I wanted to talk about faking it until you make it. I'm giving a talk at Nottingham University on faking it till you make it, what that means for us as women in business or male entrepreneurs, and I wanted to explore what our experiences of that phrase are.
Have there been times in your business where you feel like you've been faking it by this idea of flying by the seat of your pants? Have you sometimes said yes to doing things and you weren't quite sure if you could pull it off?
Is it useful? Is it useful to be able to fake it till you make it, this idea of standing in somebody else's shoes or giving something a go? Or is actually this idea that we have to be something that we're not, we have to fake who we are to be successful, damaging? Because really, faking it till you make it is the polar opposite of authenticity. It's the opposite of being yourself, of knowing where your boundaries lie.
Or actually, is faking it till you make it the ability for you to step up into a different space that you were in before? People like Richard Branson will say that if somebody asks you to do something, as long as it's not rocket science or brain surgery, you should grab that opportunity even if you're not quite sure if you can do it, because you can learn, because we all have the capacity to learn.
So Richard Branson is a big proponent of going for it, and essentially that's faking it to make it. Can you do something? Yes, I'm going to learn. Or is it that sometimes if we are in this space of faking it till we make it that we're not being true to ourselves, that maybe we're not comfortable in the place where we are and we feel that we've got to be more than we are to be successful.
I really want to hear from you, so please let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Have you ever faked it till you made it? Do you feel like it is the opposite of authenticity? Is it necessary to fake it till you make it in business, or is this something that we do when we don't feel a hundred percent confident in our abilities? What do you think?
Did you see my blog from a couple of weeks ago? I was discussing how You are exactly where you need to be! Check it out!
