打造個人品牌的重要性被高估了

This post is in partnership with Entrepreneur. The article below was originally published at .

本文爲與《創業者》雜誌（Entrepreneur）的合作內容，最初發表於。

In his recent book, Growth Hacker Marketing, Ryan Holiday explored how traditional big-budget marketing is being replaced by more effective small teams (and sometimes individuals) who are using trackable and scalable tools to grow companies.

在最新著作《Growth Hacker Marketing》中，賴安•霍利迪探討了傳統的預算高昂的營銷部門如何被更高效的小團隊（有時甚至是個人）取代，後者正利用一些可追蹤和可衡量的工具來使企業得到增長。

And usually it’s done without spending a dime. They’re called growth hackers, and they’ve helped companies like Facebook, Dropbox and AppSumo go from “0 to 100” real quick.

而且整個過程通常不用花一分錢。這些人被稱爲growth hacker，已經幫助Facebook、Dropbox和AppSumo等公司實現了“從0到100”的快速增長。

Andrew Chen, who adopted the term in 2010, described growth hackers as “a hybrid of marketer and coder, one who looks at the traditional question of ‘How do I get customers for my product?’ and answers with A/B tests, landing pages, viral factor, email deliverability, and Open Graph.”

安德魯•陳於2010年將growth hacker描述爲“營銷人員和程序員的綜合體，針對‘我如何給自己的產品帶來客戶？’這一傳統問題，他們採用A/B組測試、登陸頁、病毒性傳播因子、電子郵件營銷以及開放圖譜（Open Graph）等手段來尋找答案。

Essentially growth hackers use tools in creative thinking, marketing and analysis to help startups gain traction, users and exposure at very low or no cost. Think of guerrilla marketing with today’s technological tools.

從本質上來說，growth hacker創造性地使用各種營銷和分析工具，幫助初創企業以極低成本甚至零成本獲得牽引力、用戶以及曝光。這是游擊隊式營銷與當今的技術工具結合的產物。

Holiday recounts the early days of Evernote, when the young company decided to bypass traditional marketing and advertising and instead focused all its attention and resources on building a product that people would come to love.

霍利迪詳述了Evernote初期的情況，當時，這家年輕的公司決定繞開傳統的營銷和廣告方式，將所有精力和資源都集中到打造一款人們一來就會愛上的產品上。

As Evernote CEO Phil Libin said via Ryan’s book,“People [who are] thinking about things other than making the best product never make the best product.”

Evernote首席執行官菲爾•利賓在賴安的書中表示：“只有一心想着做出最棒產品的人，纔可能做出最棒的產品。”

If the product is good, then its marketing and advertising will be easy to accomplish and probably at a relative lower cost (or no cost). Of course, if it’s a horrible product, millions spent at the Super Bowl or World Cup won’t help sway users. That marketing push will just prolong the inevitable.

如果產品過硬，那麼其營銷和廣告將毫不費力，而且很可能成本相對較低（甚至是零成本）。當然，如果產品本身不行，就算在超級碗（Super Bowl）或世界盃（World Cup）上一擲千金做推廣也無濟於事，最多也就是令產品苟延殘喘一陣。

When I first moved to Silicon Valley, I consistently received advice to work.on my personal brand — that is, to market and advertise myself in a certain way. At first it seemed odd since I had just started working at Waze and hadn’t actually done anything.

我剛搬到硅谷時，經常有人建議我努力打造個人品牌，即以某種方式營銷或宣傳自己。這似乎有些奇怪，因爲當時我剛開始到導航應用公司Waze工作，什麼都還沒做。

But the blogs, the meetups, the serial entrepreneurs all reiterated how important a personal brand was. What they should have told me — and what I’m now sharing — is the importance keeping my head down as a new employee and putting in work.

但那些博客、聚會、連續創業者都反覆強調，個人品牌十分重要。他們本應該告訴我（我現在要告訴諸位）的是，作爲一名新員工，腳踏實地、努力工作十分重要。

As I now look back, focusing on a personal brand was the worst piece of advice I ever got. In effect, I began thinking about things other than making the best product or doing my best work.

現在回頭來看，“注重個人品牌”是我至今得到的最糟糕的建議。這個建議使我開始考慮其他的事情，而不是做出最棒的產品以及全力投入工作。

I thought that by curating and growing my image in a certain way I would gain more exposure and grow my reputation at a faster rate.

