Why is Elon Musk?: The Importance of Personal Branding for Founders

ELON MUSK!?

Okay, now that I have your attention….. Wait, why do I have your attention? Because I shouted out some random billionaire’s name?

Yeah, I know - our beloved (or behated after all the Twitter stuff) Mr Musk is not just some random billionaire. He’s basically a real-world Tony Stark (the non-hero version from Iron Man 1) - genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. He’s a larger-than-life character, blown up by the media; and whether you hate him or love him, unless you live under a rock, you have an opinion about him.

And why’s that? Just because he’s an innovator and a business marvel? No - he’s actually just the McDonalds of people.

You haven’t heard of Elon - Elon has made sure that you hear of him. Whenever you read an article about a new spaceship his company comes up with - you’ll always see ‘Musk’s SpaceX builds…..’ and not ‘SpaceX builds….’ as the headline. That’s how he does it - just like you can’t go 10 kilometres in the civilised world without seeing a McDonalds banner, you can’t swipe past 10 tech articles without seeing Musk’s name.?

And there’s the antics - from the viral video of him buying his first McLaren after PayPal’s success to him carrying a sink to work on his first day at Twitter, he’s done everything he can to garner media attention towards himself. In other words, he’s also Loki from the first Avengers. (No, dear reader, you can never have too many Avengers references)

Okay, but why are we discussing this? Simple - because as entrepreneurs, we need to do this too. A good founder is always the core foundation of every company, every startup, every mom-and-pop store. Whether you are Mayasoshi Son of Tencent or Bablu of Bablu General Store, you have to always be the biggest and yet, the most subtle flagbearer of the fact that your brand, in all it’s glory, is the best and smartest brand doing what it does.?

Titles hold power, no matter who they belong to. Even if Bablu were to comment on your Linkedin post, you would take him seriously because over here he’s Bablu, founder at Bablu General Store. Platforms like Linkedin (and even Instagram once you’re big enough) are nuclear for founders. And no, Bablu can’t sell dal on his Linkedin. But he can definitely talk to you about all of his goods that grow in the Western Hemisphere, and how the Russia-Ukraine war impacts dal. And then you, dear reader, would know that Bablu is the ‘it person’ when it comes to dal. Subsequently, when you’re entertaining your boss at home and need the best dal ever, who do you go to? Bablu, who is, by nature, an extension of Bablu General Store.

Now, you’re no Bablu. You’re a business owner with a powerful product or service. You have all the power and knowledge to be called an authority on things much bigger and intense than dal. You might be Arjun Vaidya , a legend in the field of medicine or Parth Kakadia , founder of baby brand Kynd Mark and a flagbearer of sustainable jewellery - when you say something, people listen. So while you’re definitely building up a reputation for your organisation - you’re also inspiring young entrepreneurs and individuals, and at the same time building your own network. Because remember, a founder doesn’t just have one company, but every company needs a great founder.

So yes, this is where we come to the end of our article. I know this was not 300 crores of candy as promised last time (this will come next time) but I hope that as a founder, you’re taking something helpful away from this. That’s always been and will always be why we do what we do. So, here’s Hooshang Bakht explaining this a lot faster and better than me. Until next time, auf wiedersehen!

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