Being relevant year after year and decade after decade is not an easy task, but it’s an impossible task without true authenticity. Understanding and developing your career requires that you have a deep understanding of your authentic self. While this topic usually requires serious naval gazing or sitting at the feet of a guru, this is summer and doing all that seems like a lot of work. So as a primer for the topic of authenticity, I have put together scenes from five of my favorite movies. The fact that all of them are decades old either speaks to my lack of current pop knowledge or a faltering short-term memory.
“MY NAME IS ROGER MURDOCH”
FROM AIRPLANE!
Pretending you’re someone you are not is never going to work–I’ve tried it, trust me. And like this scene from Airplane!, chances are, the real you is even better than the pretend you. Dr. Suess said it best, “There is no one who alive who is youer than you.” When I think back on my career, the times that left me most shame faced were when I was trying oh so hard to be a hotshot copywriter or a big-shot agency president. Ultimately, I needed to learn how to live within my own skin, accept who I am, celebrate the gifts I have been given and work on the ways I fall short. Unfortunately, I still haven’t fully learned my lesson, but I am working on it.
“YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH”
FROM A FEW GOOD MEN
I can’t handle the truth and, chances are, you can’t either. That’s why I hate scales, pictures of myself when I was younger and counting the number of hairs in my comb. But before I can be an authentic individual, I need to know the truth about myself and be willing to represent that truth to others. Let’s say I am meeting someone at a restaurant who has never met me. If I tell that person, “Look for someone who looks a lot like a young George Clooney,” chances are they will never find me. The truth is, I look a lot more like Peter Boyle or the guy who sings the national anthem for the Yankees. Admitting that truth will make it a lot easier for me to be found at restaurants.
“MONGO ONLY PAWN… IN GAME OF LIFE”
FROM BLAZING SADDLES
You may be the center of your universe, but you are not the center of “the” universe. The fact is, we are all here to forward the lives of those around us. If you hope to be relevant, if you hope to matter more, finding fulfillment in helping others is an essential quality. There is nowhere on the agency pecking order where you’re done serving others. As an agency president, my job is to be of service to my clients, my co-workers and all those partners who help make Riley Hayes a success.
“IF WE ONLY HAD A WHEELBARROW”
FROM THE PRINCESS BRIDE
Too often, we don’t understand the tools we have that can help us move forward. If you hope to ever storm the castle, you need to define your strengths so they can be developed to the level of mastery. Secondly, it is important that you use creativity to understand how those tools can be combined to help you truly matter more.
“YOU’VE ALWAYS HAD THE POWER”
FROM THE WIZARD OF OZ
Watching The Wizard of Oz as an adult, has helped me understand an important lesson for my own life. Throughout the movie, Dorothy and her comrades are seeking qualities that they already possess. Long before the Wizard emerges from behind his curtain to dispense the obvious, the Scarecrow has shown his brains, the Tin Man has demonstrated his heart, the Cowardly Lion has proved his courage and most importantly, Dorothy has been walking in her ticket back to Kansas. She wears the ruby-red slippers.
If there are some movie clips that you think do a great job of demonstrating the qualities required to matter more, please send them to me at tom@relevancemattermore.com.
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