The Spirit of Capitalism: Your Personal Brand
- Paul Knowlton
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
Capitalism isn’t a law of nature or Divine edict that unyieldingly demands rigid obedience, even if our society too frequently thinks of it that way. It’s just a system we humans have created, and one which we all maintain or recreate according to our behaviors and values (principles or standards).
Like any system, it can be upgraded with better values, just like when we update the values-driven software on our computers and phones. This is why it’s accurate to say, “We have the capitalism we create, and we can do better.”
At its core, the way capitalism behaves is no more complicated than how a classroom behaves. Although the classroom has an instructor with his or her syllabus and values, and behind them is an administration with their budget and values, what actually happens in the classroom depends on whatever combinations of behaviors and values each student walks in with–particularly the most vocal students. If a classroom has a couple of class clowns who are allowed to dominate, their values will hijack and create a dysfunctional classroom that the rest of the students have to suffer through, not unlike the current dysfunctional aspects of capitalism.
This reality about capitalism begs the question, “What values do you personally bring and contribute to capitalism?” Maybe in some classroom you were taught that ‘maximize profit’ or ‘greed is good’ values were laws of nature or Divine edicts. Maybe your practical experience has helped you realize different values that work better in the reality of our economic system–a system where we’re all required to deal with other people.
On the other hand, maybe you’ve never given intentional thought to your values about capitalism but realize it’s time you do. Let’s help you do that now in an easy and straightforward way.
Image Credit: Harvard Business Review
Personal Branding
No doubt you’re aware of the term ‘personal branding’–the intentional, strategic practice of defining and expressing your value. It’s all the rage, and for that reason it seems like a good on-ramp to help you think about the values you bring to the greater world of capitalism.
In their Harvard Business Review article, A New Approach to Building Your Personal Brand (HBR, May-June 2023; pgs 147-151), authors Jill Avery and Rachel Greenwald provide a seven-step process for building your personal brand. As Catherine Cote explains in a subsequent HBS Online essay, “The first step to creating your personal brand is identifying your values, goals, and purpose.” She recommends starting by asking yourself questions such as:
What do I care about?
What are my values?
What do I want people to know about me?
How do I want to define myself?
What makes me special?
How do I provide value to others?
For our present purpose, let’s just focus on the first two questions; because without those clearly expressed, you never get to the How do I provide value to others? question.
What do you care about and what are your values? Unless you’ve successfully completed a lot of inner work and have those clearly written down, you may not be able to answer right away. That’s fine. Let’s take a next step to help you figure them out.
The Spirit of Capitalism
Every person has a spiritual dimension, which is no more controversial than stating that every person has a heartbeat. For most of us, our spiritual dimension includes a faith perspective or tradition, whether we actively engage it or not. Even to state you don’t have a faith perspective is to plant your flag about your faith perspective. It is from our spiritual dimension that we get at the core of what we really care about and our real values.
Capitalism is a system that requires people to relate to each other, and how well or poorly it operates reflects how well or poorly we relate to each other, based on our values (much like one’s personal brand reflects how we really relate to others). So, what are your values around relating to others? Maybe some perspectives that include the spiritual dimension of relating to others might be of help to you.
Here is a sampling of perspectives from B.W. Huntsman’s timeless book, Wisdom Is One (Aeon Publishing Company, Mamaroneck NY, 2000). What values here resonate with you? What values here might help you define what you really care about and the values that you want to embody? Any values here that you want to see in a better capitalism?
That which thou wouldst not suffer thyself, seek not to lay upon others. Thou wouldst not be a slave – look to it, that others be not slaves to thee.
Epictetus. Fragments, xliii
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even to this: Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.
Paul, Galatians v, 14 (R.V.).
Do not unto others all that which is not well for yourself.
Shayast-na-shayast, xiii, 29 (Zoroastrianism).
The treatment which you do not like for yourself you must not hand out to others.
Tzu Ssu. The Doctrine of the Mean, 13.
Hurt not others with that which pains yourself.
The Buddha. Udana, v, 18.
In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self, and should therefore refrain from inflicting upon others such injury as would appear undesirable to us if inflicted upon ourselves.
Yogashastra, ii, 20 (Jainism).
Let a man cultivate equanimity.
Sutta-Nipata, iii, 11, 24.
Who, unto friend and foe keeping an equal heart, with equal mind bears shame and glory; with an equal peace takes heat and cold, pleasure and pain, . . . that man I love.
Krishna. Bhagavad-Gita, xii, 13.
Treat others as thou wouldest be treated thyself.
Angad, ii, 29 (Sikhism).
The feeling of right and wrong is the origin of wisdom.
Mencius, iii, 6.
The standard of conduct lies with one's own self; the testing of it lies with other men. . . .He who does not follow Tao when standard and test are both clear may be likened to one who, when leaving a house, does not go by the door, or, when travelling abroad, does not keep to the straight road.
Lieh Tse.
Honor and dishonor, success and failure, openness and scheming, frankness and deceit: with these pairs of opposites how can one avoid troubles? The middle way of achievement is found only in Tao.
Kwang Tse, xx, 1.
Your Personal Brand
For better or worse, in today’s world everyone is a brand, and we’re all encouraged to develop and market our brand. As much as we hope our individual brand really is the magnificent vision we each hold of ourselves, the truth is that our brand is whatever people say about us when we’re not in the room. Being our own personal brand strategist is yet another job that takes some time and work, as Avery and Greenwald’s seven-step process suggests.
However, if your genuine values reflect care of yourself as well as care for others, then not only are you building your personal brand on solid footing but you’re helping to improve the narrative and reality about capitalism. As more and more of us bring these better values to our business dealings–even a comparatively small number–no longer will the class clowns get to hijack and disrupt our economic system.
How's that for a nice result? You get to check two boxes at once by getting clarity about your values. You also get pretty far in answering that other question Cote suggests in her essay, "What makes me special?"
Join Us
We open this series about the spiritual dimension of capitalism by encouraging you to bring the best of your spiritual values into everyday economic decisions. This is the path to successfully balancing profit and purpose in our individual lives and in our greater economy. If you're inspired to learn more and want practical ideas for living out your spiritual dimension in the marketplace, we’d love for you to join us on this journey of renewing capitalism. You can begin by reading our book Better Capitalism and by signing up for our weekly blog post at the bottom of our homepage.
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