David F. D’Alessandro, the author of Career Warfare gives 10 Rules for Building a Successful personal Brand and Fighting to keep it:

Rule 1: Try to Look Beyond Your Own Navel - The biggest obstacle in building a positive personal brand is your own ego. In order to develop an attractive personal brand, you need to have self-respect and you need to respect the people around you.

Rule 2: Like It or Not, Your Boss is the Coauthor of Your Brand - You must realize and accept the fact that early on in your career, your boss will reap most of the rewards for ideas you give, money that you brought in, etc. This is how the corporate world operates. Do not fight the power structure. Instead learn how to play and live by it.

Rule 3: Put Your Boss on the Couch - Not all bosses will help you. It is best that you recognize what type of personality your boss has so that you would realize what advantages and disadvantages this person can cause to your brand.

Rule 4: Learn Which One is the Pickle Fork - Good manners are crucial in developing and enhancing your personal brand. Manners are about consideration and respect, knowledge and patience. Practice good business etiquette.

Rule 5: Kenny Rogers is Right - While it is important for you to seize the opportunity to build your brand, it is equally crucial to know what battles to take. Know when to keep on fighting and when to move fold.

Rule 6: It's Always Show Time - You must realize that reputations are not usually made by big events -sometimes it is those big events that smear your brand. What builds your reputation is your day-to-day behavior in the business setting, such as how you deal with people, how you make decisions, your work habits, etc.

Rule 7: Make the Right Enemies - The best personal brands include courtesy, fairness, tolerance, self-respect and having good and proper manners. However, a small amount of ruthlessness is good for your brand. Your reputation will not suffer much if you fight your enemies, but it will suffer if you lose your self-respect.

Rule 8: Try Not To Be Swallowed By the Bubble - Once you are successful in building your brand and is rising in the ranks, do not lose sight of the forest. Do not be too full of yourself that you will be swallowed by success.It is bad for your humanity, and bad for your career.

Rule 9: The Higher You Fly, the More You Will Be Shot At - Everybody makes mistakes. The higher you are in the ladder of success, the more likely that your mistakes will be highlighted. Accept the fact that bad press comes with prominence in any field.

Rule 10: Everybody Coulda Been a Contender; Make Sure You Stay One - Set yourself to be distinct from your peers. Since you are constantly being compared to your peers, don't be afraid to offer something unique or distinctive.
Don't give up easily. Don't throw in the towel immediately because of a setback or two. Learn from your mistakes and turn it into an opportunity. Don't lie, cheat or steal. Be cautious of the reputation you are building.

Now, in detail:

Chapter 1: Your personal brand decides your success. Guard it and promote it.
- Know how other people see you.
- Know what you don’t know.
- Leadership is about people not theory

If you want to get ahead you need 5 key qualities
- Make things happen in the organization (He says make money)
- Tell the truth
- Be discreet
- Keep your promises
- Make people want to work with you

Chapter 2: Your boss is the co-author of your brand.
Bosses want 3 things:
- Loyalty
- Good Advice
- To have their personal brands polished.

What you need from your boss:
- Trust
- A fair exchange

Chapter 3: Put your boss on the couch. (Figure out what type of boss you have)
- Good mentors make sure your reputation rises in tandem with theirs.
- Good mentors understand that your brand has to change as you gain experience.
- Be tolerant of your bosses weaknesses if they give you an opportunity to build your brand.
- Get out from a boss who is only interested in using you.

To go far, you must develop a reputation for five key qualities:
- Earning the organization money:First, get yourself into a production or development job where you can be credited directly for beautifying the bottom line.
- Telling the truth
- Being discreet
- Keeping your promises
- Making people want to work for you

Your Boss Is the Coauthor Of Your Brand
- Bosses want loyalty and good advice

Seven Types of Bosses
- The Little League Parent: Many bosses treat you as if you are an errant son or daughter. Just remember, parents are self-sacrificing, bosses are not. Understand that what this boss does for you is not for love, but to further his or her own brand.
- The Mentor: Hope for one of these. A mentor will make sure your reputation rises in tandem with his or hers.
- The Wastrel: Sometimes you run into a boss you have to do everything for. If you do, tolerate his or her weakness and use the opportunity to build your own brand by taking on the assignments he or she can’t or won’t tackle.
- The Pariah: Try to keep your brand distinct from this boss. Defend yourself by proving your loyalty to the whole organization.
- The One-Way User: If your boss is one of these, you have to find a way to move on.
- The Wimp: Won’t let you build your brand because he or she won’t let you do anything.
- The Know-It-All: These bosses never listen. Avoid if possible.

Nepotism Means ‘Not You’
- Consider that 60 percent of large public companies, according to the Family Firm Institute, are family-controlled.

