The old saying is that you need to “fake it before you make it.” Do you believe this is even possible in the social media world? Between online and offline connections, don’t you think that people will end up revealing the real brand you anyways? First impressions, and how people are perceived in 
general, have changed so much in the past few years, that it’s harder to promote yourself as a confident person, when someone might video you or greet you in a public situation. If we’ve learned anything from Mark Zuckerberg, and Gen-Y, it’s that most people have acceptable the end of privacy on the web. People want their network, or fans, to know what they are doing at all times. We get excited at comments because it shows that people care about them and what they have to say. Not everyone has revealed their true identity though, out of fear, and certain insecurities.
The web is a harsh place and you will be judged and ridiculed, whether you like it or not. There are three major concepts you should understand, including paying dues, making it, and faking it till you make it. Below is my analysis of each one and I look forward to your comments.
Paying dues
Paying dues: Earning the right to something through hard work.
A lot of older people tell young people that they haven’t “paid their dues” yet, meaning that they haven’t worked hard enough to earn respect. The respect comes from having a track record of success, doing work that you wouldn’t necessary call emotional labor, and work that management passes down. For musicians, this means doing local touring, giving away free CD’s and promotional products, in order to build up a large enough fan base that record labels would pay attention. For authors, the situation is quite similar in that you need to build a platform to market your book before you get an offer. For the average worker, paying dues is working long hours, putting in a lot of effort, supporting your manager, in hopes that you will get a promotion or some form of competition.
Making it
Making it: No longer having to pay dues, reaping the rewards of making more money, with less effort.
When someone becomes an executive or a platinum artist or even a bestselling author, we immediately think they’ve “made it.” In this way, we look at them like they can’t fail and that they will become massively successful and rich. The problem with this saying is that it’s an illusion. I’m sure you’ve watched the “One Hit Wonders” TV program on VH1 before. Just because you feel like you’ve made it doesn’t mean you’re set for life by any means. In fact, I believe you have to pay dues for your entire life, at some level, especially if you want to expand your brand and business into new areas. The economy is unpredictable, and organization hierarchies change constantly, which means you will probably get stuck paying dues learning a new area or job role.
Faking it till you make it
Faking it till you make it: Pretending that you have confidence to become confident when you’re actually successful.
People who are in sales typically try and “fake it” by purchasing luxury cars so that they don’t appear poor to their clients. Think about it, if I was trying to sell someone on an investment, and they saw that I drove a Kia, I would lose credibility, even if that’s all I could afford. You have to appear rich to mentally convince the customer that what you’re selling them will make them rich as well. Is this honest? No, but when you’re first starting out, it might be the only way to brand yourself in certain fields. Does everyone have to known that you’re “faking it”? No, but if they find out through a third party, you will lose credibility and there will be negative word-of-mouth spread.
Your turn
Are you faking it till you make it? What do you think of people who do this?
(5 votes, average: 3.40 out of 5)
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This reminds me of a conversation I had about walking the line between the currently real and the aspirational. For instance, people who plan to start a company often call themselves entrepreneurs before they have a business incorporated or their concept completely nailed down. Another case would be ambitious college students in a philanthropic vein calling themselves “agents of change” when the change they’ve made in the world to that point is admittedly small. In both cases, the aspirational (what you are committed/hoping to do) is more important than what you have done – int he short term at least. This only goes so far – if you use aspirational labels for too long without doing anything to back them up they stop being aspirational and become pretty transparent lies.
Absolute agree– aspirational consumers are great, so long as they eventually become real customers. Otherwise you end up metaphorically window shopping your whole life… and that blows.
The tag line of my blog is “aspiring author, writer, blogger and adventure capitalist” … I think there is no shame in saying I am not there yet… but I am working on it.
Why can’t more people accept that they may have the training, but not the experience to say “I am”.
I think there is far more credibility when I ask a dumb question or even make a good point; when I properly qualify myself.
I also don’t want to miss the kudos I expect to receive when I do “earn the right”. If your faking it, you can’t celebrate making it.
Good point Paul, the “aspiring” qualifier can make all the difference. It’s unfortunate though that there is a certain incentive to embellish when the people you compete with do; ideally, an authentic, truthful brand with qualifiers as you described will reap rewards in the long term over less honest brands, but it can be hard for a casual observer, or even a more expert interviewer to know the difference. I’m a little jaded after reading recent write-ups on some peers (won’t out anyone here) in well known publications/highly publicized contests who I know first-hand are factually not who their brands represent them to be.
Dan,
I think hard work is the key. Yes, you will have to pay dues and hear opinions that you don´t want to hear, but your hard work, passion and constant training will turn you into an expert and will pay off afterwards!
I once heard a well known British singer say that the advent of Talent shows, anyone came become an overnight success and this was from the perspective that back in her days it took her years to record her first album.
While I agree with the need to work hard and reaping the rewards of that hard work. One also needs to understand that the ideology of “paying dues” has been based on experiences of the older generations where almost everything they got was through blood, sweat and tears. Times have changed and the concept of paying one’s dues might be changing too.
[...] fake those elements even though doing so did not feel good (and according to Dan Schawbel, it often pays negative dividends in the long term doing so). The lack of emotion stemmed from being overwhelmed with meeting others’ expectations of my [...]
[...] fake those elements even though doing so did not feel good (and according to Dan Schawbel, it often pays negative dividends in the long term doing so). The lack of emotion stemmed from being overwhelmed with meeting others’ expectations of my [...]