Are You Faking It Thinking You Are Going to Make It?

Faking it. We all have done it in different degrees. It could be in the bedroom, talking to someone pretending to be listening or even liking them, or even when someone approaches us remembering us and we are at a loss as to who they are. We give the sure, sure or some sort of reassurance that we do actually remember them (as we walk away thinking who on earth is this person?) It happens, and sometimes pretending to know is a whole lot easier than disappointing by telling the truth that we do not know. I am not saying it is right or wrong, it is just something we do.

Our actions in these types of situations are generally based upon the actions of others as if someone approaches us with such an excitement or knowledge of a previous meeting, we do not want to let them down by telling them that we do not remember them as it is telling them that they were not important enough or did not make enough an impact to be remembered. Harsh, yes, reality, yes. If we are approached a bit more passively and questioned if we remember them, the door is opened for us to be honest and say, “refresh my memory.” This is generally my approach as I guess I am not that verbose to think that people would remember me in a short interaction.

Faking It Thinking We Will Make It

Faking it thinking we are going to make it is a dead end. No other way to describe it. There are a myriad of ways we can fake it until it catches up. In social media we are almost being enabled to fake it. We can create a profile that is telling what we think people want to know and almost create a character of who we believe we want people to think we are. Sounds foolish but yet we see it. The haters who come out time and time again and wonder how are they filled with so much hate for everything that everyone writes? I suppose some live like that but for others they are faking it to make it as the person who hates. They build that reputation on hating. We can think of them in our mind as reading this. While some do make it for a while as the hater, in time they become ignored. Why? Well for one people do not like being around those that are constantly negative and also who wants to join the bandwagon of hating?

The over the top nice folks who seem to never complain, are always around as that bright bit of sunshine, we like them to a point. In the beginning they are great but after a while, we have to wonder. What are they really all about? No one is this happy all the time or even around that much. We start to question ourselves and in a way better ourselves by being around more and being more positive through commenting more on blogs, being more active on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The competitive part of us comes out. They share our small triumphs and are always there to lend a hand in how we can improve. When we are perceived to be better they are no where to be found.

The Backlash of Faking It

The backlash of faking it enormous. They feel it. They try and recover from it or when we find a faker, we feel a bit betrayed. We question if we are that person. Sometimes we are and that hard reality is very difficult to swallow. Their supporters fade away like the the leaves falling off their branches in New Hampshire after the first few signs of frost. At first the leaves change as do supporters and then community members when they fall as fast as the trees are bare and the faking it is apparent. When we fall off the tree like the leaves we are wondering almost what we did wrong when all along they were faking it to be someone that used us to make it. Sad but powerful. We all want to make it, we all ant that success but in different levels. For some the fame and the numbers matter regardless if they are buyers are lookers, for others the buyers matter. The fakers are building and getting the attention and we know when hear enough about someone or a product, we are compelled to look. Positive or negative, we are compelled. If positive, we have to be a part of it, if negative, we have to be sure that we are better than. We have to be a part of it.

How We Make it

We make it by being great. Simple, yes, realistic … not always. We can be a great writer but a horrible conversationalist. We can be a long winded conversationalist but one that provokes thoughts. We make it by being great though. We all have flaws but in our chosen field when we are consistent, knowledgeable and talk the way we always talk, we make it. The talk the way we always talk is so important. This is where we see a lot of the fakers come to life. Are people professing that they give more to the community but yet we see them absent when a member of their community excels? Those that are great share the happiness and work harder to have the happiness.

We all talk in a certain way and this is not accents. We use certain words, phrases and when we go outside of them we struggle to continue to do so. The biggest and the best, are not only showing us their best in writing, product, brand but also how they talk. Ok this can be a bit disputed as we know that the celebrities endorsing a product have a script written for them and every ad we see is written but if the person cannot pull it off, we do not believe it. The writers have to know the person and the brand. So similar to blogging isn’t it? Bloggers use their words but those words have to be consistent with the brand and the person writing it.

Why We Get Big

We get big from what is discussed above. But what happens when we struggle with being big and great? Do they coincide? In the beginning yes but then the harsh reality sets in that we need to be great before we get big. This is in every aspect of business. If a product is launched and it does amazing but customer service is lacking, then the sales will be compromised. Does this constitute a faker? No  but really no? Did they forget this part? So are they faking it by overlooking a big part of the business?  What about in blogging? Do we get big before we are great?

Margie Clayman wrote a fabulous post with sensational comments on Problogger.net about being great or big and how this relates to blogging. But this discussion is not limited to blogging. If we are a company selling anything we have to be great before we are big. We cannot build brand loyalty or even engender the trust without being great. I may be wrong but then I look at very successful brands, large and small that were great and through the greatness became big. They have one thing in common, they did not fake it. Now albeit this is coming on the heels of the Taco Bell scandal but also the revolt against government in Egypt. Two totally different spectrums but we can see how when something is lacking, the greatness is lost and the supporters are gone as the brand was faking it with being something it was not.

Are you trying to make it by faking it or are you climbing the ladder by trying to be great?

photo credit: Zawezome