Friday, February 7, 2014

Axiom 46: Keeping Appearances - The Good & Bad


"Before you try to keep up with the Joneses, be sure they're not trying to keep up with you.
-Erma Bombeck

Every morning when people passed by Benjamin Franklin's print shop on their way to work they would see Ben through the window hard at work. When they walked past his shop again on their way home at night they still saw him in there working away. Quickly word spread that Franklin was an extremely hard worker. People trusted him with their print jobs because they knew he would work hard for them.

The reality of it all was that Franklin new how important keeping appearances was. He knew he had to appear to be a hard worker to grow his business. The truth is, however, Franklin wasn't always hard at work from from sunup to sundown. During the day he frequently shut his windows and took naps. He was probably no more or less productive than most other hard working people.

If you were truly successful at what you wanted to be in life, what would that look like?

Stop and picture what true success for you would look like. Don't wait until you're successful to start changing your appearance. Instead change your appearance now and let success follow. Sometimes you just have to fake it until you become it.

Don't fall down that slippery slope...

There's a difference between "keeping an appearance" and "keeping up with the Joneses". The goal is for you to give the appearance of success so that success will follow, not to get caught up in a materialistic trap for which you can never win. If you're caught up in having to buy expensive things just to keep up an appearance then maybe you should rethink what appearance are you really trying to keep?