Brands Hatch

I understand my legacy as whatever mythology people I love begin to preach or think after I have gone from this world, otherwise our legacy can be more about a fear rather than love and that fear is the fear that we might not matter - or if our life matters beyond our mortal coil.

There are people who do have a personal brand, it is a part of their life and it informs the circle that they live and work in.  David B. Grinberg has a fine personal brand, and he should have one because that fits with the society he is in contact with.  I respect Dean Owen and his views on personal brand - and here personal brand is a map that provides and informs life direction.

My worldview is vastly different from D&D. I look at this world and I have don't care about answering the question "what do you do?".  That question defines life through our work and life is defined through marketing terms - whether those terms be "boomer" or "millennial".  I don't want someone tell me what my EQUAL equals.  They are free to say what their equal equals. For me to live in human terms is to reject living in marketing terms - because what I do is see life not defined by the work I do, but by where I live and that life defined by my home.

This is what "Brands Hatch" is about.  Above is a picture of Dean's father.  I can see his personal brand, it is written in the speed of his car and back in 1964 a Forumula One driver did have in part recourse to the branded life.  Today in 2017 that idea of personal brand extends into brands that are valued in the millions of dollars.   The greatest racing driver that I know is Aryton Senna.  For all of the great personal brand of Senna, what would have happened if he had retired and become a recluse a year before his fatal crash - in Senna's case he was a model family man and I can relate to this loss - because for all the things that come with personal brand, people have even sung about the meaningless of it, even Johnny Cash in his cover song: I also remember the saddest side of personal brand.  That sad side is infamy, whereas Cash sings the Nine Inch Nails lyrics.  After all the great personal brand that Johnny Cash was, the swansong he chose was this one - a song he knew would be his last message to the world. "You could have it all, my empire of dirt"..."If I could start again"..."I will keep myself, I will find a way".

What personal brand gives me is what Johnny Cash and John Lennon below says, not what David or Dean gain from maintaining a personal brand.  With Lennon his song "Watching the Wheels" resonates with me, though he had said many times that his songs about his experiences and not mine.  What would have happened if John Lennon had not got back into the music business and recorded Double Fantasy, then we would not have heard the most ironic words on his album "I just had to let it go" when he was getting back into the game with that album.  That is the same album that a motherfucker of a murder carried when he shot him, and for what, so that he could have what John Lennon said "I had to let it go", his personal brand.  Like Aryton Senna, he didn't let go of his personal brand, he was relieved of his life.