Uncover, Don’t Discover

Your value is already there. The work is seeing it and saying it.

The Moment It Crystallizes.

I have been building brands for over 30 years. Whether it’s a product, a business, or a person, the moment of greatest value, the one that delights me to no end, is the moment when it crystallizes. What makes this unique and special?

And in all the innumerable times I’ve gotten to work on that process, it is never a process of creation. It is one of uncovering. Of learning and realizing that these qualities already exist.

I’ll see it in the eyes of a business team. When we hear it in the research, or discover it ourselves, their eyes light up. Sometimes there’s a smile, and I can feel the whole group get excited.

Clarity Is Not Invention. It Is Revelation.

Your value is already there. The work is not creating something new. It is uncovering what is already true and making it visible.

The power was always there, like Dorothy’s ruby slippers. You just have to see it and say it.

“Oh, I do do that, don’t I?”

With individuals, this moment is the best.

I once worked with an amazing manager who had been very successful but found herself stuck at mid-career. She refused to see that she had a truly unique quality. But in interviews with her people, there was one common thread: I love working with her because no matter the challenge, she never makes it personal, and she always makes me better.

When I said that back to her, I’ll never forget it. A moment of quiet realization. A soft smile. And then:

“Oh, I do do that, don’t I?”

That sentence became the core of a brand for someone who is now a senior leader.

When You Get That “Aha” Moment, Everything Changes.

The reason I push clarity so hard is this. You do the work — and there is always work involved. Then you get that “aha” moment, and everything changes.

You realize you’re not creating something new or becoming something you’re not. You are finding what existed there all along. It may not be fully developed yet. It may require you to build skills and knowledge to support it. But the genesis is already there.

"Don’t Let’s Ask for the Moon."

I’m going to go out on a limb and say there are literally thousands of movies with moments like this, because we love seeing it. We love watching someone realize what they have to offer the world.

One of my favorites is an old movie from the 40s, one of the best Bette Davis films ever made, with one of the greatest closing lines of all time. It’s called Now, Voyager. My grandmother Gracie made me watch it when I was little. She said, “All they do is smoke in it, but it’s beautiful.”

She was right on both counts.

Realizing Who You Are — Changes Who You Are.

The movie follows the self-discovery of Charlotte, who goes from a neurotic ugly duckling to an accomplished, confident, and loving woman leading Boston society and making the world better in a multitude of ways.

It ends in a quiet moment. Charlotte sees so much of her life come to fruition, and she tells the love of her life:

I love that line, because what it means is this:

Stop trying to be what you’re not, and embrace all the gifts that you are.

The real magic of what you can do has nothing to do with becoming something you are not. It is coming into your own realization of what you uniquely have to offer. And that is the single most powerful thing you can do.

One Last Thing.

That is how you become The Obvious Choice™. Not by inventing someone new.

So remember this.

You don’t become someone new. You uncover who you already are.