Step 05: PROTOTYPE
Your career isn't a finished product. It's a prototype in perpetual beta.
In this Step, we’ll focus on test your Personal Brand and Search Grid in the market.
When I started my career, it was at adidas global HQ in Germany. I was a naive and immature 22-year-old who landed in the midst of their dual crisis – financial meltdown meets existential threat – and learned something profound from a company fighting for its life: Innovation isn't about perfection. It's about iteration.
Adi Dassler didn't build a global powerhouse by creating perfect products. He built it by listening, tweaking, and shipping. Over and over. "Test. Listen. Modify. Then test again. Listen. Modify." This wasn't just a quote – it was survival code written into adidas's DNA. I was part of the team that created and launched the legendary adidas Predator boot, and this was the mantra behind everything we did. (Here’s the movie about it)
Today's startup world calls it "Fail fast." Meta has “Move fast and break things” slogans all over their offices. Silicon Valley bros love to throw this around like it's some revolutionary concept they invented between cold brews. But here's what they get wrong: The goal isn't to fail. The goal is to learn faster than your competition.
Think about this: The iconic Samba wasn't born perfect. The legendary Gazelle didn't emerge fully formed. The Trefoil didn't start as a cultural icon. Neither did the SL72, Copa Mundial, Superstar, Forum or any of the other famous adidas Originals still worn all over the world. They evolved through countless iterations, each version a prototype testing a hypothesis about what athletes needed, what consumers wanted, what the market would embrace. This photo of Adi Dassler became core to the brand’s visual identity:
PROTOTYPING your Personal Brand demands the same approach.
Stop trying to perfect your career story in isolation. Stop polishing that LinkedIn profile alone in your room. Stop rehearsing your elevator pitch to your bathroom mirror.
Instead, get your story in front of real people, collect ruthless feedback, iterate based on what lands, ship the next version and repeat until it resonates.
Here's your PROTOTYPE playbook:
Build Your Circle of Advisors:
Identify 5-10 people you trust and who know you well.
Mix of personal and professional connections
People who will tell you the truth, not what you want to hear
Test Your Narrative
Share your Purpose, Mission, Vision, and North Star
Ask specific questions, not just "thoughts?"
Listen for what makes them lean in – and what makes them check out
Iterate Relentlessly
Collect patterns in the feedback
Adjust your story, not your truth
Test the new version immediately
Ship Early, Ship Often
Don't wait for perfection
Every conversation is a chance to prototype
Learn from every interaction
Remember: Your Personal Brand isn't a PowerPoint deck. It's not a document you perfect in isolation. It's a living, breathing prototype that gets stronger with every test, every piece of feedback, every iteration. It’s you.
The market doesn't reward perfection. It rewards relevance. And relevance comes from resonance. And resonance comes from iteration.
So stop trying to get it perfect. Start getting it out there. Your next version is waiting to be discovered.
Just like those classic adidas designs sitting in archives waiting to become Originals again, your best version isn't your final version. It's just the latest prototype.