Pressure is synonymous with today’s lifestyle. Whether you are presenting yourself on Instagram, X or even TikTok Tok. The constant thought of racing ahead in one’s career or projecting oneself as the ultimate authority has shaped the majority to turn their own selves into a brand. Is this obsession with personal branding a ticket to success? This article explores the dark side of not just personal branding, but also of the world we live in.
What is Personal Branding?
Personal branding is positioning oneself such that people accept you as the ultimate authority in your chosen vertical. It can also range from promoting products to ideas, to soft influencing the audience.
The modern professional is told to be visible everywhere, whether it is LinkedIn, Instagram, X, maybe any other social media platform. For many, this sounds empowering as it does attract some opportunities.
When Tom Peters coined the term ‘personal brand’ in a 1997 Fast Company essay titled ‘The Brand Called You. Fast Company’, it was a call to stand out in a corporate sea of grey suits. Now several years later, it’s become an entire industry of career coaches, LinkedIn influencers, Instagram influencers, online course instructors, to name a few.
On paper, it may look great. A clear personal brand can help freelancers land clients, help employees stand out for promotions, and may also help students get internships. But what happens when your work life merges with your entire identity?
The Pressure to Perform
Ask Naomi Osaka. The Japanese tennis star stunned the sports world when she withdrew from the French Open in 2021, not because of an injury, but because of the mental strain and ‘anxiety’ of performing – not just on court, but in the relentless media cycle that demands such ‘stars’ sell more than just their game.
She’s not alone. Everyday professionals now feel similar pressure. One can see people put up every single activity of theirs on social media, whether it’s their outfit of the day (OOTD); what they ate for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack; their matcha latte; their workout; their branded workout outfits; their latest acquisition of the most coveted designer bags, etc. Additionally, they spend hours tweaking posts or sharing ‘thought leadership’ to keep up with an invisible competition.
Meanwhile, it has been explicitly evident from the recent social media backlashes how audiences quickly lose trust when they sense a brand is more performance than reality. As the audience discovers how the majority of the content presented online is constructed and rarely a representation of reality, the audience backlash and increasing instances of distrust have ultimately led to the steady downfall of the pull of ‘Brand You’.
When ‘Authenticity’ Becomes Another Job
Paradoxically, today’s branding gurus preach ‘authenticity’. But what does that even mean when your daily life becomes content? A notable example is Ashneer Grover, who co-founded BharatPe and became almost as famous for his brash public image as for his role as an entrepreneur. Known for his sharp tongue and fearless persona, he built a brand that made him a media favourite, and at the same time, a magnet for controversies.
In his memoir Doglapan, Grover admits that curating this larger-than-life image brought him instant recognition but also constant scrutiny. When things went wrong at BharatPe, the brand he had so carefully built became a trap: it amplified every flaw and made it almost impossible to be seen simply as a leader, not a headline. His story shows how even in serious business spaces, a personal brand can stop serving you, and instead, start controlling you.
As another example, India’s wellness industry has become a competitive personal branding battlefield. Dietitians and nutritionists now feel they must keep up to the constant pressure by making reels, appearing in live Q&As, showing their own bodies as ‘proof’, instead of quietly working with clients one-on-one. Many accept burnout and online trolling if they express views that clash with diet trends or celebrity fitness myths.
As a result, the majority of the content and content-makers we see online are also ‘curated’ and not filter-free.
The Blurred Line Between Work and Life
The dark side of personal branding has engulfed not just influencers, but also corporate employees. The ‘always-on’ personality mode has eroded boundaries between work and home life. Posting takes time and it is unpaid time. For many, it adds invisible overtime that is neither noticed nor talked about.
There’s also another darker undertone to this surge in personal branding. By telling employees to build their personal brand, companies offload the responsibility of professional development onto the individual. If your brand is not strong enough, you may even be overlooked for promotion. It’s hustle culture disguised as empowerment.
We’ve been conditioned to romanticise struggle, to see relentless hardship as proof that we’re on the right track. ‘No pain, no gain’ is not just a motto anymore, it has become a silent contract we sign with life today, believing that enduring endless stress and disappointment is the only road to success and, somehow, to happiness.
However, what we call ‘success’ has turned several into weary performers, pretending to be fulfilled while silently breaking down inside. We cling to the lie that ‘more money means more joy’, even though this race for wealth and status has hollowed out our relationships, our time and the truth of our existence.
Every day, we wear masks in boardrooms, at home, on social media, etc. We are desperate to look successful, desirable and happy. But this pretense has made us deceitful with ourselves and each other. The moral fabric that once bound communities in trust and truth is fraying before our eyes.
Why is this happening? Why does the world feel so unfair, so cold, so full of hidden pain? If we believe in a just and merciful God, how can so much injustice and deception thrive in plain sight?
The bitter truth is that the world we live in does not reflect the divine order it was meant to. So we must ask ourselves – if this broken system of greed, struggle and deceit is not what God intended, then who really controls this world we’re trapped in?
The Deceptive Branding of This World: Is This God’s World?
Jagatguru Tatvdarshi Sant Rampal Ji Maharaj reveals a shocking truth that shatters what we’ve long believed – no soul in this world is truly happy, nor can it ever be. This world is owned by Satan himself, also known in our scriptures as Kaal Brahm. All souls residing here walked into the governance of Satan willingly, leaving the glorious realm of Supreme God Kabir.
This blanket of sorrow does not just cover Earth. It engulfs all twenty-one universes that lie within Kaal Brahm’s dark domain. The suffering, deception, injustice, all these are not accidental. They are signs that this world runs on the law of suffering, not compassion.
Brahmand 21 mein aag lagee hai |
Kirtam baaji sabhi thagi hai ||
While this may seem like a piece of fiction, it is not. Pause and reflect – what are the qualities of the True God? The Giver of life, not the taker. The Bringer of peace, not pain. The Creator Who nurtures, not one who kills. Look around you. Does this world reflect those divine qualities? Or does it reveal the cruel trap of a ruler who feeds on misery and endless death?
There is only one escape from this cage of sorrow and rebirth – adopting the true worship of the Supreme God Kabir, our original Father, the eternal Source from whom every soul was born. Only through His grace can we break free from this cycle of life and death, and return to Satlok – the everlasting realm where there is no death, no sorrow, no injustice.
But this salvation is possible only through the genuine path and by receiving true spiritual knowledge and Naam Diksha (spiritual initiation) from Jagatguru Tatvdarshi Sant Rampal Ji Maharaj, the sole enlightened messenger of Supreme God Kabir in this age of darkness.
Uncover the reality of our existential crisis and the way back to our place of origin in the following spiritual discourse by Sant Rampal Ji Maharaj:
