The Art of Faking It

you have two options option one continue on your current path rely solely on your talent skills past achievements and dedication a path of authenticity hard work and the belief that perseverance will ultimately lead you to conquering your goals option two take a gamble rethink what it means to be authentic understand the powers of perception learn how to better seize opportunities and challenge your ethical boundaries on the path to success option two is not about malicious deceit or trickery it's about overcoming obstacles and stretching yourself beyond your comfort zone to embody the person you aspire to

be but beware if you take this path you must tread carefully [Music] i want to offer a free Tech life hack - June 2012 at Ted global social psychologist Amy Cuddy gives the speech your body language shapes who you are well she argues that power posing standing in a posture of confidence even when we're not can boost feelings of confidence and might even have an impact on our chances of success Her speech has been viewed over 90 million times the talk and the original scientific paper inspired numerous Studies books and articles on the power of

Faking it till you make it using non-verbal cues to enhance confidence and performance but what these sources don't tell you is that the power of Faking It extends far beyond the realm of body language 1964 a three-time College Dropout applies to a talent agency in hopes of Landing an agent job one of the requirements for the position is being a college graduate so he applies to a lower position in the building working in the mail room on his application he states that he graduated from UCLA a university only three miles up the road from the

agency once he begins working in the mail room he's able to intercept the letter from UCLA stating that he never even attended their University and replaces it with a letter of his own he quickly gets the agent job and eventually donates enough money to the school that they rename a building after him he's currently worth 8.5 billion dollars this isn't rare 7 out of 10 employees lie on their resume and 65 say lying has helped them land a higher salary when your worth is determined by the value you're able to negotiate for it makes sense

to try and do anything you can to increase this number but the vacant mentality doesn't only apply to corporate employment co-founder of Apple Steve Jobs was Notorious for faking presentations for products that didn't work yet a skill also Mastered by Thomas Edison they exaggerated and presented products before they were functional but they didn't lie about their skill set or capabilities they possess the expertise and determination to overcome obstacles and turn these ideas into reality and these famous examples are really only the tip of the iceberg a quick search reveals a vast array of anecdotes illustrating

how countless individuals have achieved success by employing this fake it to you make it approach and you can read through these on a website that's Founders initially posted on hundreds of fake accounts so the site appeared marketable something almost every social networking site did and its purpose now extends Beyond making the platforms themselves appear popular there are thousands of services now aimed at enhancing your own perceived popularity through the use of online Bots followers likes even live stream viewers can be and often are fake Studies by statistica and imai founded in 2022 alone over 58

of Instagram Mega influencers were engaged in fraudulent activities to increase their follower count and 25 percent of all influencers had directly purchased fake followers the motivation for this is very clear you'd probably be more eager to subscribe to my channel if I had 600 000 subscribers rather than 600 because when someone has a large fan base it serves as social proof that their content or ideas are valuable and appealing to others but more importantly in this era of influencer marketing where companies and artists will raise awareness of their products services or music by paying an

influencer to promote them having more followers and engagement means negotiating more money and it makes sense to try and do anything you can to increase the number being an influencer is one of the only ways you can get rich by pretending to be rich pretending to be more wealthy or attractive than they really are is the norm and it's something rappers have been doing for years I think your attorney said that you're gonna have to file for bankruptcy but then you're dumping two million dollars are you not now a Sitting Duck to have that money

seized I ain't got it right now I ain't got it and and that was prop money like I said I ain't got it I got two twin Glocks turning to a dance uh I don't have no straps for nobody I got fans money I'm flying to friends drinking telling [ __ ] land nah I never went to France okay Airline took on a gang crashed Ferrari so I hopped into bands I don't even drive it's not just wealth either artists have historically created false backstories to enhance their image like Akon pretending he was leading a

fast and furious car theft ring or Rick Ross stealing an actual drug kingpin's name De Niro Ferrar even made fun of this in his okay music video none of this is my jewelry this is all prop literally everything down only thing that's mine is these pants these shoes ain't even mess this is all a stunt basically this is a problem artist and label is also employ misleading systems and streaming statistics to enhance the popularity of their releases like bundling tickets with album sales releasing repetitive chorus loops and engaging in business Arrangements like buying and giving

away a million Jay-Z albums so his album goes platinum in a week these moves are all the Boost artists perceived to popularity leaving us all the questions how many faking they streams these artists have all benefited from these tactics and while it's misleading it's not actually harmful to anybody they're not hurting you by selling you an image of themselves or their success that may be misleading it's not like they're a politician like Donald Trump who ran off his image as a successful businessman an image that wasn't entirely accurate Trump is arguably the greatest example of

fake it till you make it he built such a successful personal brand that the money he made off Celebrity Apprentice overshadowed any of his previous business failings and eventually landed him the presidency it's not all positive the line between faking it and fraud is a very thin one the house Financial Services committee will begin the First Congressional hearings on the Enron debacle tomorrow morning some Enron employees say they are still hopeful that both their company and their jobs can be salvaged somehow not to testify based on my fifth amendment constitutional rights in 2001 Energy company

