Create the Perception of Success to Lead

Our perception will determine how well people treat us, how much they respect us, what prices theyll be ready to pay and more. That doesnt mean that you cant charge big-bucks without perception, if you can prove you provide the value then youll easily be able to charge however much you want, but perception is like lubricant, people expect higher prices so itll be easier.

This may sound manipulative but this is exactly what every successful brand in the world does, and what every successful politician does and what every successful celebrity does. Your perception is the root of success, the better your perception of success and fame the better people will treat you and the more likely they are to pay you. Theres nothing immoral about creating the illusion that youre more successful as long as you actually over-deliver on the perception youve created!

Imagine its your birthday, your friends told you they are going to take you to a nice restaurant to have a nice time. Suddenly you realize youre being taken to an open field, and your friends tell you its a surprise and youre going sky-diving! Will you be disappointed if the experience was good? Would you scold them for not taking you to the restaurant? As long as you over deliver on your promises and expectations, nobody will get offended, and if anyone does thats more of a negative indicator of his character and you probably wouldnt have satisfied him either way.

The only difference in this case would be that some people are very smart at hacking and engineering perception to create the illusion of success, which in-turn brings many high-paying clients and actually creates the reality of success. Other people prefer to build the perception up naturally as the level of success goes up. Maybe Im wrong, maybe theyre wrong. Maybe nobodys wrong because both are legitimate!

Look, any person or business that gives a false perception and under delivers on what it promises is doomed and will be killed by the marketplace at one point or another anyway.

Whichever path you go with, the only thing thats important is that you become 100% committed to it. If you go with the authentic route and improve that perception without creating illusions, make sure you stay fully congruent and authentic because people will value your openness. But if youre going to go with the perception illusion path, you have to own it flawlessly and manage the impression perfectly or people will see youre fake and run away.

I personally went both ways and found out that although creating a perception of being a lot more successful than I was allowed me to have easier sales and charge incredibly high-fees, I also found that it makes me very nervous, it also makes me feel like I have to live up to this pedestal-level one-sided standard, and finally it also created a lot of issues for me because of my open nature and the fact that I like to talk without calculating so I might say something stupid.

These days I dont put any emphasis on perception building, I focus on creating real, visible demand through the sheer amount of content and presence I create. The more clients I get the higher my prices naturally go up. It just fits much better for my personal style. Dont let this take away even an iota of my appreciation to perception building, its an extremely powerful tool of persuasion.