Distracted by the optics
“Sweet Little Sixteen
She's got the grown up blues
Tight dresses and lipstick
She's sportin' high-heeled shoes
Oh, but tomorrow morning
She'll have to change her trend
And be sweet sixteen
And back in class again.”
- Chuck Berry
(Image credit: Javier Dumont)
Many people go broke seeking to manifest the trappings of wealth.
They buy cars and homes they can just barely make the monthly payments for, and nobody knows how far they are stretching. They put clothes, decor, and nice vacations on the credit card to complete the picture.
Maybe someone else then looks at the results of this indebtedness and sees an aspirational example, and the cycle repeats.
Of course, a lot of wealthy people don't bother with stuff that makes them appear wealthy. They've got nothing to prove and no need to impress anyone.
Ironically, driving an older car and wearing non-designer clothes are moves that allow a person to save money and build wealth.
We get these cause-and-effect relationships backward all the time. Instead of doing the work to achieve the results we're seeking, we take a shortcut and try to look like we've made it. We might not even realize that we've been distracted by the optics—that we've confused how something looks or seems with what it is.
Consider websites. A new or aspiring business owner might spend thousands of dollars to build a refined brand identity that matches the ones she admires. There's the logo, the designer color scheme, the fancy pop-up opt-in with the professionally designed lead magnet.
Everything is perfect, although the business hasn't made a dime. This business owner doesn't realize that pretty websites are like the high-end luxury vehicle driven by the real estate agent: A signal of wealth, but not the cause. Meanwhile, a successful entrepreneur may well be too busy closing deals to worry about how their website looks.
It's never been easier to peer into the lives of others, whether via social media, reality television, or the content they create. We have to remember that we're seeing what they want us to see. Those who live in the public eye painstakingly craft their image for our consumption. How things appear is not necessarily the way they are. A team of professionals can present a polished finished product that is the result of many, many dollars spent. The rest of us will be disappointed or frustrated if we try to start there.
What makes this so tricky is that so many influencers have worked so hard to seem natural and free of artifice. Their whole appeal is that we think we can be like them. We think we can buy this or that product or follow this or that tactic. But that's backward. Following the tactics of influencers or buying the products they endorse gives them what they want—it won't necessarily help us to get what we want.
Successful projects go through an awkward adolescent stage. There's nothing sexy about renting out a church basement, reading through a new script around a fluorescent-lit table, or setting up the bare-bones stall at your first farmer's market. These early iterations, however, lay the groundwork for what is to come later. To keep going, we focus on what matters—which is sometimes the appearance of things, but usually not.
For many of us, beauty and luxury can come after we've gotten the basics down. We must prioritize what will make our life and work sustainable. It's not necessarily glamorous, but it can eventually lead to the beautiful things we were hoping for when we began. By the time we get them, however, we probably won't care.
