Can you really fake it to make it? Does bluffing – or even, arguably, “manifesting” lead to success? Gareth Edwards, by email
Readers reply
Far better, in my opinion, for individuals to find and be true to themselves and play to their strengths. Almost everyone has talents and almost everyone can develop skills. This isn’t about someone being told to “stay in their lane” or discouraging learning: it’s about everyone finding their little niche in society and respecting that that’s simply what the rest of us are doing. Dorkalicious
Simply imagining success is rarely enough. Evidence suggests that visualisation is most effective when it is combined with realistic appraisal, concrete planning, and sustained effort. Techniques such as mental contrasting, where a person considers a desired future alongside the obstacles in the way, have been shown to increase commitment and effort, particularly when the goal feels attainable. Research indicates that manifesting can support success when it combines mental rehearsal, realistic assessment, personally meaningful goals, and deliberate action, rather than relying on wishful thinking alone. Rachel Lewis, chartered member of the British Psychological Society
I believe athletes “manifest” improvements to their performance. It sounds a bit woo-woo but I don’t think it is. Likewise “fake it to make it”. Presumably down to the brain’s ability to rewire itself; repetitive thinking or behaviours eventually become the norm. LellyJo
Does bluffing lead to success? “Come on, Harry. I haven’t won, have I? Go on – you’re pulling my leg. What about that, Jack? Old Harry thought I was having him on.” EddieChorepost
“My uncle told me, ‘Dave, in all things in life, sincerity is the key; once you can fake that, you’ve got it made!’” – David Lee Roth. Or, quite possibly, Jean Giraudoux. EBGB
An oft-cited Hewlett-Packard study found men apply for jobs if they meet around 60% of the qualifications, while women only if they meet 100%. This empirically suggests that men, at least, very much initially fake it. But it isn’t necessarily a bad thing . Evidence also strongly suggests that the best, most deeply learnt lessons that result in the most competent individuals come from hard-won experience of trial and error – something you only gain by persuading someone to let you straight in at the deep end. The problem is often not so much overconfident individuals per se but organisations having no system of default “training wheels” to keep them doing harm while they flounder around – often because in the name of “efficiency” there is no longer bandwidth available for effective oversight and mentorship (including, of course, learning those very skills in the first place). HaveYouFedTheFish
LinkedIn is crammed full of people trying to find out. And I’ve had enough senior managers who have no skills other than an overpowering self-confidence and a lack of shame in their own self-promotion to suggest it does work. Andy, West Oxfordshire, by email
I suspect the answer is not yes or no but “to some extent depending on context”: a total fake is likely to be rumbled but also “in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king”. Daniel Kenning, by email
Of course, and per Ed Zitron and Cory Doctorow, a large number of people in middle and upper management have done exactly that. Management has become an end unto itself, and the employees, customers, the product, or the health of the company itself just don’t enter into it. This is similar to the Peter principle of earlier generations, but is more performative. Nowhere is this clearer than in the rage against remote working. Managers, who know little about the actual business or the product, could no longer perform “management” unless their staff were in physical proximity. Entire levels of management are making it by faking it. Elric17, by email
It is if you’re employed to sell photocopiers. RosiesDad
While working I came across a number of individuals who had mastered appropriate buzz-words and phrases around in vogue risk topics who then proceeded to pass off themselves as “expert” in that particular field. When challenged to provide in-depth explanations or insights, the resultant incoherent bullshit could be quite hilarious – in short, purveyors of smoke and mirrors, sole expertise being the vending of snake oil. Miffed2
Nothing gives you the right to mislead the people who are paying you and to underperform while they fund your lifestyle, not to mention the impact on customers and your colleagues. PRCA01
I recall a discussion about interviews with my father when I asked: “But what if you don’t think you can do the job?” His advice was: “Worry about that once you have it!” Paulo777
I once worked alongside someone who lied about almost everything on his résumé. He used AI to generate methods for our very technical field, and everything failed. He spent a year building something that was junk. He offered to continue working, but the boss decided that a year was enough. He has a different job in the same organisation. Has he “made it”? Name withheld
Fakery in a professional situation is such a waste of everyone’s time. It’s an affront to every professional woman, and man, who has put in the time and effort to hone their skills and perfect their craft. Even worse, the difficulty/trouble of getting rid of them once they’re exposed. They leave a trail of destruction in their wake: damage working relationships between colleagues; undermine the reputation of a practice and its commercial success. DubGirl
Yes, if you’re a successful faker. Choose your scams carefully, though, you don’t want the “great pretender” label. TopGyre
Wing it for long enough and sometimes you find yourself actually flying … VonKnobbshafft
We live in a world suffused with a toxic miasma of superficial judgments fuelled by a “cart before horse” hiring mentality, and this arena is what demands the skill of “professional pretending”. The real meaning of the adage isn’t that “faking it” will, on its own, get you to where you want to go. Instead, it means you can’t allow superficial judgements to slow you down. Professional growth is currently a two-front battle where you have to both rise to the occasion in your own time while simultaneously convincing the naysayers (including yourself) that you are, in fact, good enough at what you do.
