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The Best Promotion is Not Self-Promotion

The power of others promoting you is far greater than you simply promoting yourself. 
Most of the people that I meet are either are on one side of a spectrum - see complex graphic below. 

 On one end, I know people that believe work and effort speaks for itself. People will notice and talk about it. 

 On the other end, I know people that are what I call, "Legends in their own minds," and they aren't afraid to let you know about it. 
Too little self promotion and no one knows who you are. (Casper the Ghost). 

 Too much and you run the risk of becoming noise -- or "human spam" as i've heard Sally Hogshead reference a few times. 

 If you do great work and don't tell anyone about it, you end up in the middle of the bell curve - or worse, you become irrelevant because the person doing great work AND telling people about it may be annoying, but at least he is relevant. 

 However, if you do great work and others are talking about it, you'll far surpass the person tooting his own horn. 

 A great book that was recommended to me on finding that balance is Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing it. by Peggy Klaus. 

 There are too many people in this world telling you how great they are. The best way to be great is to have others arrive at the conclusion themselves (with a little help of course). 
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