Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me, Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.

Tom Peters, a prominent management writer and consultant, popularized the idea of “personal branding” in the late 1990s amid a U.S. economy marked by corporate downsizing, flatter organizations, and more fluid career paths. In that climate, Peters argued that individuals could no longer rely on institutional loyalty or stable job ladders and instead had to manage their reputations as deliberately as companies manage products. The phrasing “Me, Inc.” and the insistence that each person act as the “head marketer” of “the brand called You” reflects Peters’s broader message that employability and influence depend on visibility, differentiation, and consistent performance signals in the marketplace.

The quote reframes a career as an enterprise: each person is both the product and the executive responsible for its positioning. Peters’s repetition (“regardless…regardless…regardless”) universalizes the claim—status, age, and industry do not exempt anyone from reputation management. “Branding” here is not mere self-promotion; it implies a coherent identity, a track record that supports that identity, and deliberate communication of value to others. The provocation is ethical as well as practical: if you are the CEO of “Me, Inc.,” you are accountable for how your work, relationships, and public signals align, and for the long-term trust your “brand” earns.