Hi !

Hope you are all staying safe & healthy wherever you are.

Today, I wanted to talk a little about personal monopoly and personal brand, courtesy of David Perell's thread on Twitter (thanks Nazran for sharing this with me!)

I've written about personal brand quite a lot before, which talks about how do you market yourself or create a unique identity that will help others to know and remember you.

Well, you can consider personal monopoly as the core of building your personal brand. Personal monopoly is the intersection of your skills, your unique life experiences, and your interests that can help you in building a unique life journey for yourself.

Ask yourself this question: With so many new trends coming up every single day, what is it about you or what you do that sets you apart from the rest of the world?

In a world that is constantly evolving, it is important for you to be able to distinguish yourself from other people. There are so many people out there who can probably do the same thing that you do, perhaps even on a better level, so how do you stand out and be different?

To illustrate this, I want to do a simple case study.

Let's start a baking business together.

There are so many of these out there - ranging from top bakeries and cafes to small, home-based businesses. Some of them are highly premium and expensive, while others are more affordable but may not use high-quality ingredients. How do we differentiate our (hypothetical) business from what's already there?

We want to sell the typical red velvet cupcakes - but there are already so many people out there selling the same thing. Some sell in 4's and 6's, while others in bigger batches. Some have oreo crumbs on top, others have chocolate drips or caramel drizzle. How can we make our (hypothetical) cupcake different and unique?

We can also perhaps add on additional services for our customers - hand-written letters or wish cards for the recipients, packaging the cupcakes in a unique box, or even include extra gifts like balloons and teddy bears.

But, let's not forget other non-tangible skills or services that we can offer to our potential customers.

This can be things like the languages we speak (maybe we speak Spanish and German and can cater to the expatriate community in KL), delivery services (not just catering to one locality, but being able to ship out nationwide?), or even our ordering platform (say goodbye to customers WhatsApping us their orders, they can create their own custom cupcakes on our website and add on additional flavorings or toppings according to their liking).

Now, let's circle back to you, and how you can create your personal monopoly.

As you can see from our hypothetical baking business above, there are so many different things that we can do to make our business (and product) stand out among the many competitions out there.

The same thing goes for ourselves, and how we stand out in the world.

(Photo by Rupert Britton on Unsplash)

What is the unique combination of your skills, talents, and experiences that can help you to be unique and different from others?

Remember - it is not about being the best in the world at one particular skill, but instead, to be the best in a particular combination of skills and talents.

Because, realistically, most of us are not born as geniuses or prodigies who can be incredibly talented (or gifted) in one particular area.

Instead, we try to hone some of our top skills and combine them together in a way that is desired and needed by others (or the world).

Maybe you don't have to be super fluent in a second, third, or even fourth language.

Maybe you don't have to be super well-versed in programming languages.

Maybe you don't have to be the best public speaker or communicator.

But, who knows, maybe you can be the best Technical Support Advisor for various countries in a certain region because of the unique combination of your language(s), programming, and communication skills.

This is a worksheet by David Perell on how to find (or develop) your personal monopoly. Feel free to use it as you work on developing your own personal monopoly.

Remember - your personal monopoly, like your personal brand, is not a one-stop journey. It's not something that you do once in your life, but instead, it is an ever-evolving journey of self-discovery and development.

As your curiosity and interests grow, and as you acquire new skills, your personal monopoly will change and develop alongside you.

Time to be one-of-a-kind, !

I'm going to leave you tonight with a question to ponder...

What is something that sparked your curiosity and interest recently but you've hold yourself back from trying it out for the fear of failing?

To my Muslim readers, wherever you are in the world, I wish you a very blessed Eid Mubarak & Selamat Hari Raya. Please take extra precautions, sanitize often, and mask up as much as possible if you are going out.

Until I see you again in two weeks' time - stay safe, take care, and stay awesome.

Love,

Nazu xx

p/s - my personal answer to the question above is to start making educational TikToks or YouTube videos on career development for students and graduates. I've toyed with the idea for months now but I'm still somewhat scared as hell of making videos lol.