Understanding “Fake It ‘Til You Make It”

I ran across something this weekend while browsing in my Twitter account that got my attention and I wanted to share it with you.

I discovered that Roger James Hamilton, @rogerhamilton, who is a well-known social entrepreneur, creator of Wealth & Talent Dynamics and founder of Entrepreneurs Institute had started following me on Twitter. I was browsing in his “Entrepreneur Inspiration” stories and clicked on a link he had posted, and up popped a short article by Hamilton entitled: “Fake it until you make it. – Why is this the worst advice EVER?” In the article he talked about four  reasons why this is bad advice. His points were well-articulated and I couldn’t have agreed with him more.

The reason this had such an impact on me is that I have used that phrase from time to time when counseling with clients and business owners, but I had a different perception of the phrase than Hamilton wrote about. When I used the phrase, “Fake it ‘til you make it,” I was encouraging the person to “image” what they wanted their future to look like if they were to be totally successful and to hold that image in their mind. I wanted to encourage them to get in their own heads an image of where they were trying to go so they could “make it” happen.

I realized after reading Hamilton’s article that the words “fake it” can be interpreted in different ways. As I continue to council and advise and we go down this success path together I want us to keep in mind our clear “intent” so our language is not misunderstood. I appreciated Hamilton’s article and how much he made me think about one of the Pearls I have used in my work.

How about you? How do you interpret “Fake it ‘til you make it”? Feel free to leave comments and feedback in the space below.