In a fiercely competitive world, failure is inevitable, if you don’t promote your attributes and traits. Self-promotion aka self-praise is a crucial element to people’s success in receiving favours from biggies, finding a job, finding a ministerial berth, moving up to a better one and negotiating a quantum rise in career. Letting others know, ‘what-your-achievements-are’, enables you to seize opportunities to set yourself apart from the competition. Self-branding is a clear, deep and profound understanding of ‘who-you’re’ and ‘what-you-stand-for’. It’s a helping tool, no matter people resort to bragging or pretense, for a quest to understand what one excels in and then leveraging on those attributes to create a brand called ‘ME’.
Currying favour with someone important for a rise or windfall is something like all about sales: the product you’re selling is ‘YOU’. If you’re unable to convey the “product” attributes/benefits, it’s more challenging to convince a potential buyer to go for it. If you don’t ‘toot-your-horn’, nobody else will do it for you— maybe your mom/wife, but she can’t call every employer on your behalf. People expect superiors to point out their merit to others. But then even though the bosses know that ‘the-empty-vessels-make-much-noise’ they’re not usually interested in differentiating a deserving individual from a non-deserving bunch of skilled self-marketers-around-leaders. An extrovert wordsmith, with couch-the-words-abilities, brands himself effectively. The low-keyed, non-assertive and undemonstrative introvert, however, fails, because he doesn’t toot his horn and/or organize to articulate his success openly and outlandishly. The bottom line is that be proud of you and your accomplishments and market yourself effectively. You’ll be surprised to find a huge market existing there.
An ‘in-thing’ kind of gesture, instrumental in demonstrating something that is owned (and done) only by the high-status individual is, in fact, the ‘in-the-know’ thing exclusive to the elite brand of high-status individuals. The low-status members of social hierarchy blatantly mimic and boast status in a small boy’s manner, ‘I-did-it-better-than-you, no-you-did-not, I-did-it’, indulge in name-dropping and steering discussions boast-ward. Impressed with ourselves and admiring our talents, possessions, looks and status many of us deceive ourselves into believing that we’re better than others meaning thereby that we’re at par with the elite brand of ‘inheritors’ and ‘top-guys’. Because their success is visible, genuine high achievers, don’t feel inclined to boast or highlight to others how much better they’re than everyone else. These fellows are a tad more humble. They remain always so and earn, and not seek, the respect of others. They that boast their failures/under-achievements are, however, scarce as hen’s teeth.
From the day one we’re born and all through our youth, we’d be overly praised for our accomplishments. As toddlers when we first said ‘mama’, we’re given a big hug. When we made our first drawing of a house, which looked more like a house after a tornado had struck it, the drawing was hung on the wall for all to see and admire. Then one day, we’re taught that when we bring our accomplishments to the attention of others, it’s nothing but “bragging”. And what used to get praise now gets scorn. At some time or the other, most of us are guilty of boasting and bragging ourselves up. For many of us living life, minus praise, is just not possible. As for others without it, the desire for achievement is lost. For them, boasting and bragging are necessary for all great achievements. The high-end boasters have no limits. Sitting antsy, ready to burst they just can’t wait to tell others all, how fantastic they are, how they’re good at this and even better at that—virtually all the wild and outrageous things in the world. They claim to be enlightened, wise, and highly intellectual and may tell you that they’re so popular that you should be honoured if they choose you to spend their day with. Wallowing in ignorance or a simple pretense and shamelessly and recklessly disregardful of the feelings of the audience, these word-slingers hardly realize that the audience is mostly not interested in their ‘bragging’ about riches and daring exploits.
They, who really do believe they can do all the things they can claim to do, and yet cannot, are somewhat delusional. They appear to feel fine to blow their achievements and talents out of proportion. What prompts the grand delusions (of grandeur) is a mystery. The line between modesty and good self-promotion is a fine one. For boasters, the confusion about humility and modesty continues throughout their adult lives. They attempt to defend themselves with their boasts rather than boasting about boasting sake. When they feel under fire, their means of defence is to tell others how great they’re and belittle others in the process. As one looks at boasters/braggarts and their idiosyncrasies, the questions arise why do people boast, why do they behave this way and do they really believe in their own hype? And that too when they know all of the immature favourites—conceited, show-off, braggart, arrogant, and egotistical etc. Nobody wants to fall victim to such name-calling.
To brag is to glorify oneself in speech or talk in a self-admiring way. Self-promotion is to make one’s own accomplishments, talents, and potential contributions known to others. The difference isn’t in what you say, but how, why, and to whom you say it. When it’s aimed at making ourselves feel good, it’s then that we’re actually proud of our accomplishments and therefore filled with an inner desire to share the news with others. When we want to make others feel inferior, we speak of accomplishments or talents to prove our superiority, most certainly to be seen as boasting or bragging. If we intend to get others to like or respect us, it’s then that we use it as a form of self-promotion, but for the wrong reasons. When we attempt to get others to trust us, it’s then that, while dealing with these people, we confidently state our credentials to earn our trust. Finally when we do it to prove ourselves in a business situation, bragging, minus the self-admiring attitude, is considered good self-promotion.
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