Leading Thought: Unless you want to directly set people up for failure, stop telling others to “fake it till you make it.”
Some of the worst advice I commonly hear people sharing whenever they’re trying to assist other startups, lead their employees, or encourage their friends is: “fake it till you make it.” If you are one of these people, all I can say is stop. Please stop. By definition, faking anything until you make it is terrible advice no matter how you attempt to rationalize it.
Would you want your doctors to fake surgeries until they make it? No. Would you want your pilots to fake flying or your engineers to fake building a bridge until they make it? No. Why not? Because it’s entirely reckless. Faking anything, even confidence, is like jumping into a firefight ill prepared, ill equipped, and betting on a miracle. How does one properly perform any of these aforementioned tasks? Through repeated education and training. How does one obtain confidence? Through repeated education and training. Faked confidence is not confidence; that’s just bold ignorance. Sure, everyone at some point is a clueless novice and it takes courage as well as an open mind to get through that initial learning curve where you absorb the basics. However, that’s not faking - that’s the organic process of learning. When tasked with decrypting Enigma code messages during World War II, do you think Turing was faking it as he devised a method and a machine that would eventually help win the war? When performing an emergency landing of an Airbus A320 on the Hudson River with 155 people on board, do you think Captain Sullenberger was faking his confidence? Absolutely not.
Perhaps the best alternative to “fake it till you make it” is to “break it down.” This doesn’t quite have the same ring, but it has real substance. Break down complicated objectives and ideas into smaller, more manageable pieces from which to put into action. Just as Turing and Sullenberger did, you can gather the information available, ask questions, prioritize concepts, test ideas, and execute each accumulative task before moving onto the next. You can educate yourself and train yourself. While everyone else is trying to get through their objectives by merely faking it, how about you break yours down and produce real results.
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