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August 01, 2006

More On Authenticity, Radio Advertising, and A Life Well Lived

I got so revved up from writing the post about authenticity that I was dying to write another one. It seems authenticity is energizing as well as influential. I was thinking about writing a follow-up on WHY authenticity is so influential.

But I didn't want to be self-indulgent. Just because I enjoyed writing it didn't mean others enjoyed reading it.

Then today I saw that Guy Kawasaki himself posted a follow up to his post about Majora Carter. Now, he wasn't being self indulgent because he had a whole hoard of people who totally missed the point of his original post. From a social psychological perspective it was quite fascinating to see what most people focused on in their comments. From some other perspectives it could be viewed as sad, irritating, or scary.

It turns out that Guy and I, though in the minority, agree. The point isn't whether Majora is better than Steve Jobs.

I felt it was about how influenced we can be by someone who is authentically passionate. In Guy's words, the point was that:

Her performance gives hope to the hopeful.

Not just her to "customers" in the Bronx. Not just to every woman warrior, black or white. Not just to every social activist. But to anyone who simply wants to be a great communicator because now "the rest of us" have a data point that proves that...

You don't need to be a billionaire, knight, ex-VP of the US, or CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

You don't need to be supported by billions of dollars of research and marketing and dozens of minions.

You don't need to be white, male, and old.

But you do need a great cause and great passion, though. And these factors are under your control.

If you think that's not relevant to radio advertising, please re-read it.

If you think that's not relevant to any business, or for that matter anything worth spending your life on, again, please re-read it.

My heartfelt gratitude goes out to Majora Carter for her gift to us all. May it keep on giving.

Oh, back to my original question: Why is authenticity so influential? Because a) it's so rare, and b) most people find it uncontrollably attractive and inspirational. Why? Because we live in a culture that encourages us from an early age to disconnect from our authentic self and focus on pleasing others. So when someone shows us that you can be both successful and who you really are, it's uplifting. As Guy puts it, it "gives hope to the hopeful".

Posted by Brett Astor at 09:04 PM | Permalink