Enron was at the center of one of the biggest cases of corporate fraud in American history Enron had been viewed as a Pioneer for its innovative approach to energy Commodities turning them into Financial products that could be bought sold and traded like stocks Enron had engaged in a technique known as Mark to Market accounting which allowed them to Mark future Financial projections onto their current income statements as well as writing off losses through spe's or essentially companies created by Enron to isolate risk so they want to be reported under Enron further giving a false impression

of their finances the revelation of this fraud led to enron's bankruptcy reforms and accounting regulations and a 24-year prison sentence for its CEO to this day the entire industry of financial reporting runs on regulations that were put into place directly as a result of Enron and the Scandal has left a permanent mark on society's view of the business World in 2003 Enron vice president Christian Holmes's daughter founded the company of her own the now Infamous dropping out of Stanford to focus on the project Holmes who had been dubbed the next Steve Jobs promised to revolutionize

the medical field with cheap accessible and quick blood testing technology using only a few drops of blood investigations by journalists and Regulatory Agencies revealed that the company was using industry standard machines for most of their tests and due to the sample size of the blood many of the results were inaccurate leading to misdiagnosis and death one of their employees even committed suicide due to stress of keeping the company secret the company which was once found valued at 10 billion dollars had been running on this fake it till you make it mentality from the start with

Elizabeth Holmes even allegedly faking her voice and interviews and appearances in January 2022 Holmes was sentenced to 11 years in prison for fraud the randos has been somewhat of a case study for fraud with the story being depicted in the Hulu miniseries the Dropout and people drawing similarities between homes and any fraudulent startup founder like Charlie Javis in 2016 Jarvis founded Frank a website that assisted students in obtaining loans and financial aid in 2021 she sold the company to JPMorgan Chase the next year was sued by JP Morgan for fraud but unlike Serranos Frank did

everything it said it did Javis wasn't toying with people's lives or Hell Frank simply helped students fill out loan applications for a small fee the problem arose when Javas paid a data scientist eighteen thousand dollars for a list of 4 million fake student names and addresses and then sold the company to JP Morgan under the pretense that she had over 4 million customers when in actuality that number was around 300 000 when JP Morgan realized 70 of their email were bouncing back they sued her for fraud the backlash was very different for Javis she's been

looked at more as a modern day selfish Robin Hood after all she defrauded investors in the bank but not her customers or Everyday People she scammed the rich and when you scam the rich you go to jail in May 2023 a four-count grand jury charged Javis with Securities fraud wire fraud bank fraud and conspiracy and she faces up to a hundred years in prison if convicted my father was a con man he worked his way up at his company became vice president then left to start his own business with loans he got in others names

got supplies from vendors under false pretenses build them to his ex-employer's account and once convinced the store he was contracted to work on to install fake security cameras because they were cheaper and then stole from that store regularly for years his company which made over a million dollars was sued for fraud and my father died with less than three thousand dollars in assets the difference between Elizabeth Holmes and Steve Jobs my father and any successful entrepreneurs is knowing when to stop while he also faked presentations Steve Jobs didn't work in healthcare he wasn't putting others

lives on the line to get what he wanted he wasn't defrauding investors or Associates while it might cross certain ethical boundaries lying on your resume about Job titles or certain responsibilities misrepresenting how successful or skilled you are or even just pretending to be more confident than you are might be the best move for you as long as you can can follow through with your commitments even something as small as a single word can change how others view you it's the reason you see YouTube channels refer to themselves as we as if there's a team behind

them even if it's just run by one person it creates an illusion a tactic that can enhance credibility making viewers take them more seriously and potentially choosing their content over that of others the line between faking it and fraud is a very thin one but if you employ these tactics correctly you might be more confident you might be able to finally get the job you've been trying to get hell if you employ these tactics correctly you might even get elected president [Music] [Music]