From Invisible to Icon: How to Become a Known Expert in Your Industry (Revised and Expanded Edition)
John Fareed with Sean Hunter
Post Hill Press (April 2024)
Street Smarts for accelerating your personal growth and professional development
This is a revised and expanded edition of a book first published in 2013, written by John Fareed with the assistance of Sean Hunter.
These are among the issues that Fareed addresses while sharing what he has learned about the dos and don’ts of achieving success, however defined.
o Position yourself as a known expert in whatever you do
o Differentiation is everything.
o Create a personal brand that allows you to maximize your abilities to work at the top of your industry.
o There is great power in personal branding that is continuously strengthened
o Develop and then follow a five-year plan for personal growth and professional development
o Identify your key attributes and embellish each
o Select four words that best describe who are now, and then who you are determined to become
o Evaluate and then frequently re-evaluate how you package your branding
o Write a specific and ambitious but realistic mission statement
o Remember: COMMIT, INVEST, and BE CONSISTENT
o Find your “sweet spot”
o Articulate and then continuously refine your “story”
o Write down your specific goals and review them daily (or at least weekly) and refine as necessary
o Play to your strengths
o Constantly expand and nurture your network
o Always be in the right “room” with the right people to make a high-impact impression
o Always a best effort…ALWAYS
o Go where the action i and be well-prepared to get involved
o Opportunists are well-prepared to take full advantage of others’ problems (help as many people as you can as often as you can)
o Focus less on adding to who you know; focus more on adding to those who know you.
HOW? Read the book.
I now presume to add some advice of my own: When or after you purchase a copy of From Invisible to Icon, purchase a notebook wth lined pages to serve as a journal, a daily record of your efforts. Think of it as your “Success Book.” Record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), page references, and lessons you have learned as well as your responses to key points posed within the narrative. Also record your responses to specific or major issues or questions addressed in the book, especially at the conclusion of chapters.
With all due respect to John Fareed, only you can complete the transition from being “invisible” to becoming an “icon.” However, you will need help from other people and probably some luck such as being in the right place at the right time.” You also need to know when an opportunity is “knocking on your door,” (sometimes it only whispers) and be prepared to take full advantage of that opportunity. John Fazeed and others can serve as role models who provide sound real-world advice. There is a great deal of value to learn from their successes and, especially from their [begin italics] failures [end italics]. However, to repeat, success (however defined) ultimately depends on you.
That’s what Henry Ford had in mind long ago when he observed, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right.”
More recently during an interview, Academy Award-winning actor Rod Steiger was asked if aspiring young actors ever requested career advice. “Oh yeh, sure, sure, sure. All the time. And I always look them in the eye ask ’em the same question: ‘Do you want to be an actor or do you HAVE TO BE an actor?’ The longer they take to answer, the less likely they’ll make it.”
What’s your response?