LET GO OF YOUR EGO!
- Empress Cynthia
- Aug 14, 2016
- 4 min read
Hearing this advice from a multi-millionaire CEO made me feel quite shocked. I was at a business convention and was trying to jot down every little bits and pieces of valuable advice being spoken by successful entrepreneurs. Hearing these 6 synonyms, "Let go of your ego", being spoken by this very confident looking and successful young man was an eye opener for me.
...which brings me to the topic of gaining likes and followers on social media. I can see why some people choose to stay away from Facebook and other forms of social media. It's because they often compare themselves to other people online such as how many friends they have and how many people liked their photos only to find out the number of friends and likes they have is way less than the other people they find online. So what's their solution? Avoid all forms of social media. This is very costly (and by costly I mean it's not a smart idea) as social media is a great way to build up your network for job or career-related purposes, especially in the business field. Social media is also a fantastic way to connect with other people, make new friends, express one's self, educate plus spread awareness for a great cause, and share ideas as well as wisdom and experiences. Too often though, people use social media as a way to seek approval and validation; this is when it gets self-destructive. Now, here's what I want to bring up:
THE AMOUNT OF LIKES, FOLLOWERS, OR FRIENDS YOU HAVE DO NOT DICTATE YOUR WORTH, HOW GOOD LOOKING YOU ARE, NOR HOW WELL OFF YOU ARE IN LIFE. Do employers honestly care about your virtual life? NO. They care about what's on your resume and what skills or benefits you have to offer to them. Does the amount of likes you have on your profile pictures determine how attractive looking you are? NO. Heck, I've seen conventionally attractive looking people who don't have many likes on their photos compared to some people who look like they're related to Jabba the Hut. The amount of likes on your photos is mostly linked to how friendly or sociable you are and the amount of people you have on your friends list. I'm not an extrovert nor a very sociable person in reality and I keep a small circle of friends so it's obvious I wouldn't be getting many likes on my photos anyway. Does the amount of followers, friends, and likes you have online determine how successful you are? NO. Unless your definition of success is to be a well-liked winner in the virtual world and a loafing loser in the real world, then by all means your fame on the internet doesn't define whether or not you are a successful person. Besides, if you happen to only focus on building up your online fame or reputation and the internet happens to shut down, what are you then?
Now if the reason why you try to gain more likes or followers is to further promote your business or cause for the greater of humanity then that's absolutely wonderful. Let's be honest though, that's not the reason why some people want more likes and followers. They only want them for personal gain.
Successful people don't give a damn about what a bunch of shallow or small-minded individuals think. And even if they do give a little bit of a damn, they don't care about it as much as progressing in their career or other more important purposes in life. They let the lower quality people weed themselves out of their life, and continually have support from the few who truly have faith in them and in what they do. Rather than focus on how many likes, friends, or followers we have, how about we focus on what we truly want AND what will benefit us, our loved ones, and our planet? Looks and popularity don't mean crap if there's no substance behind them. Looks and popularity may feel great for awhile but in the long run, they can be debilitating—they can be a headache to deal with and eventually leave you out in the cold. Mind you, the reason why I have a list of followers on my main Facebook account is because there are many random people online who tried to befriend me, and to this day and age, I only add people I know well or feel comfortable with being a part of my life. I wouldn't like to be friends with people who would waste my time arguing with me (you're either with me or you're not) nor be friends with people who just simply come and go so I deactivated the "add friends" button and left the followers option open for people who want to learn more, befriend me, and/or follow my posts. So one tip to focusing on the more important things and to succeed in life: LET GO OF YOUR EGO because the moment you let go of it is the moment when you also start developing real confidence in yourself.
To end it off, one of my favourite quotes from a favourite leader of mine is, "Would you rather be cool and poor or would you rather be weird and rich? I don't know about you but I rather be weird and rich." Truly inspirational.