Even if you’re not self-employed, your boss is you. You manage your career, your day, your responses. You manage how you sell your services and your education and the way you talk to yourself.

2010 was the year that proved that logo change is not always for the better. Gap got taken to the cleaners when it updated its branding and Tropicana came a cropper when it removed the iconic orange and straw from its packaging.

Along the way, there’s a question that’s been nibbled at but never really answered. I mean, I already know many of the 687 ways to create excellence and the imperatives of excellence, but what is it, really?

Linda Kaplan Thaler, CEO and founder of the Kaplan Thaler Group, is responsible for formation and development of many of the world’s most iconic marketing campaigns.