“The best formula for a good night’s sleep is having a clear conscience.”- Clare Josa

The way mediocrity is elevated and celebrated with piety presupposes that originality has gone out of fashion. People exaggerate their real worth, accomplishments, capacity, knowledge, experience, and even their income… ‘Fake it till you make it’ appears as the prevailing strategy for individuals and small businesses today. Adopting the show-off strategy, individuals live bogus lives and get engulfed in the “owanbe” syndrome.

Ówànbę (Ó-wà-ní-ibę)  is a popular phrase in Nigeria that has its root in the Yoruba language, its literal meaning is  “it is here”, It connotes the happening of a large grandiose party thrown by Nigerians anywhere in the world, especially those of Yoruba ethnic group. It involves lots of food, dancing, loud music, and spraying of currency with numerous guests that sometimes goes into thousands. The guests are typically made up of the invited and the uninvited. The guests come in different attires chosen by celebrants and more often than not, there are people who go a borrowing just to show that they belong.

The “I am here also” mentality manifest in different ways in business: purchase of expensive automobiles or big houses on credit, hiring magnificent business offices with exotic furnishing, fly first/business class, employment of expensive and overqualified staff that the business cannot support. This is what I called an “owanbe” business strategy: a wasteful, grandiose and pretentious strategy designed to mislead that the individual has achieved a make-believe lofty status.  The essence of this strategy is a wish that it will endear them to persons of that class and thus secure high business opportunities for them.

A recent news flash from Cairo gives us insight on how these stories usually end.

The Donkey in Zebra Stripes

One of the interesting news of the week, as reported in most of the international media, was about the Facebook post of an 18-year-old Egyptian student, Mohamoud Sarhan. He recently visited a newly opened animal sanctuary at the International Garden Municipal Park Cairo, Egypt. While going around to see the service offering of the park, he spotted a strange looking animal. Sarhan said several things about the animal stood out, which made him suspicious that the exhibited animal could not have been a Zebra: the black paint on the face was melting, and the ears did not look like the right size for a zebra. He wrote in Arabic: “The stupidity has reached in the country that they brought a local donkey and painted it to look like a zebra.”

Perhaps as a start-up, the Zoo could not afford to buy and maintain a Zebra, so they employed the “fake it till you make it” strategy. CNN described the folly of the Zoo as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Or in this case, a donkey in zebra stripes. ”Adding salt to injury the zoo director, Mohamed Sultan dismissed the allegation and told a local radio station “The zebra is real and not painted”

The picture below speaks for itself.

The Real Zebra Photo credit: Glogster

Isn’t there a difference between the two? 

The Strategy of Exaggerating Everything

Most start-ups and small firms believe that the best way to accelerate success is to exaggerate everything. People exaggerate their knowledge, experience, accomplishments, and possessions. There are a lot of award-winning authors of books that you will never find in any directory. Career Coaches that have not coached anyone. The list goes on and on… Many buy awards from mushrooms organisation all in the name of being called a multiple awards winning organisation.

“Fake it till you make it” – A historical perspective

The concept of “acting as if” was a therapeutic technique that derived its root from the work of Alfred Adler in 1920. The concept was to enable his clients use a positive behaviour to alter their dysfunctional behaviour. For instance, to be happy he wanted them to act happy until they became delighted

The original meaning of “Fake it till you make it” is to emphasise individual natural positive attitudes and continuously live to improve them. It was not meant to be a blatant setup for deception. This English dictum challenged people to moderate their conduct through the positive behaviour of confidence, competence, and an optimistic mindset.

Fake it or Make it, the business strategy

The strategy of faking it till you make it in business or your career has been mis-conceptualised and people now sought cheap alternatives for “embellish originality and competence” Success comes with hard work and preparation. Bill Gate did not sell a dummy to the world in the name of Microsoft Office Suite neither did Jef Bezos fake e-commerce. There are numerous examples. To make the lasting impact, you must back your mission with competence, talent with hard work and firm conviction with great authenticity.

Recommended Business Success Strategy:

In my two decades of interacting with entrepreneurs and Corporate executives, I discovered common denominators for success in any endeavour Competence, Determination, Discipline, Dedication, Relationship and Authenticity.

• Be yourself and not someone else: the world is already full of fakes why adding to it? There is mediocrity everywhere, and it sold for nothing. To succeed in your endeavours, determined to be authentic, wear your identity and not someone else. Instead of wasting time trying to be someone else, invest your time in developing skills and competencies in your chosen business. If your motive is to impress people with faking, then you are using a strategy that will backfire at the end of the day.
• Hype yourself appropriately: If you over-hype your lifestyle, achievements, competencies or even your network, you may be setting yourself for a fall. Remember that over-promising and under-delivering upset customers, therefore, discipline yourself to create and deliver strong values.
• Small is beautiful, Start with the basics: I have made several mistakes in the past, I always wanted everything “ready and fit” before starting a venture. Most start-ups make this mistake Start small but dedicate yourself to a big vision, wear your competence badge and be authentic in your offerings. Always remember that small is a beautiful beginning. and the beginning is not the destination.
• Remember respect is earned, so work for it: customers will respect you if they trust that you will add value to them. When customers believe you, then you will be able to grow your business because they trust your judgment. Last week, Apple market capitalisation broke the record by becoming the first One trillion-dollar company in the world, why? Because it is the world most trusted brand.
• Relationship Matters: Business is about relationships, it must be jealously guided. When any of your stakeholders come to you it is because they believe in you, if you deceive them by faking it and your  cover is blown, you would have destroyed valuable relationships and great business opportunities
• Being real is less stressful: when you live a life of “fake it till you make it”, you put yourself under so many pressures and the fear of being discovered will make you engage in constant lies and cover-ups. Establish your business with a robust value system and it will prosper.

Conclusion

The newly opened animal sanctuary in Cairo unknowingly accelerated its popularity on the speed of deception. Today the Zoo enjoy extensive publicity not for the value it created but for the fraud is perpetrated. To succeed in business, you need to embrace: Transparency, Determination, Dedication, Discipline and Sacrifice.

Olukunle A. Iyanda, Ph.D., FCA, MBA
Founder/Chief Executive Officer, BROOT Consulting
iyanda@brootc.com