Don’t prove yourself

If you’re good, good. If you’re not, you’re not.

What’s the need of proving it to someone else?

People who need to know that you’re good, already know it and others just don’t care.

Your work is NOT to prove yourself. Your work is just to do your best work.

When you work to prove someone what you have done or what you’re doing is right, you work very differently. And, certainly, you are not at your best when you do that.

Proving yourself is defensive. Proving yourself requires a lack of faith in yourself. Proving yourself is an unconfident behavior.

Instead, see what you can do to produce your best work; what you can do to get out of your own way; what you can do to smoothen your actions…

Actions matter.

And, here comes my favorite thought:

No actions, no results. Everything else is commentary.

Now, don’t mislead the proof thing with marketing, which is a leadership act. Marketing something is not proving. Marketing something is educating people about the existence of your work.

However, only a few people in marketing get that. They tend to prove that their products or services are the best. Best marketing, as I see it, is to put in your best efforts to make your products or services great and then just educate people about it.

If it is the best then people would want to have it, wouldn’t they?

If your marketing requires you to prove that your products and services are great, then something is wrong. Fix that, instead of investing your energy in proving the wrong thing.

Focusing on something is good only when the point of focus is right. Hence your focus should be your best work, not proof.