我當時以爲，通過以某種方式策劃並提升自身形象，我就能更快的增加曝光度、提高個人聲譽。

But the problem was that I wasn’t actually delivering value. My focus was overwhelmingly on me, me and me. I would double- and triple-check every social media post. I would go out of my way to paint company achievements in ways that would make me look better, even if I had little or nothing to do with said accomplishment.

但問題在於，我當時實際並沒有提供價值。那時，我一心只關注自身形象。我會反覆地檢查確認自己在社交媒體上發佈的每個帖子。我會不厭其煩的宣傳公司業績，就爲了給自己長臉，雖然那些業績同我幾乎沒有半毛錢關係。

I may have been naive and misguided, as I thought I was supposed to build my image. But my efforts in promoting myself and my personal brand were selfish, counterproductive and took away from the real work I should have been doing.

我可能太天真了，誤入歧途，執迷於打造自身形象。但我自我推廣和打造個人品牌的做法很自私，結果適得其反，使我的本職工作受到了影響。

Luckily, this did not get out of hand or cost me relationships, opportunities or my job because, of course, if I wanted to succeed at Waze, I had to shape up real quick.

幸運的是，情況最終沒有失控，也沒有令我失去朋友、錯過機會或者丟掉飯碗。原因很自然，我要想在Waze取得成功，就必須迅速成長。

Those who are just starting out, don’t worry or bother with a personal brand. That will come as a by-product of doing great work and being a good person. This sounds easy in theory. But it’s very hard in practice.

所以說，職場新人們，別發愁或費勁去打造個人品牌。工作出色、爲人正派，自然就會有個人品牌。這聽起來容易，做起來卻很難。

There is nothing wrong about an individual’s selling or showcasing her work. After all, if someone doesn’t promote herself, who will? But the key is to do good work first then build a brand — not the other way around. Yet so many entrepreneurs spend all their time building an image that the track record doesn’t support. It’s like a car with a great paint job but no engine. It doesn’t go.

人們宣傳或展示自己的成績無可厚非。畢竟，你不自我推銷，誰會來推銷你？但關鍵在於，先幹出成績，然後再打造個人品牌，否則就是本末倒置。然而，許多創業者把時間都花在面子工程上，結果盛名之下，其實難副。這就好比一輛汽車油漆刷得極好，卻沒有發動機。根本開不了。

As more and more millennials enter the startup scene, the pressure will be on them to build a story and an image. Trust me, I felt that pressure. But don’t focus on anything that’s not about doing the best work.

隨着越來越多的80、90後加入創業大軍，他們將面臨塑造個人事蹟和形象的壓力。這一點我曾感同身受。但別把時間和精力放在與做出最佳成績無關的事情上。

Don’t worry about being credited or remembered. As former Arsenal and England captain Tony Adams famously said, “Play for the name on the front of the shirt, and they’ll remember the name on the back.”

別擔心得不到讚美或沒被人記住。前阿森納（Arsenal）和英格蘭（England）隊隊長託尼•亞當斯有一句名言：“在綠茵場上盡力爲你的球隊而戰，你的名字將被人記住。”

Whether hired to serve as an intern or a sales manager, focus on the work or project and give 100 percent. By doing that, word will get around and a personal brand will grow. Yes, it takes time but as Epictetus said,“It is true, however, that no bull reaches maturity in an instant, nor do men become heroes over night.”

不論你是實習生還是銷售經理，都應該將全部精力放在你的工作或項目上。如此一來，你將贏得口碑，個人品牌也將得到提升。沒錯，這需要時間，但正如古羅馬哲學家愛比克泰德所言：“但事實是，公牛不會霎時間成熟，人也不會一夜之間成爲英雄。”

A personal brand isn’t the sum of tweets that people so mindfully post. It isn’t the pictures that someone chooses to share. That’s just a small part of a reputation. The most important — and the hardest — part is the collection of actions, decisions and work that a person does day in and day out over a long period of time.

個人品牌不是由人們精心發佈的微博消息構成，也不是由人們選擇共享的圖片決定。這些都只是聲譽的一小部分。最重要（也最困難）的部分，是某人長期以來日以繼夜做出的行動、決策以及工作的總和。

A personal brand is worthless if it’s not backed up. But good work? That’s trackable and scalable.

如果個人品牌沒有價值支撐，就會一文不值。但出色的工作則既可追蹤又可衡量。