christopher ming lee

With everyone and their baby’s momma with a Twitter, Facebook, and blog, personal branding has never played such an important role in standing out from the faceless masses. I understand that. I appreciate it.
But when we get caught up in personal branding, we lose sight of our execution.
“How should I brand myself?”
“What is my MO? [...]

Brand image is no long who you say you are.
Brand image is what you do.
Manipulating brand image is about control.
And what can you actually control these days?
Can you control those thousands of external factors, thousands of people telling others about your brand?
Can you control what they write or say, or whom they write or say [...]

I find myself angry with my work more often than usual. I get angry with the direction I’ve led my life these last couple of months, which leads to anger towards the people around me.
When it gets to this point, I read the following below (sent over by Annie) which brings me back to an [...]

What are your options when you can’t control the flow of information?
You can try harder to hide it (not a good idea - and harder and harder to do.)
Or you can become completely transparent.
What are the downsides?
You expose your flaws and your indiscretions.
When you’re weak, and you give into your weakness, people will know.
The upsides?
You [...]

What currency do you operate on?
The US Dollar tumbled. The value of national currencies changes everyday. Geo-arbitrage allows us to take advantage of disparities between global currencies.
What’s the currency on the web? How much are you worth? The higher up you’re on Google, Technorati, and similar services, the more valuable you are. How do you [...]

Waiting on the Fulbright drove me slightly insane.
I still don’t have an answer.
I started checking e-mail twice-a-day again, something I haven’t done since I left for Argentina. Futilely hoping word would come from Beijing that I’d been granted the scholarship, that I was off to China next fall.
It got to the point where I was [...]

If I had youtube videos when I was 8, I’m convinced I’d be a great soccer player. Or at least, better than the sub-par player I am today.
I’d watch those videos, accessible at anytime of day, over and over again. Then I’d go outside and copy his moves. I’d practice them, knowing that’s what I [...]

Substitute “marines” or “navy” or any of the armed forces for the word “army.” The fact doesn’t change: these recruiters are the world’s greatest salesmen.
Army recruiters learn sales techniques to recruit young men and women into the armed forces.
Call it what you want. Advertisements, incentives, outreach efforts, etc. They learn to target specific audiences. They [...]

Generosity is a sticking point. It’s a quality everyone remembers, because one, it’s in scarce supply, and two, it’s difficult to fake.
Generosity doesn’t mean you’re lavish and decadent with your spending. Generosity encompasses more than money. You can be generous with your time, your interest, your effort.
Be a generous person. People will remember it.
Today, [...]

Imitation is the highest form of flattery - when done properly.
How does anything become better? We take existing solutions, and we imitate them.
After, we innovate - we conceive ideas that’ll make the solution better, or ideas that’ll push the solution on a larger audience.
Then, we’ve improved our product or service
We don’t improve without [...]