Modesty Blaise is a British comic strip featuring a fictional character of the same name, created by author Peter O’Donnell and illustrator Jim Holdaway in 1963. But the rant below is far removed from that.
It’s a day and age when vanity and vanilla metrics are omnipresent. The biggest of them engage in shameless narcissism and self-promotion. Being heard, seen, spoken about, consumed, revered, shared and more is the order of the never ending day.
Why does self-promotion have a bad name? Why is it labeled an act of being shameless? Quixotic to say the least.
Do we all have million of dollars to spread the word on our new product, service or solution? Most certainly not. If we don’t tell the world about our work or art or creation, who will? And while we do that we are actually exhibiting courage to take the good with the bad, the rough with the smooth, being accepted or rejected. The risks and the upsides are both omnipresent. If you have build or created something and do nothing to promote it, the one word that will come to people’s mind to address you would be ‘weirdo‘.
Self-promotion is never to be a carte blanche to intrude, spam or take advantage of. The objective is to do it with grace,(most certainly)permission and respect. Please don’t consider someone else’s inbox to be your winbox.
Ideas are plenty but ideas without action are regrets. If you create something worthwhile and don’t tell the world about it, the potential users will not turn up. If you are working for a charity and don’t do what you have to, there won’t be any donors queuing up. If you are an author and don’t promote your book or blog or newsletter, the readers will stay away.
Your voice can trigger change, opinion and add more voice muscle. People like us do things like this. Your art will enable another person or communities’ art. Your blog can inspire others to start writing and finding their inner calling. Unless you want to ‘Die Empty‘(I wrote a blog on this some time ago and if you are keen you could access it at https://www.sureshdinakaran.com/blog/2022/04/10/die-empty/ ) and take your unwritten and unreleased book, music, poems, inventions, big ideas to the grave, show up and ship out. Wield the megaphone, go to the rooftop and tell the world about it with respect, permission and grace.
So, what we have to be actually shameful about is create something that can better and enrich other people’s lives but refrain from doing so. That will be selfish. That is when you need to feel guilty. Not otherwise.
Self-promotion comes with the caveat of rejection.So, when you are sticking your neck out, you are showing courage. To be vulnerable, to be unselfish. To put your ego on the back burner. Wear a new lens on self-promotion and see that as an act of kindness, grace, sharing..
The biggest of marketers, brands, organisations, mega celebrities do self-promotion all the time. Out of sight can also be out of mind. So, mind it!
ENDS