What a day and age to be a con artist!

You can write any nonsense on the internet and no one will know

Used to be your fakeness and deceit would come through in your fake demeanour

Now there’s no fake demeanour — just a fake online profile

 

I never realised the scale of it because I don’t have time for exposing bullshitters — I’m more interested in elevating myself and others

I also never realised it because of the learnt black-and-white thinking around the subject, which is so prevalent

Used to think one is either a fraud – or legit

That’s what is conveyed by the fraud-police and other moral puritans

It couldn’t be further from the truth

 

Most fakes are only half-fakes

No one can entirely fake a completely different reality

Sure there are petty grifters swindling other idiots of the same level

But such fool couldn’t conceive of faking owning millions and running huge companies, or some other “massive success”

And believe it or not — the fake is already half-way there

The vast majority of men he manages to beguile with his fake image can barely dream of changing their life situation

This pretender however can at least pretend

He can adopt the characteristics and mindsets and behaviours of a person he is not

Ultimately, if he adopted those behaviours on a sufficient level of accuracy — he wouldn’t even need to fake nothing no more

Fake is already half way there

 

In fact — most fakes haven’t started (faking) at the bottom

They built something and gained some momentum — building an ego around it in the process — which eventually became difficult to maintain.

At first it fed on their actual successes, then it fed on the validation of others, which in turn they started catering to, progressively presenting themselves in a more and more favourable way, both to the outside world, and on the inside…

…until they slowly lost touch with what is what, drunk with their own illusion of growth and grandness, as their self-image, and the image they are now presenting to the world — became this overgrown caricature

And the internet lays every foundation for this vehicle of false self-aggrandisement

You place the most perfect picture of your face, write the sexiest caption, then cherry-pick the best moments of your life

…and then you CONTRIVE those moments of your life to fit the picture

…and eventually you design that picture completely, this image completely, when it no longer has anything to do with your real life — just your delusion

 

…and then you are presented with a fake like that

You despise the fakeness and yet — you’ve still potentially something to learn from him

Please be understanding of him — and of the hell he inhabits, the hell of self-deception and serving the god of vanity

And foremost — avoid the same path

 

Again, most frauds are half-there and most fakes are half there

Sure there are entire industries built around razzmatazz and outright deception: politics, show-business, etc.

And sure some have absolutely nothing to offer but compelling facade facilitated with cutting edge branding and marketing (which again — IS a skill too)

But most fakes are half-there

It’s just the other half which is the problem

And it is deeper then just you being deceived — it’s their’s sad predicament of them deceiving themselves

 

You’d think if you’re half-there — already successful — you wouldn’t feel that desire to pretend someone you’re not

And yet as you upgraded your life so you upgraded your needs. This includes the needs of the ego

And now that other people had seen you and expect things from you — the temptation to FAKE IT is even stronger

Perhaps you will fake it to PROTECT yourself from falling back, when you’re going through a rough time…?

It is difficult

And again this is what we fail to understand

That our idols would feel the need to deceive us — if they are already so much better then us

…and yet they do

And it’s terrible

And internet aggravated this effect

 

Therefore please be watchful of this phenomenon

Don’t embrace this worldview in which everyone is a fraud. This is not conductive to your success.

Simply be careful, especially on the internet

Be very discriminating of who you listen to

Either pick someone whose very well established and validated and has skin in the game — or someone who avoids self-aggrandisement and dazzling marketing and selling you his image — so that you can only judge him by what he actually produces

The latter also eliminates the HALO effect — which is this psychological phenomenon in which your general perception of an individual (like the image he’s presenting) influences your perception of his message (e.g. you liking someone would cause you to agree with what they are saying, and believing it)

Ask yourself if realising that a person is the opposite of what he presents himself to be would change your opinion on what he says

If it would — then find someone you know you can trust

If it wouldn’t — then it doesn’t matter.

 

And don’t fall into this trap of FAKENESS

Because that’s when you lose the most

For even if you fake your way half-way there — you still got the other half to go

…and you can’t go if you already think you’re there

so stay humble

please be simple

get rid of self-image altogether

and just EXPLORE