What does Julius Caesar and “some light treason” have to do with defining your brand vision?

Let’s take a quick jaunt through history to find out.

It’s January, 49 B.C. and Julius Caesar, now a senior commander of the Roman army, leads his men across the Rubicon river into Italy.

As it turns out, this small but bold move literally starts the Roman Civil War, and it’s the first step towards Caesar becoming the absolute dictator of Rome.

Young Julius had always been a man with a clear purpose in mind. He had eyed a political career from early on, with his sights set on overhauling the Roman political system that had become weighed down with mismanagement and corruption.

If you ever watched Arrested Development, you’ll remember the family patriarch George Bluth Sr. was accused of committing “some light treason.” He stole a lot of money and then illegally built houses in Iraq… for Saddam Hussein.

Caesar was born into a family of nobility, but their influence was pretty limited. You might say he came from a family of “light nobility.” Some power, but not much.

To influence change in Rome you needed to secure power, and to get power you needed money. And if you didn’t have money — which Caesar didn’t — you had to find it somewhere.

Over time Caesar tackled this by amassing a small fortune for himself through military conquests in Gaul. These wars, within the northern reaches of the Roman Republic, utterly subdued the Gallic people and their property. And as a result Caesar enjoyed rank, wealth, and prestige like he had never experienced before.

Which brings us back to the Rubicon river.

By this time Caesar holds a powerful political position called a Consulship, but his term is nearing its end. He is in a bind. He seeks to renew his Consulship. It’s been promised to him, but his political rivals are asking for there to be a time gap between his first term and second term. If you read the fine print of this request, it means he has to give up control over his armies.

This is a non starter for Caesar. If he has no military then he has no protection, and he will be at risk of an attack from his political enemies and could lose everything.

But it’s exactly what the Senate asks for. They send orders for Caesar to stand down, tell him to resign his military command, and disband his army. If he doesn’t he will be treated as an enemy of the state.

What Caesar does next changes the course of world history.

He gathers up his army and steps across the Rubicon.

That’s right, he steps across, because the Rubicon is actually a very small stream. Just a few feet wide in some places. But that stream served as the border between Gaul and Italy. If you’re a Roman military commander and you lead forces into your home country, it is an act of aggression. It’s a declaration of war.

This was not light treason…

With the army across the river Caesar has to carry out his endgame. He’s already at odds politically with nearly everyone. Civil war erupts. He marches on Rome and chases out his rivals. He pursues his enemy Pompey across Spain, then all the way down to Egypt. And when Pompey is finally dead he returns to Rome as supreme dictator and sets about rebuilding the empire in his own vision

So what does all of this mean?

In modern times the phrase “Crossing the Rubicon” has come to represent the idea of passing the point of no return.  Once Caesar led his men across the river there was no turning back — he was politically, militarily, financially, physically, and whole-heartedly invested.

But of course he didn’t stumble across that river. This was a strategic decision. A purposeful decision. Caesar knew what the consequences would be. So why cross the river?

Because he was in pursuit of a higher vision. A vision that required high-risk but offered high reward.

That’s what I want you to take away from all of this: If you and your brand want to achieve great things, then you’re going to have to cross the Rubicon. At some point you’re going to need to make some bold moves.

If you have the desire to do something powerful through your brand — to make a difference, to institute change, to be a force for good, then there will come a time when you’ll need to take a risk and make a leap of faith.

Guess what? A well defined brand strategy can enable this for you.

But here’s what happens if you don’t define a clear brand vision. You’ll spend your time stumbling through what your brand stands for, making off the cuff decisions in realtime that may not be in your best long term interest.

Let’s say you have a big opportunity in front of you. Maybe it’s a potential big budget client, and working with them could be a complete game-changer for your annual revenue.  Maybe it would ease financial burdens, both in your organization and personally. Maybe it would be a fix for a recent sales downturn.

But on the flip side, maybe that big budget prospect isn’t even in the realm of your target client. What if it’s so outside your wheelhouse that it will put an incredible, long term strain on your resources. What if you’re not even in the position of delivering what they are demanding in a short time frame? Will they become unbearable to work with and become albatross around the neck of your team?

Your brand strategy can be filter here. Does working with this client fit in with the mission of who you are today, and the vision of who you want to become in the future? Does it enhance who you say you are as a brand, or is it a distraction from your ultimate purpose?

You see a brand strategy is intended to plot the course for where you are heading. It casts the vision and gives you guideposts along the path of where you’re going.

If you look at an opportunity and feel that making the decision would be off-brand, then it’s time to pump brakes. Investigate more, dig in, and don’t commit yourself to something that would be a distraction.

But if assess the situation through the filter of your brand strategy and recognize that this is an opportunity that offers both risk and high reward, and it fits in with who you say you are, then make the leap.

For Julius Caesar, crossing the Rubicon fit in with his long term plan of overhauling the government of Rome and securing the ultimate leadership position for himself. He couldn’t not walk across that river, for it would have been a sacrifice of everything he had been fighting for his entire life.

Brands have to be more than a clever logo and the perfect color combo. The right brand with a finely tuned vision will enable you and empower you to accomplish great things.

That’s when you can confidently pursue high risk for high reward.

That’s when you can make bold moves and create great things.