Effectivity

Come on guys…can’t you do better than that?

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed an increase in the number of times that you see people using the tired old saying:

Fake it until you make it

 Since when was it cool to dig up useless cliches from years ago, and try to resuscitate them for today’s audience.  If it was no good back then, why would it be any good today?

Fake it till you make it is no more effective than Lie to the world until they give you what you want.  The only difference is that it doesn’t have the catchy rhyme to it.

The Fake it till you make it doctrine basically tells us that we should look, act, speak and pretend to be something that we are not until we finally find some way to become that person.  There are 3 main problems to this idea:

1.  No matter how you try to justify the means by frantically pointing at the end, it is still a lie.  Faking it is one of those lies that will inevitably effect your personal integrity and erode your self image.  If you finally end up making it, will there be anything left of you behind the charade?
2. No matter who else believes your lie, it is very hard to convince yourself.  The important part of this is that it is you who will be doing the hard work to become who you want to be.  If you aren’t convinced , then what is the point.
3. If you are, somehow, able to convince other people that you are something that you are not (yet), then you will end up in all sorts of strife.  You will find yourself without the support and mentoring that someone like the real “you” might need.  You will be expected to perform like the fake “you” even though you are not ready yet.  You will alienate potential peers if they perceive that you are not at the same stage anymore.  Sooner or later, you will be found out, and the consequences for you will be less if you are found out sooner rather than later.

What, then, is the positive alternative to Fake it until you make it?

If you have a solid and reliable vision of what “Making it” will be like for you, then you should do the actions that lead to reaching that point.  There is no magic or secret tricks.  Once you know where you are heading, then do, say, think, be whatever is necessary to get you there.

“But hang on” I hear you say. “Isn’t that just like faking it?”. 

Not at all.  What I am suggesting is that you should deliberately do the things that directly contribute to you making it to your goal.  Forget the things that make it look like you have reached your goal.  Of course some of these things may overlap.  Perhaps leasing a permanent office for your brand new business could be seen as faking it if you have very little business to do in it yet.  Realistically, as long as you are not leasing it to try and deceive yourself or anyone else, it could be a legitimate and necessary step towards you making it.

As another example, the guy who buys and wears a suit to make himself look like the business man that he isn’t is very different to the young businessman who wears one so that there is no barrier between him and his clients.  For the first man, the suit is a disguise, to the second, the suit is a tool.

So isn’t it time that we buried the Fake it until you make it saying once and for all.  The very least we should do is confine it to a museum with all of the other useless coffee cup sayings that we might want to hang onto for their historic, rather than their practical, value.

Thanks

Tom