The Best Self-Help is Free: Creating an Effective Public Image

Chapter 15

This is Chapter 15 of The Best Self-Help is Free, a treatise by Mr. Stolyarov. You can read all chapters of this freely available treatise here.

The key to successful self-promotion is not just being competent in all that you do, but also looking the part. In order to be perceived as credible and reliable by other people, it is not enough for you to have skills and virtues. You also need to present yourself as a skillful, virtuous person.

A simple case in point: a person who wears ragged jeans and a dirty T-shirt in public will be mistaken for being incompetent and having an apathetic attitude toward life - no matter how intelligent or productive he might actually be. A person who writes entirely in lowercase letters and without using punctuation will be dismissed as vulgar and uneducated, no matter how brilliant his insights.

On the other hand, a person who makes every effort to appear smart, professional, and productive will often be assumed to have these qualities at the onset. This assumption will not necessarily hold for all time - for a lack of genuine merits cannot be covered up by any kind of façade for long. If there is no substance behind the image, people will be quick to notice. But an image of competence serves as a gateway to the substance for most people. It gives those with whom one interacts the signal that one might possibly have something of value and quality to offer. Once you have people's eyes and ears, you can comfortably show them what you can do and further solidify your good image in their minds.

It is important to recognize that somebody with good skills and an image highly representative of competence is likely to encounter much greater success than someone with the best skills but a mismatched or incoherent image.