Sometimes when you contemplate about the world, one wonders how exactly human beings became so fake. Everybody is trying to imitate someone they can’t be, yet the feeling is irresistible. Ironically, the few people who choose to remain true to themselves, end up being the victims of the vicious falsified cycle. The pain is excruciating, knowing that you are being judged wrongly just because you have chosen to remain true to you.
Funny enough, those who hold on tightly and long enough onto their originality, talent, and personalities, these are the people we read every day on magazines and blogs: The likes of Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffet, and so many other successful names. You see, what these great people of history have apart from strong devotion to their work is, they are totally themselves when they talk, when they make decisions and when they are getting things done.
Somebody once said that “if you follow beaten paths you’ll always be second” and believe me that’s exactly what happens when you are always imitating people. Imitation has never produced a masterpiece, that’s why replicas are called fakes because they can never beat the original thing.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”
– Lawrence J. Peter
So what price do you pay for being true to yourself? Here is some unfortunate stuff that will happen to you for choosing to be you. The thing is, always fight to be steadfast to who you are, because nobody can beat you at that. People will taint your name, call you names, accuse you falsely and do crazy stuff to you, but if you hold onto your dignity and originality, “they’re gonna’ read you in books I tell you”.
- Most times you will find yourself alone
The hardest part of being real is that people or rather most people will tend to alienate you. Apart from your true friends (and by TRUE I mean those that know you personally, and value you), the rest of the crowd will just jump ship the moment they realize you are real to the bone. The main reason why this happens is that fake people like hanging out with fake people. They feel secure when hanging with those of their kind.
Another reason why some of your friends will leave you for keeping it real is that people are naturally afraid of change. Some even get jealous when they realize that a positive transformation is happening in your life. The thing is, always keep in mind that success calls for sacrifices and losing friends is part of the sacrifices. If your friends feel uncomfortable when you talk to homeless people or people of lower caliber than yourself, don’t try and comply with what they want you to do, instead, do that which makes you happy and that which shows what material you’re made of.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
— Friedrich Nietzsche
- People will ridicule you, People will hate you for being yourself
Here’s what most people don’t understand, if people are gossiping about you, believe me, you are important. So important that people can spend their time just talking about you. People don’t gossip about impactless people, they talk about those that are a cut above the rest and if they are gossiping about you then it means you are different from the crowd.
The moment you decide to be real to yourself, to be real with your weaknesses and strengths, everybody will notice it. This is partly because your character will change. For instance, if you were being unkind to people initially, (because your friends were influencing you, or for any other reason) once you realize yourself, you will start being kind to everyone. People who are real to themselves don’t think with the crowd, they don’t conform to crowd judgment. They think independently and do things because those things matter to them. They don’t just do things because everybody is doing them.
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”– Maya Angelou
Just like we said, not everybody will take your character shift positively, some will hate you forever, others will talk about you, but believe me, “That’s part of the price you are paying for making a Successful You”.
Thank you for reading this up to the end, hope you liked it, and if you did share it with your friends and invite people to like Writer Hut. Now Go out there and succeed.