I caught an interview on the Tavis Smiley Show the other night, with Malcolm Gladwell, regarding his latest book: What the Dog Saw and other Adventures.

His book is a collection of essays from his work with the New Yorker, and although I haven’t read it yet, it did still feel familiar. One thing that Malcolm does well is deliver consistent messages.

The show kicked off with Tavis detailing Malcolm’s failed attempt to enter the ad world right after college. As Malcolm goes on to finish, 21 rejection letters later, he decided that advertising wasn’t his destiny, and thus turned to journalism. “Rejection is direction,” Tavis sums up. With 4 New York Times bestsellers and a 10+ year stint with New Yorker, I think this was a pretty good direction.

Learning by your failures, rather than you successes–such stories are a focal point for Malcolm.

Recently, I was able to hear Malcolm speak in person at the ExactTarget Connections conference (see recap here). One point that stuck out was learning by compensation. Charles Schwab, for example, found his success by managing his dyslexia. At a young age, he learned how to develop a support team to help him read. He had to compensate for his weakness in writing and reading, with effective speech; and he compensated for his deficiencies in academics with stronger social skills. His solutions to these problems became the keys to his success when he founded his eponymous brokerage house. It’s the same story of Joe Flom, from Malcolm’s book Outliers, who overcame poverty, the Great Depression, and his Jewish descent to become a partner of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom. And, it’s the same story of Sidney Weinberg, son of a Polish bootlegger and high school drop out, becoming senior partner at Goldman Sachs and turning it into the premier investment firm of the world. Malcolm describes these stories as:

“The rags-to-riches story—that staple of American biography—has … stressed the value of compensating for disadvantage. If you wanted to end up on top, the thinking went, it was better to start at the bottom, because it was there that you learned the discipline and motivation essential for success.”

It’s more than what Malcolm is saying; it’s how he’s saying it. Through these varied examples, Malcolm is driving to the same point. It’s an orchestrated effort that allows his message to resonate in the minds of his audience. His storytelling knack has assisted him in making complex topics enjoyable, but more importantly, it has also allowed him to tell the same story, without telling the same old story.

As the year comes to a close, and you reflect on its challenges and successes, take a critical look at your own brand messaging. As you were creating new and fresh content, were you keeping it on point? Were you staying true to your brand? Was it consistent? Originality is valuable, but it’s only strong if it’s part of a larger movement. Once you get people’s attention, you want to make sure that it accrues towards their overall impression of your brand. Malcolm Gladwell captured the ear of the world with his unique viewpoints, but he captured our minds by delivering them memorably.