. That isn’t to say you should give up hope, but rather harvest your ideas and align yourself with successful entrepreneurs that can push your business forward.
• Want to be a famous musician? Well, just like the publishing industry, you will make almost nothing on your first album. You better concentrate on concerts, just like authors should with speaking engagements. That is the only way you will be funding your life during a time where you have no leverage. Once you build up a cult following and sell a million records, you won’t have to worry about ACTUALLY purchasing that 5 karat diamond, instead of renting one.

They say “pay your dues,” well they’re right!

Everyone has heard, at some point of their life, that you need to “pay your dues.” Honestly, you really do until you have a lot of resources and past successes. People negotiate higher wages and benefit packages based on previous successes. You need to make people dependent on you because when that happens, you have the negotiating power and can demand more from everyone. So many people complain that they are getting paid so little, yet they don’t put 110% into their work. You get out what you put in, so be sure to put in a lot if you want to have leverage in the future.