MISTAKE #28: You’re not comfortable in your own skin

I’m fortunate to have some very wealthy friends.  By fortunate, I mean I’m able to enjoy people that don’t worry about posturing. 

You see, I’ve come to realize that really wealthy people know they are rich and don’t need to prove it to anyone.

They act differently than many of my upper-middle-income friends who want others to think they’re wealthy while they carry crazy amounts of debt to create an impression of status or success. 

I think this same mentality applies to naturally beautiful people or off-the-charts intelligent people or truly athletically-gifted people.  They are who they are.  They’re not trying to constantly seek validation or compare themselves to others or contrive situations so they can demonstrate their superiority.

These people live their life, doing what they do, and they don’t waste time looking around to see who is watching. 

The dangerous (and annoying) people are those that just have above-average looks, above-average intelligence, or above-average athletic skills.  For them, above-average isn’t enough.  Instead of being thankful for the advantage they’ve been given, they want to further inflate the perception.

“If you are good, you tell everyone.  If you are great, everyone tells you.”

- unknown

Maybe you’re feeling on edge right now because these words seem to apply to you. 

To be clear, I’m not trying to point fingers.  I’m as guilty as the next person.   I hold my gut in at the pool so I look thinner.  And when I’m at parties, I’m careful to keep conversations on topics I actually know something about.

SEEK TRANSCENDENCE

I hope that your product is so above average that you don’t get caught up in this posturing.  I hope your product proves to be the one-in-twenty new product that actually achieves sustainable sales and sustainable profit.

But be aware of the temptation to engage in these same adolescent behaviors with your new products or new brands.  You could easily find yourself wasting time and effort and resources trying to create or maintain a façade of inflated perceptions instead of taking advantage of who you are.

The trick, it seems, is to find that balance between embracing the product that you are and aspiring to become the product that you someday hope to be.

If you are a new product, you probably have little or no sales.  Therefore, you are small.  You are the underdog.

And that is a very good thing.