A few months back I started following a guy in the business/real estate arena, Nick Huber. He has some interesting views on starting a business and I like his simplicity and clarity. I signed up for his weekly email and it’s interesting enough that I keep reading and haven’t yet unsubscribed.
One of his recent emails, though, struck a nerve:
Something I've changed my mind on over the years:
How you dress and how you present yourself matters. People judge a book by its cover ALL THE TIME.
How you look matters.
It matters in dating. It matters in business. It matters at your job and with your friends.
People judge you based on how you look all the time. Everyone does it. Whether they admit it or not.
If you purposely dress casual and dye your hair an unnatural color people will perceive you as less reliable and less trustworthy.
If you dress professional and you are clean-cut with a nice haircut people perceive you as more reliable and more trustworthy.
Therefore, you are more likely to get paid more money for the same contribution. Or get more opportunities.
It is that simple. You can hate the game if you want to, but get over yourself and start playing it if you want to win.
This one hit me, but sideways. I think it’s certainly true that if you know the rules of the game being played and want to win it, you have to play by the rules of that game. AND, I don’t think you can change the game by playing along with the game.
So the real question becomes…do you want to play the game or change the game?
