Fake It Till You Make It (Don't)

Read this if you're thinking about wanting to fake your way to the top as an:

Entrepreneur; Digital Mentor; Investor; Network Marketer; Professional.

On social media, we're constantly bombarded by young millionaires achieving fast money.

Criticising you that you're a failure for not attaining their definition of success. Usually in the financial sense.

Self-conscious, we start wanting the fast cars, luxury apartments, hotels and Rolexes.

And we want it NOW.

I'm here to say:

Rather than chasing fast money, put the work in and develop a strong reputation for the long term.

What Does 'Fake It Till You Make It', Mean?

Falsely saying who you are until people take you legitimately for the result of making you real.

From how you speak, how you show yourself on social media or in person, and the labels you give yourself.

It all must be faked from who you truly are. During that whole process, the results will hopefully match up with your lies.

Once achieving that dream outcome, it's almost like you never faked it in the first place.

Because it was a matter of time, not a matter of lying.

My question that arises is: can you make it by faking it?

Why fake it in the first place? Do not say you are something when you are not.

If you consider being fake as a viable strategy, hope the gap between who you say and who you actually are catches up .

Things tend to crumble when that gap widens and widens.

Simply, people will have expectations of who you are through your words and actions. And to have no congruency, our bullshit metres go off.

"This person is not reliable, nor can we trust."

You overpromise and under deliver. The failing of meeting expectations is what creates disappointment and loss of respect.

This is called reputation. Highly detrimental in life and business as it's harder to gain back and will affect how people work with you.

So, what is the better advice?

Reinforce Identity Through Action

Identities are quite powerful when wanting to create change. This may be the story we tell about ourselves that explains why we are.

To explain the how, I'll use the most common example of people wanting to make a positive change: fitness.

If you want to start training everyday, as James Clear would say, first is saying to yourself:

"I am an athlete."

Is this not faking it till you make it? Yes, if you said you were a marathon runner when you've never ran.

Arguably, it's to the degree you are an athlete. Not a binary statement of you are or you are not.

Picture a continuum from:

Couch potato to an Olympic athlete.

Even if you only go for a little jog and change your diet a tiny bit. You still sit on that continuum of being an athlete.

As humans, we like to have our words and actions be congruent with our identity. It's our North Star with how we conduct ourselves in the world.

If we are striving to train more, it's easier to believe we are an athlete and use action as evidence for our identity. An upward spiral forms as action reinforces identity and identity reinforces actions.

On the other spectrum, it's why alcoholics and smokers tend to have a harder time with breaking their vice. It is due to habit and still having an identity with the drug.

If you're a smoker, it doesn't make sense to have clean lungs. If you're a drinker, it doesn't make sense to be sober.

How To Achieve The Success You Want

Returning to a career and entrepreneurial context: what would it look like?

Doing the work.

That's it.

Whether it's studying or revising. Doing the sales calls, making the marketing material, creating the video edits. Taking up mentorship. Reading books, and educating yourself in your given skill set or field.

It's a matter of doing it for a long time, until it becomes unreasonable to not be competent. You will have an insurmountable amount of evidence proving that you can generate results.

As a value provider that people can trust with: a name and reputation within your industry.

Where I cross the line in your wealth journey is you are faking your results, actions, words and intent. Or worse, attempting to shortcut the whole process all together.

As much as you can buy a course that will teach you how to make "10k/month in 90 days", it cannot buy:

1. Goodwill
2. Reputation
3. Competency

Time and work are the only things that will achieve a level of those three. Which ties into a quote from my Grade 11 Digital Solutions teacher:

"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary."

As an action step, just DO the work.

You probably know what you need to do, and have been pushing it off.

So, adopt the identity of whatever you're striving to become. Do the work without faking the outcome, and what you will find is your definition of success. Rush the process, and play someone else's game of success and your results will show.

Ultimately, like Alex Hormozi says,

YOU are the outcome of your work.