I think this short document states your point perfectly. Reading through books and blogs from the likes of Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki (and others), this point is resonated many times.

I think this is missed by many people looking to create their brand, that it is something that will stick with them for a long time (especially with the Internet - where you are just a few clicks away from finding positive/negative reviews).

Well said.

Its a lesson we learned together working all those years on TeamCE. Those relationships that started positive usually stayed positive, even through the ups and downs and vice versa.

I would agree, at TCE I think we had that 'warning' label attached to our brand - even when we switched our look/feel. At the core, people were frustrated - and what we ultimately needed was a FRESH start. We were associated with being tardy or making large changes from previous poor business decisions that were out of our control.

Thats the other tough part to this, when your organization is the 'Jack Sparrow' that has to somehow defy what the masses have already labeled.

Lessons learned. Tough lessons, but lessons learned.

And that is a big hurdle.

Fortunately, in America at least, we LOVE comeback stories. If an organization is willing to do the hard work, and strip down to the core of what they do, find the value and rebuild based on those core values, even 'Jack Sparrow' can become a captain in the Royal Navy.

This is what Tim Eldred is doing with All for ONE. By closing TCE, and focusing with a renewed committment to the core values of Christian Endeavor, he is going right back to the start of it all.

It will be interesting to see the results of the twelve All for ONE pilots going on right now - to see if Jack the pirate can transform into the Captain Jack Sparrow he was meant to be.