The Secret Identity of Success

“Business Problems are personal problems in disguise.” – Michael Port

Business success often mirrors personal success. Business failure often mirrors personal failure. If I were to ask you about the worst customer service experience you have had, my bet would be that your answer is a description of something that a person (employee, owner, etc.) did, not what the business itself did. As a result of personal actions, the business gets the glory or the bad wrap.

People do things or they don’t do them. A business success story will be filled with people doing things and doing the right things. Our brains push us into doing something or not doing it. Because of this, two identical business owners selling the same products or services, with identical education and resources will have very different results all because of the decisions they make and the actions they take.

How do you overcome your own weaknesses and self-doubt and do things in spite of yourself? The answer that author Todd Herman (The Alter Ego Effect) suggests is to create an alter ego and have the alter ego do it. This is a novel concept which I plan to study more about. It intrigued me.

I think back to my high school drama teacher John Whiting who said, “I am a thespian. Therefore, what you cannot be – I can.” There is also the old adage of “fake it ‘til you make it.”
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Perhaps we can do harder things if our normal persona sits on the side and allows our alter ego who doesn’t have the same fear to do it. Our own secret identities may give us extraordinary results as we are able to bypass our own neural blocks. Suddenly we can become John the great marketer or Susan the fantastic bookkeeper. We may even eat our vegetables while Mikey tries it.