Why You Should Fake It 'Til You Make It
Jacob Morgan
Keynote Speaker, Professionally Trained Futurist, & 5x Author. Founder of "Future Of Work Leaders" (Global CHRO Community). Focused on Leadership, The Future of Work, & Employee Experience
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I never had a good job working for anyone else. Regardless of it was me or the company, I realized pretty early in life that I was unemployable.
So now what?
What does an unemployed and unemployable person do? Become an entrepreneur of course!
But that is easier said than done.
After my first few miserable jobs out of college, I didn't really even know what "entrepreneur" was. In fact, my entire goal in life simple became, "how I can make a living without having to work for anyone else ever again."
That's it...simple right?
I did whatever I could to try to make money including finding all sorts of marketing jobs on craigslist, doing search engine optimization work, and writing articles for various organizations.
The reality of the situation was that I was a struggling young kid not making much money. But that's not what I told myself.
Nope...what I told myself was, "I am a young entrepreneur building a life for myself that I truly want to live." This became my motto and I repeated it many times a day.
It was hard for a long time. I wasn't making much money, just barely enough to cover my expenses which thankfully weren't that much. I was single living in San Francisco with a roommate. I had no car, no kids, no wife, and no mortgage.
I learned an important lesson early on in my entrepreneurial journey which was "Fake It Until You Make It." In my mind, this translated into focusing on the positive self-talk and telling myself a narrative that I wanted to become reality (being a successful entrepreneur) even though it was really just a made-up story (I was really just a struggling young kid with not much money).
What you believe and what you tell yourself matters. Because it will guide your behaviors, your actions, and how you feel about yourself.
Here's a clip from my talk at TED Academy in front of around 2,000 people filmed in Athens, Greece where I talk about this in more detail and share some personal stories. I hope it motivates and inspires you!
I made a video about this which you can see below. If you want more content like this then make sure to subscribe to the Be Your Own Boss Podcast Youtube Channel where my wife Blake and I teach you how you can be your own boss.
You can think of yourself as the struggling kid with no money or you can think of yourself as the young entrepreneur who wants to build a life for themselves that they truly want to live.
How you talk to yourself and the story you tell yourself is a choice.
What story are you telling yourself each day?
Fake It 'Til You Make it!
Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Find out by taking this quiz which looks at “The Morgan’s 4 M’s of Entrepreneurship” which include Money, Mindset, Motivation, and Market.
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Future Work, Collaboration & Community Building Leadership | Ex-Oracle & Deutsche Telekom | Gallup-CliftonStrengths? Coach
4 年Very relatable, thank you as always for being yourself and out there ??sharing your experiences - it helps a lot
One half artist | one half scientist | all human. I'm a customer experience and marketing Swiss army knife. I supremely value empathy, kindness, and equality.
4 年When I first saw this, I was a little confused by what you meant by "Fake it till you make it." Unfortunately, I've seen people faking it only to get ahead. They stab people in the back and steal their ideas. I've even seen people take documents that someone else had created and use them to get a new job. That content isn't even theirs! They couldn't have come up with that in a million years! But I digress. Your message, Jacob Morgan, is spot on. Thank you so much for sharing it. I know I've suffered from imposter syndrome many times. The worst is when it happens in a job interview. Then again, do you really want to work with or for someone who is going to doubt you? Especially when they have no reason to doubt you?
Beneficial Synbiote - Pioneer Stakeholder
4 年Don't fake it, make it! Either way you deserve what you get, no? We are the worst critics of our selfs, why believe you are not the real deal, even if you have no proof from the outside, and keep going its because you are not there to make it, you are here to be who you are.