I would much prefer a culture of constructive professional mentorship over the everyone-for-themselves system of cloak-and-dagger diplomacy. Anybody I mentor will, for now, get some version of “fake it till you make it”. I would include a caveat, however, about not being delusional about one’s own capabilities, and to instead approach the looming impostor syndrome with a sense of self-forgiveness, rather than trying to pretend there isn’t a gap at all.
There’s actually a certain paradox in being a professional, which is that you will never, ever be “good enough” in a pure sense. As you understand something better, your notion of what kind of work is “best” continues to grow and your standards continue to elevate. Even if others perceive you as excellent at what you do, you will always be acutely aware of all the things you would have to research or review to do tasks you know you’ve already done in the past.
I think, however, that this is OK. Let’s say you are approached for a task in your wheelhouse that you know you wouldn’t be able to do on the spot. However, you know that, given some time to learn, it is something you can accomplish. In this situation, I think it is perfectly OK to tell someone: “I can do it.” This is not deceit; this is good professionalism, and the sign of a healthy sense of self-confidence. lycheefoxpup
I wonder if it works with dating? Smile enough and one day I might meet someone I click with. I think lots of faking it will be required but needs must, I am not doing another five years of tumbleweed. No one’s fault, I’m happy enough. Listenforonce
I’ve worked alongside three senior academics whose intellectual prowess barely exceeded that of the radiator that warmed their offices. I’ve worked alongside at least three more whose undoubted intellectual prowess was used for anything other than the pursuit of intellectual rigour. At least on these cases, faking it definitely leads to making it. Veraanthony
I’d say you can but unless you are really good at it you won’t last long. Unfortunately it does also have the side effect of encouraging people to have a go when they really shouldn’t. andya2015
Up to a point, starting out at something new tends to create impostor syndrome, to feel that you’re faking it. An area I have a lot of experience in is art, and most people seem to have the expectation they’ll be brilliant straight away and if they’re not they’ve failed and should give up. But how can you get good at anything if you don’t practise? The only way to master it is to keep doing it, enjoying the fails as much as the successes, because both are learning opportunities.
There are many times I’ve heard people berating themselves, getting agitated, tearing their work up or storming out because they don’t meet their own expectations. But that way you set yourself up for failure. I love learning, and the opportunities for learning through trying are endless. LorLala
Fake it to make it, and its less nefarious version called manifesting, are not strategies that provide long-term success. It relies on someone above you giving you more opportunities based on your “potential”, and therefore will hit a dead-end when there is no one else left to give you those opportunities, or because you are eventually perceived more as a threat by the person above you and thus become limited to being that person’s lackey at best. You also recognise this limitation and thus content yourself to being a lackey for a long time, hoping for further advancement on the basis of being the default choice for successor when your superior eventually goes away.
Additionally, you will always be limited to roles in organisations where direct results (eg medicine, engineering, etc, where proof of results are directly external to the people involved) are irrelevant and will eventually be beaten by a better version of you. In the end, you end up miserable and wondering what you wasted your life on. Might be acceptable for some people, but not as much for many others. Avatar
From a collectivist point of view, such fakery is poisonous, so “success” would mean its suppression. In critical portrayals of competitive, status-oriented conspicuous-consumer societies, such behaviours (of “pseuds”, or “phonies” from the perspective of Holden Caulfield in JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye) are corrosive to patterns of interaction, and dangerous to public health. Even successful practitioners can become extremely cynical and even experience self-loathing. The ancient “man is wolf to man” trope is usually applied as a preface to social disaster.
In some professions fakery seems to be a requirement: acting, the military, clerics, economics, politics. SleepingDog
Absolutely. And for the absolute one-off, never to be repeated bargain price of £5,000, I can teach you how! sparklesthewonderhen
I’ve heard that it’s possible – but it’s always seemed underhand – inauthentic – or worst of all – being a martyr. Much prefer “What you see is what you get”. But that’s the personal relationship end of this.
Professionally – I’d be concerned if I was dealing with someone deliberately pretending. But then I had impostor syndrome all through my career – and it was always a pleasant surprise if colleagues commented on my competency … dapperdanielle
Whenever I feel impostor syndrome in my job, I remind myself that Liz Truss was once prime minister. librarian83
No, yes, maybe. It depends on who you are and what you’re attempting to fake, then make. MatronNo5org
Not if you’re interested in being an astronaut. Sagarmatha1953
Ask any working actor who has had to be convincing at an audition, however terrified or good-looking they may be. Keep smiling. RPOrlando, by email
Read The Curious Case of Mike Lynch: The Improbable Life and Death of a Tech Billionaire and you will see, yes, you can. In fact, most tech startups that make it, do just that – floating on the Stock Exchange, while working out of a flat with a few employees. woodworm20
