What do Jerry Seinfeld and Kenneth Cobonpue have in common? Plenty. They are among the best at what they do. They have the respect of their peers. They are widely recognized as icons for their abilities. Their names are their personal brands. They are both outstanding.

Who does not know Jerry Seinfeld? He is recognized for the comedy sitcom that carries his name. The show has won 10 Emmy Awards, and in 2002, was recognized by TV Guide as the number one TV series of all time. It was a radical show that contained a plot literally about nothing. The show was focused on only one thing, to make us laugh.

But that’s not the way it started. Jerry was just one of many struggling comedians before he had an opportunity to write and act in a sitcom called The Seinfeld Chronicles for NBC. Seinfeld premiered on July 5, 1989 where it logged one of the lowest ratings for that night. The ratings were so bad that NBC contemplated on pulling the plug. The show was then offered to Fox, who also declined. The show was destined for the garbage bin, except for someone in the network who believed in it enough to release funding for four more episodes. The network released the additional episodes and the rest is history.

Kenneth Cobonpue is the 1st Filipino furniture design leader to be included in the authoritative international "Design Yearbook" (2002). In 2005 he won the Design Asia Award. He is most known for his Hollywood celebrity clients led by Brad Pitt. He was also asked by Warner Brothers to furnish a casino set for the movie Ocean’s 13.

But Kenneth was not always this successful. He started out as a normal gangling teenager with a dream. His father wanted him to take up business management at the University of the Philippines and eventually take over the family business. Ken dutifully followed his father’s wishes. After 2 years, Ken wanted to pursue his dream. He took the qualifying exam for the fine arts program at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. He failed the exam. His evaluation showed he lacked the drawing skills needed to qualify.

He went abroad to pursue his dream by taking up Industrial Design at the Pratt Institute in New York. Upon graduation, he wanted to pursue design apprenticeship in Europe when tragic news of his father’s death called him home. He was forced to take over the reins of the family furniture factory. Kenneth recalls, “I took over my mother’s company beset by debts and an aging workforce. Worst of all, I had no one to teach me the ropes because my father was gone. The future did not look good.”

Kenneth could have just followed the status quo and tried to grow the existing business. But Kenneth did something radical. He changed the whole design concept of their furniture lines. He decided to challenge the existing norms of designing to what the market accepts to designing for the purpose of design. What made him different from everybody else was he committed himself to what he designed by putting the ultimate symbol on it, his name.

In the beginning, it was a total market failure. Ken reminisces by saying, “All our old clients left us because the look I made was so different from what the market wanted and was prepared to accept, we were doing negative for the first 2 years.” Ken also did something different, he insisted on the originality of the designs. He demanded that the words, “Made in the Philippines” and his name be equally prominent. He chuckles, “Everybody thought I was crazy then.”

Today, everybody knows who Kenneth Cobonpue is. He has done more for uplifting the plight of the Filipino designer than many of us know or imagine. In one of life’s ironic twists, he helped found the Industrial Design Program at the University of the Philippines in Cebu.

One of the greatest Presidents of the United States Abraham Lincoln once taught, “Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.“ When we plan for the outstanding, we should put our personal brand on it. A modern day icon Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame emphasized, “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn a reputation by trying to do hard things well.

We can do all this by devoting ourselves wholeheartedly in whatever we do. We need to believe in our abilities and in ourselves. Just like all of us, Jerry Seinfeld and Kenneth Cobonpue were born with their names, but because of their commitment to standing out, they made their names outstanding.

Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, lets all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.

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