Some of the best advice I ever got was to kick a chair.
As you work hard to create your positive impact on the world around you, the smallest things can undercut you. If you’re social with the people you rely on to bring ideas to life, you might end up in a situation that could damage your personal brand. You’ll need to lean on that personal brand as you do great things, so you need to protect it at all costs. The time may come to kick a chair.
This is sort of like that “nothing good happens after 2 am” saying we all heard growing up. If you’re grabbing drinks with teammates, there will be times when it turns from “We’re respectable people hanging out” to “Hey, let’s make bad decisions”. You will likely have an internal alarm going off that tells you it’s time to find a different party.
When this happens, don’t just sneak your way out. If you think some bad decisions are about to happen and you don’t want your name associated with them, kick a chair as you leave so that everyone sees you leave.
Hell, if the party is really going crazy, take it further and fall over the chair. You’ll protect your valuable personal brand, allowing you to leverage it for years to come.
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Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash
