Teaching Personal Branding in School

Dan Schawbel from Personal Branding Blog linked to an article from Japan that details personal branding to be taught at Osaka University.

There are a lot of interesting aspects to this story. First,

Katy Horiuchi, the director of consulting company H&K Global
Connections and one of the two adjunct professors teaching the
college's Introduction to International Careers course, will focus on
her specialty of personal branding to allow students to learn the best
ways to present themselves to others.

Her co-teacher, Harumi Hotta, who is a director of consultation
company Business-Paradigm, meanwhile, will focus on prompting people to look into their Japanese roots so they can have a better sense of what they can provide a global audience.

I like the looking BACK aspect. You can't know who you are if you don't know where you've been. I would love to get more detail about this. And you certainly cannot possibly know where you are going.

Secondly, the course is being partially financed by OUTSIDE investment. I love this too. I've been arguing this point for years. They are essentially investing in their talent pipeline. They are accelerating the curve of self-discovery aka personal branding.

Thirdly, I like what they are doing with this course, overall. The idea is to develop what they are calling "kokusaijin" which translated means 'international person'). They are building people that can operate in an increasingly flattening world.

Katy Horiuchi, one of the co-teachers says:

"The good thing about personal branding is that everybody is different.
Every personality, every skill set is different. Merely being different
can be a strength. That is the starting point of personal branding. Of
course, you have to see that difference as a positive and a strong
point about yourself. Your job is to identify what your strengths and
your interests are, you cannot build your own personal brand and cannot expect others to find your own personal brand. It's your
responsibility."

I love it.

When do I start aggressively building my 7-year old's personal brand. Don't be fooled. She has one. Artist, designer, writer, musician, dancer, athlete. When are they going to start teaching this in the U.S.? When are they going to start teaching this in grade school?

It doesn't have to be intense. But someone needs to be telling these kids that cell phone pictures from the make-out room of the last party they were at on their MySpace page is not a good idea.

Discuss!