5 Reasons NOT To Brand Yourself As A Maverick, Renegade, Or Rebel (Even If You Are One)

OK, I’m not exactly conventional. So every so often a well-meaning advisor will say, “You describe yourself as a maverick. Why not build your brand on that?”

Actually, that is a very bad idea. But before I start, I know you’re going to tell me that some very successful people called (and still call) themselves renegades.

Well, I would say they succeeded in spite of the name they chose. They’re not renegades; they’re pack leaders. They just want to think of themselves as lone ranger super-heroes.

Reason #1 — Real mavericks don’t know they’re mavericks.

They are surprised when someone says, “You’re different.”

Pseudo-mavericks love being called mavericks. An online quiz invites you to summarize yourself in one word. I suspect a large number of those who take this quiz will end up as mavericks. In fact, someone wrote an article that introduced the quiz with, “I got Maverick. What’s yours?”

Once I was telling a friend, “I don’t know how they could tell I’m a maverick.”

My friend said, “I knew you were a renegade five minutes after we met.”