Tiger Woods - Brand Halo or Brand Hollow?

The Tiger Woods 'Affair' is the perfect opportunity to talk about the power of Personal Brand.

He has spent years honing and perfecting his craft to be the best in his game. The consistency of his performance on and off the course has gone a long way in building massive brand equity as well as endorsements.

There have long been a list of people who either love, or hate [I use these terms loosely] him and with the recent 'car accident' and revelations/accusations of double digit extramarital affairs - including two with porn stars - more people are chiming in with their opinion.

At the time of this entry, Tiger has yet to appear publicly and has chosen only to release a statement acknowledging he has, "made mistakes". Many questions are still unanswered and the buring one for me is - will the brand equity he has worked and fought so hard for be totally undone as a result of his indiscretions?

If recent online polls are to be believed, his likeability has dropped by almost 25%. In saying that, those figures suggest that only one in four people think there's anything wrong with what he's done...

The point of it all is - a strong Personal Brand can take years to build and it can be completely unravelled in just moments.

It got me wondering, about behaviours that we can sometimes allow ourselves to indulge in, that if they were publicly known could could damage our businesses or careers. I wonder, is it really worth it?

If it is worth it and it means so much, don't we owe it to ourselves to own it? To build our brand on a foundation we are proud of?

If it's not really worth it, I wonder if these indulgences are just our way of setting ourselves up for self sabotage... what need is it really meeting and how could that need be met in a more resourceful, authentic way?

It's what we do consistently that determines the results we get, so are there things you consistently do that ultimately send mixed messages about who you are and what you stand for?

Will it take a scandal to make it important enough to change?

I'd love to know what you think...