I Am Not An Intern
But I play one on TV.
Actually...that's me in the blue shirt playing an intern on the ABC show, Nashville. No joke.
The "Fake It Till You Make It" philosophy gets a bad rap. But there's actually a psychological value to pretending you are something that you're not. Many of us never think we're qualified for that new position or challenge. And maybe we're not qualified. But it's this fear of doing new things that often keeps us from doing great things.
Almost every great entrepreneur had little to no experience with making successful businesses, but they took a risk and got lucky. It's almost like they were just guessing...
So maybe we should all start pretending we're something that we're not and take some risks.
In a TED Talk on the power of body language, social psychologist Amy Cuddy discusses this idea of "faking it till we make it" but with a positive spin. She talks about how we can convince ourselves that we are capable of doing more through the simple act of pretending. The whole talk is worth your time, but here's a clip of a powerful anecdote that she shares about a time when she faked it until she made it.
So maybe I'm just pretending to be an intern, doing all the things I believe a good intern would do. Does this make me a fraud? Maybe it does. But the way I see it, what's the difference between pretending to be a good intern and actually being one? The work of a good intern is being done regardless of the authenticity of my intern-ness. Therefore, I will continue to fake it, and I encourage you to join me. And who knows, maybe we'll do something great because of it.
I'd like to think I'm pulling it off alright...