If a Gang Controls the Turf, Set Up Shop Elsewhere
Don’t Let the Hazing Go On Too Long

Have good etiquettes
The first rule for brand builders is, “Above all, avoid embarrassing yourself.”

1.The most dangerous of all work occasions for your career are the ones that are supposed to be fun — the office parties, victory celebrations, conventions out of town and off-site meetings. You will be judged even in circumstances that seem like recreation.
Don't indulge in excess.

2. The most dangerous event is the off-site meeting or retreat.
Don’t bring a date to company events.

Beware Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurial companies are dangerous. You can learn a lot from these cowboys, but don’t stay too long.
Entrepreneurs are difficult because:
- Everything is personal and any show of inde-pendence is a betrayal.
- Entrepreneurs are insanely controlling.
- They don’t like to share.
- They like to play Toy Soldier with their workers, buying the best and discarding them when bored.

Three kinds of meetings whose premises you should understand:

Staff meetings are particularly dangerous. Don’t use them for anything except letting the boss know what’s going on. Don’t use them to argue for something you want from the boss. Don’t attack peers. Staff meetings are designed to make the boss feel good, the proud patriarch or matriarch of a great team.

Watch your behavior at get-something-done meetings, too. Don’t just cut off ideas, even those you know are useless. Tell the presenters you’ll think about it. Let ideas flow, but make sure the group stays focused.

Then there are combat meetings — involving money or approval. At these, make sure you understand the players and the agenda. Be ready to admit victory or defeat when either is obvious and move on. Accept bad news gracefully.

How to recognize enemies at the workplace
The telltale signs include:
- It’s taking longer for your calls to be returned.
- People you used to get appointments to see easily now are often busy.
- People greet you with “How are you doing these days,” code for seeing if you know your days are numbered.
- Many people are using the same metaphors about you.
- At parties, the boss’s spouse barely glances at you.
- Other people are unusually concerned about your well-being.

Follow the six rules for keeping some perspective on your success:
- Be skeptical of your own genius.
- Surround yourself with equally skeptical people.
- Keep friends who remind you of your humanity.
- Have some sympathy for your victims.
- Develop interests other than golf.
- Remember who feeds your family — your cus-tomers and shareholders.

Build Goodwill Outside Your Kingdom
Don’t Be Swallowed by the Bubble: give back something significant, whether your money, your time or your influence in supporting good causes.

The Higher You Fly, The More You Will Be Shot At -Prepare for bad news right now. Sooner or later, you will face unpleasant headlines. If you handle it well, you can turn what might be a year-long story into one that lasts a few weeks and inflicts no lasting injury on your brand. If you handle the attack brilliantly, you may even come out of your trial by fire with your brand enhanced.

-The first tactic is to blunt bad news before it becomes a huge story. Explain bad news to the world.

-Forthrightness is disarming. And once the story breaks, behave in a forthright and reasonable manner. Explain yourself and move on. If you refuse and retreat to the bunker, the story changes focus from one mistake to every unfortunate thing you have ever done.

-Don’t even think of lying publicly or your brand will be finished. If you lie under scrutiny, you can no longer suc-cessfully refute anything, even the most outrageous story, because you will have no credibility.

Remember, the truth may be bitter medicine for a brand, but a lie is toxic.

Whatever you do, don’t go on a jihad. Don’t blame your employees, your accountant, your students or your spouse. Don’t blame a vast, un-named conspiracy. If you try to shift blame, you make a bad story worse.

Finally, don’t be your own lawyer. Get advice from people who can be realistic about what is happening to you. (continued from page 7)

Make Sure You Stay A Contender To keep momentum going long after your col-leagues’ brands have settled into inertia:
- Don’t be generic, be Tylenol. Be distinctive.
- Get back on the horse. It’s foolish to throw in the towel after a setback or two.
- Ask for opportunities and promotions. It will remind your bosses that you are someone to keep in mind for big jobs.
- Never sell your brand for short money. Make sure assignments include interesting opportunities, not just a raise.
- If lightning is about to strike, make sure you are standing in an open field. Change will happen around you. You probably cannot control the events that lead to a promotion, but you can make sure that you are in a position to be the obvious choice.
- Gamble shrewdly. Promise to do something diffi-cult and then deliver.
- Create a brain trust. Develop a circle of people whose advice you trust to help you bet wisely.
- Tinker with success. You are building your brand until the day you die, so expect to make adjustments.
- Don’t lie, cheat or steal. Power won’t protect you from disgrace.
- Understand that the unexamined reputation is not worth having. Be conscious every day of what you are building. This alone will set you apart from 99 per-cent of the people you will meet in your working life.
You have to use your brand as a template for all your actions. Ultimately, if your brand is to mean anything, you have to live it to the very end.

[From the Great Books Series. Also see The Success Manual - Encyclopedia of Advice, which contains summaries of 100+ Most useful books.]