Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future by Dorie Clark

Author:Dorie Clark [Clark, Dorie]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781422144138
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Published: 2013-03-18T14:00:00+00:00

Use the Power of Your Identity

Above and beyond your skills and unique experiences, there’s something else you can draw on to distinguish yourself: your core identity. Sometimes, there are contributions only you can make. That was the case for Naif Al-Mutawa, a native of Kuwait who always wanted to be a writer. In his twenties, fired up by a news report about a local man losing his dry-cleaning job because of his religion, Naif wrote an illustrated book about the importance of diversity, which eventually won a UNESCO prize for children’s literature in the service of tolerance. He won a contract for two additional books, but still considered it a side project. “My parents said it was a great hobby, but not to think about it for work,” he recalls.

By 2003, with several psychology degrees under his belt (“as close as I could get to writing and characters”), Naif thought he’d put his literary days behind him. But one day, while he was riding in a cab with his sister, she encouraged him to write another children’s book. He’d also earned an MBA from Columbia in the interim, and his mind immediately jumped to the cost-benefit analysis: “I said, ‘It would have to be something that has the potential of Pokemon; otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to write another book,’” he recalls. “It was basically my way of saying, ‘Shut up.’” But the idea began to grow on him. It turned out that Pokemon, the viral children’s phenomenon, wasn’t allowed in some Arab countries. What if, in the aftermath of 9/11, he could create a universal story line from an Islamic perspective?

That idea turned into The 99, a group of superheroes with a Middle Eastern and Islamic flavor who display “wisdom, generosity, and the basic human values we all share,” he says. The goal? “We’re competing for the hearts and minds of the next generation, who are sometimes taught to use religion for hate.” The 99 began as a comic book series and, indeed, has become a Pokemon-like phenomenon, spinning off an animated television show that airs globally and a theme park. The 99 has even been praised as an emblem of tolerance by President Obama. “I made sure that from the very beginning it was crafted for a global audience, knowing it could go global if there were the right circumstances,” says Naif.

It might seem like a stretch for a psychologist—even one with an MBA—to create a global brand of Islamic superheroes. But his experience as an Arab living in America provided the inspiration, his business school connections helped him raise funds, and his psychology training gave him the insights he needed to create compelling story lines. “The characters all come with conflicts and problems. It’s all the theories I learned in organizational psychology,” he says. Naif’s experience and worldwide success show the power of drawing on every part of your personal experience to create your next professional identity.

Naif is a perfect example of drawing from one’s unique background and perspective.

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