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Those on professional networking sites such as LinkedIn may have checked their feed recently. Reading through the feed of what people share, it appears that they or those close to them are world-changing visionaries who are imminently the next newly-minted billionaire. Digging deeper into a profile reveals a superstar achiever who attended prestigious schools, attained high-end degrees, earned impressive awards, and warrants stellar recommendations. This is all packaged together with a professional profile picture featuring a positive winning smile.
Although the curated public message with the self-congratulatory posts and reciprocated praise may seem fake and overdone, I don’t blame anyone for them since you must represent yourself and your organization to the world in the best light possible since not participating in the game can set you at a distinct disadvantage. It’s only those who are lucky enough to be born wealthy that don’t have to play the game for money.
What we must be careful of, however, is buying into our own self-generated hype and actually believing it all. The problem is that the better the background and credentials, the more we may believe in them and the more others…
