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The Road to Me 2.0: How I Was the Chosen One

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My first post talked about how I got the idea to write Me 2.0 and how I confronted adversity head-on to claim my publishing deal with Kaplan. Today, I’m going to enlighten you on a few coincidences that are ironic and really set the stage for the future (and my future).

Passing the torch

Tom Peters wrote “The Brand Called You” in Fast Company Magazine on August 1st, 1997.

Wendy Marx wrote “The Young Yurks of Personal Branding” in Fast Company on August 1st, 2007. The article highlighted everything I was doing in this field, such as this blog, the launching of Personal Branding Magazine, etc.

10 years later, as we celebrated the anniversary of Tom Peter’s article, introducing personal branding to the masses, I was selected (I made my own luck, but it must have been fate) to take Tom’s visions, break them down, add in some technology (social media), and then make them consumable for Gen-Y. See back then, personal branding was an idea that few people really believed in and could apply to their own lives. As mentioned in my prior post, we were all me 1.0’s, who had to stand in back of our corporate brands. By my application of personal branding to social media, I was able to carry to torch from Peters onto you.

The publisher expected Me 2.0?

A week before I submitted my 6-page proposal to Kaplan Publishing, they were thinking about doing a book on career developing using web 2.0 tools. How funny is that? I’m a little bit more religious after hearing this from my editor. This book was obviously meant to be written by me and written now!

A millennial talking to a millennial

When it comes to differentiation for career books, this book is absolutely dynamite. A lot of books that are written about and for millennials are done by Gen-X’ers and baby boomers, but never a Gen-Y’er. Since I’m in Gen-Y I can totally relate to everything this group deals with on a regular basis, including stereotypes, etc. My voice is familiar to one of their peers, so it’s logical they will listen to the advice that flows throughout the book.

Even though this book was originally written for Gen-Y, it’s obvious that others groups can benefit greatly. This blog and my magazine have attracted just much attention from the other groups as Gen-Y.

Related posts:

  1. Road to Me 2.0: The Benefits and Obstacles of Publishing a Book As I near my book launch, which is set...
  2. Road to Me 2.0: The Book’s Introduction Revealed This is the complete introduction for my new book,...

4 Responses to “The Road to Me 2.0: How I Was the Chosen One”

  1. [...] The Road to Me 2.0: How I Was the Chosen One, Dan Schawbel writes about how he got a book deal on Web 2.0 career development for Millennials. [...]

  2. Hi,
    I would like to know if you think this will benefit a Real Estate Broker~ Age 50.

  3. [...] Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success.” I’ve spoke about how I got my book deal and how fate has led to me write this book. I’ve also mentioned the idea behind the title “Me 2.0,” why I decided to write [...]

  4. [...] in this series, I told you how I got my book deal with Kaplan Publishing, why I believe I was the chosen one to write this book, why I spent over a year of hard work writing it, gave you a snapshot of my [...]

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  • Dan Schawbel

    Dan Schawbel is the leading personal branding expert for Gen-Y. He is the bestselling author of Me 2.0, as well as the publisher of both the award winning Personal Branding Blog and Personal Branding Magazine.

    • "Personal branding force of nature" - Fast Company
    • "A leading voice in the area of personal branding" - BusinessWeek
    • "Gen-Y branding expert" - Entrepreneur
    • "Personal branding guru" - New York Times
    • "Internet guru that can make you rich" - Details Magazine
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