Lately I can't help but notice how difficult it's become to participate in the world, in culture, in the internet, without being bombarded by “advice”, “guidance”, and in some more unfortunate cases, tough-love-truth-coded “wisdom” about success, career, and “how to make it in business" (as a woman, especially).
Part of this has to do with the overwhelming adoption of “value add content" as a marketing strategy for almost anything and everything a brand is trying to sell these days.
The other part is rooted in our modern cultural obsession with personal branding, positioning, and the dreaded “thought leadership” - - - all of which I have come to find just south of nauseating in their current forms, if only because they have seemingly become more important than the things we make, create, put out into the world. In other words, they are now enormous distractions from the thing that is required to build a truly meaningful (and honest) “brand” around to begin with : the work itself.
Worse yet is the spillage of the first into the second; a melding happening on a scale that is hard to understate at this moment in time. It is now impossible to open any social platform without being assaulted by unsought advice and “universal truths” from people you don't know and never asked. Worse yet, from too many people who have actually done very little in the way of what they are preaching. Of those who have earned the wisdom over long careers and interesting lives, so many of these stories of paths to success are so overpackaged, so manufactured, and so designed for manipulation (buy my book!) it is impossible to tell which part of it is, or was ever, true at all. It leaves me wondering where the thousands, perhaps millions, of genuine, alternative stories of success actually live in the media landscape. And if the answer is that they are scarce because the public doesn't care about them, then I have to ask : what does that say about our collective culture now?
Of course, media – - - tv, movies, magazines - - - has been doling out one type of cultural “guidance” or another for decades. Now it's become less about cold blasting your hair with frigid water at the end of a shower to achieve that oh-so-lustworthy-shine and more about how to claw your way to the corner office and beat your co-worker for the promotion. For men, this type of content and “guidance” is even more ubiquitous and has been driving the collective mind for longer with even higher stakes - - - they are not just encouraged but required to constantly 10x their way to the cultural definition of "the top", lest they become social pariahs driving the wrong car, wearing the wrong watch, living in the wrong neighborhood, and ultimately with no one to keep them warm at night.
I've been thinking and writing about all of this for the last month or so, not because I have any inclination of becoming another SuCcEsS GUru or talking women (or men) into my own personal definition of it (which differs vastly from the mainstream narrative, fyi), but because it has become clear to me that amongst all of the soundbites, all of the talking points, all of the podcasts, the interviews, the social carousels, and the tv appearances there is very little actual truth being told about what these paths entail and where they actually lead. More so, no one is telling the truth about the alternatives that exist - - - the new games you can choose to play instead of the same old ones. And sometimes you have to do what you'd rather not, if only to bring balance back to the universe. This is, after all, what nature in the grand scheme is always striving for. Consider me then not another person telling you what to do or what to think, but rather an equalizer sharing the other side of the story. What you do with it, of course, is up to you.
You can take a look at
the more personal context (story time) behind the latest essay I shared ahead of my newest essay on this
here on IG. You can
also read the essay itself, linked below.
My recent thinking along this thread also took me to a short reflection on two distinct orientations we can choose in work (and life) and the place and purpose of rest depending on which we pick. You can read this in Freeflow / The Notepad section of my site, also previewed and linked below.
Finally, sharing a few sparks from my archive of visuals, film stills, words, moments, and other things that have recently sparked my imagination and new avenues of thought.
Thanks for being here,
