Presenting your authentic self to the world

4 March 2015 by Catherine Holdsworth in Authentic leadership, Business and finance

Little did Indhuja Pillai realise a few months ago that her dating profile would go viral. Here’s some background context for those who are unfamiliar with this story. Having grown up in India, Pillai’s parents wanted to arrange a marriage for her and set up a profile for their daughter on a specialist site. However, Indhuja was not impressed with their representation of her, for example, they did not mention that she was a tomboy, an atheist, and her lack of desire to have children. This led to her creating her own profile, declaring that she was looking for a man, ‘preferably bearded’ and extra points if he hates children.

Shockingly, this post got thousands of responses from potential suitors as well as messages from those who are thrilled that Pillai is standing up for herself and presenting her authentic character to the world. In Bas Blekkingh’s book, Authentic leadership, readers are encouraged not to hide behind lies and personalities but to be true to themselves in order to succeed in business and areas beyond.

If you’re familiar with online dating, you’ll know how hard it is to navigate the tricky terrain of how much to reveal about yourself, which photos to choose, what to say to your potential matches. How refreshing, then, to see someone be truly honest about what they want. We all know someone who has been on an online date and the person turns out not to be anything like who they were online. Such are the dangers of being inauthentic.

It is clear that Pillai does not need to heed Blekkingh’s advice as she is already blazing her own trail. Though her actions were clearly not conventional and a little risky, the risk paid off. We can all learn a little about the value of being true to ourselves from this. By being authentic and genuine, people are more likely to trust you and open up to you, helping you to succeed in whatever you want. We all know that one person who is a compulsive liar or name-dropper but are they the ones we want to invite to our birthday parties? Not likely. Find the best version of yourself and show that to the world. If you don’t love yourself, nobody else will.

An authentic mission will ensure that you succeed and achieve your goals, according to Blekkingh, and we think so too.