A brand is essentially who you are or what a thing is. What one or a thing has come to be known for or represent.

Normally that should be easy to do since nobody must struggle to be themselves. But who we are will not always be appropriate for business. That is why we must deliberately identify what the market wants and become it for the sake of business.

The market may want to be us, that is easy but not always but we must be the market always.

Imagine situations where you have your private preference but you work within an organisation whose market expect standards you don't have?

That is what this article seeks to inform on. Always be your market. Your market is what pays the bill. What the people want to buy, whether you are or not.

You must be you in your professional best. Everyone has something to offer. But that must be offered within a professional guise or context.

Professionalism is the ethical cloth you wear to offer the world yourself.

Let’s say naturally you motivate people. So a motivational speaker. That has nothing to do with keeping your words or not. But combining professionalism with profession requires that the motivational speaker must be on time to deliver at the conference when he says he will.

What the people pay for is the motivation but without the ethical value of adhering to time, you will lose the market for reasons other than the quality of your work.

When people say “things don't work in Africa”, it is not a quality assessment comment. It is and remains the values with which we deliver our products and services.

Are we on time; are we sincere with our comments, estimates, and projections? Do we lie about our products and do we accept responsibility for our failings?

Do we care about our products to preserve them within the best environment, among others?

Those are ethical questions to sell not necessarily ethical products.

Individuals must understand this to succeed in business at the individual level as well as the corporate level.

When we fail here, we fail there.