If This Is How You’re Doing Authenticity You’re Doing It Wrong
Trying to be an authentic version of somebody else isn't going to cut it
Source | www.entrepreneur.com | Mark Asquith
Authenticity — a word that is becoming more and more important to business people. And a word that is constantly being thrown around by anyone with a blog, podcast or voice to share. Including me.
The premise of entrepreneurial authenticity is being yourself, telling your story and allowing yourself to truly be you while serving an audience that is drawn to what makes you uniquely you. When you put it like that, it sounds easy. Being yourself is the easiest thing you can do, right? And surely it’s ok to show that in business. Sadly that’s not always true.
We’re all conditioned, from an early age, to be “professional.” We’re taught that personal lives and business lives have to be separate, and that we have to maintain an air of professionalism in everything that we do.
But there’s a difference between genuine professionalism and actually being professional, just like there’s a difference between being authentic and what we perceive that other people believe is our authenticity.
Professionalism, as we’re taught, causes us to remain subdued. It causes us to force ourselves into a box that keeps us within set parameters and holds us back from exploration. It holds us back from really voicing our opinions to the people who matter to us in business.