Personal development

Would it makes sense to compare your life and what you have to offer to a product that needs to be developed? Could reflection on a standard marketing strategy provide a new and necessary perspective?

Viewing any person primarily as a product to be developed and marketed would be a mistake. Nowadays, an excessively materialistic mindset leads some to view pretty much everything in terms of cash value. If a dollar value is lacking, whatever is being considered isn’t said to be worth very much. All too often personal worth is determined by net worth. And soon enough this bottom-line thinking leads to a distorted understanding of human life.

That being said, it may be valuable to think about who you are and what you have to offer in terms of the classic Five P’s of Marketing which includes (1) Product, (2) Price, (3) Place, (4) Promotion, and (5) Perseverance. And today, we will consider the first one.

My introduction to marketing took place as I set out to learn about marketing music. In this context, the obvious place to begin is with some good-quality music to offer people, whether in a live setting or via a studio recording. And this takes an incredible amount of time, effort and money; it obviously doesn’t just happen. Likewise, in terms of a career, we each need to honestly ask what we have to offer that is substantial to a potential employer or client in a very competitive world.

Do you have an appealing “product” to present to anyone right now? Or is this the time when you really need to focus on your personal/product development?

A creative product needs to be carefully produced

Two mistakes quickly become evident in the midst of this discussion. The first is a lack of awareness of personal skills or abilities or experiences or characteristics or education, etc. that could be very valuable to somebody somewhere. Often we have more going for us than we realize. And we forget that it is necessary to search in order to find people who will value what we have to offer. But the second mistake is to think that we have more to offer right now than we actually do. Some bands, I discovered, jump to step number four in this process much to quickly. They set out to promote themselves before they really have something polished to promote.

My story is similar although not quite the same. Aspiring to teach at the college level, I had my sights set on a Ph.D. While I got close, by way of a graduate degree, this basic educational requirement evaded my grasp. Several more years of study would have been required, and this would have cost thousands of dollars – money I didn’t have. But I applied for a number of college teaching jobs just the same, and of course wasn’t hired.

In other words, it doesn’t make sense to hone our resume writing skills before we have anything substantial to put in our resumes. Over the years I have read a lot of resumes that didn’t really say a whole lot. At the same time, I have read a large number of job descriptions which tend to be very specific and concrete.

Here’s the harsh reality:

A high school education doesn’t count for much. And many university programs don’t really matter. A few teachers might tell you how wonderful you are, but those teachers are never going to hire anybody. In fact, you have hired them. Most employers are looking for very specific training and skills together with years of experience.

Yes, some people are born into very privileged situations. And personal/product development may not be a pressing need for them. But for most people, it typically takes an incredible amount of hard work simply to move beyond step number one.