In 1981, when we started our first successful company, Coventry Manufacturing, the title on my business card read “President.” During the first few years we were in business I read an article in INC Magazine about W L Gore Company and their decentralized organizational structure that we adapted and adopted. In the article it mentioned that one of the companies sales people went by the title “Supreme Commander.” I loved it and within a short while I was the “Supreme Commander” of Coventry Manufacturing Company. The benefit of having an unusual title on my business card was immediately apparent. People kept my card, they talked about me, and they remembered me and wanted to ask me why I had that title. It worked to differentiate me and my little company from our competitors.
As the years went by the title “Supreme Commander” started to get stale. I ran into someone who was the “Intergalactic Supreme Commander” and I knew I couldn’t compete. In fairly short order I became the “Head Coach” of Brandon International, the successor company to Coventry Manufacturing. I was more “touchy feely” in tune with the 90’s. I still lead the company strategically but I now managed managers and helped them with tactics. The title fit for that time.
More years went by. We opened a factory in Singapore and the good humored bonhomie of a factious title didn’t work well with Asian bankers and even less well with government officials in places like Thailand and Malaysia. I had to have a new card with a new title again. This time I bifurcated. I had a card made that listed my title as “President” and I called it my officials and bankers card. I also had a card for business that read “Elder Statesman” that continued my tradition of having a non-traditional title to differentiate myself.
A few years later we sold the company to Brady International and I retired, but I still needed a business card. In fact I felt naked without one. So I had a new card made on nice thick stock that listed my title as “Approbator.” Now when I hand out my business card people look at it and ask; “What is an approbator?” I can reply: “Thank you for asking. An approbator is one who give praise, as in approbation.” And a conversation is started.

All of this derives from an old marketing saw: “If you are not different, you don’t exist.”

Since some of you will want to check the source of my title here is the citation:
Approbator. Dictionary.com. Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, MICRA, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=approbator&x=34&y=18 (accessed: September 15, 2006).