For a lot of things in life, having confidence and the ability to “fake it ’till you make it” is great. For instance, in freelancing lots of people will tell you to have confidence in your abilities and skills and if nothing else, you should fake being confident when pitching a client for a potential new job.
I totally agree with the sentiment of faking it in this instance and in some others too. But having fake confidence isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be in other areas.
In fact, I think the “fake it ’till you make it” philosophy is actually hurting us. Here’s how:
Faking it Uses a Ton of Energy
I don’t know about you guys, but between a full-time job, blogging, multiple side hustles, and trying to keep up with normal life stuff like cooking, cleaning, and laundry, I just don’t have that much “extra” energy left to expend at the end of each day. I certainly don’t have enough to waste on emitting fake confidence at every turn.
Faking confidence can be a great short-term solution if you are having a rough day, or if you’re an introvert trying to be an extrovert for the sake of building business contacts, but eventually you will become tired of being fake. It takes a lot of time and energy to keep up with being fake.
Faking it Wastes Money
There are a lot of people who take “fake it ’till you make it” a bit too far, especially when they are trying to fake that they are wealthier than what they truly are. Trust me, I’ve done it!
Faking your financial situation doesn’t help you get ahead and actually reach the point where you can afford the things you’ve been buying to fake being richer than you are. Instead faking it leads to buying those things on credit cards and getting farther and farther behind instead.
Faking it Doesn’t Always Lead to Making it
Just because you have some false confidence in yourself and your abilities doesn’t mean that you’ll always “make it” and reach your goals. Sometimes there are goals in your life that you’ll never meet. It’s sad, but that’s the truth. Wouldn’t it suck to know that you wasted time, energy, and money faking it just to find out that you’ll never end up making it?
Faking it is Lying
Lying is never a good business model to adopt, even if you think that you are lying for a good reason.
As a personal finance blogger, I’ve often wondered how much information is too much to share with readers. I want to protect myself, but if I truly want to build a repertoire with my audience, then it’s necessary to be honest with them. I’m not saying you should share your tax returns or social security number, but you shouldn’t be lying to your readers either.
Being honest, even when you make a financial mistake, is a great way to build readers’ confidence in you. It makes you seem human (you are human, right?!) and more relatable.
Do you think “fake it ’till you make it” is a good philosophy? Why or why not.
