A Proverb on Self-Promotion

This is the age of self-promotion. Blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, communities, conferences. All for the sake of promoting one’s expertise. A trend I’ve noticed is the super popular blogger / tweeter with thousands of readers and followers, yet they can’t afford a car or a home.

Their level of influence is inflated beyond their success. Some of us prefer popularity and fame that we pursue it to the detriment of other areas of our lives. Proverbs addresses this very issue.

Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant
than pretend to be somebody and have no food.

I know some people who have become financially successful without much self-promotion. They’re not demanding anyone pay attention to hear them speak or read their blog. They just work hard, deliver top quality results, and let others recommend them based on the quality of their work.

In essence, we’ve squandered our time and efforts if we’ve become “somebody” in the eyes of the public and our fame is built on a flimsy foundation. Talking the talk can float some of us by for years… maybe a lifetime. But there is more to life than fame.

In all fairness, I think I should point out that some people chose self-promotion via blogs, forums, conferences, and such because they are not cold calling salespeople. Some of us feel comfortable selling our services to prospects only after they’ve decided we are authorities in our industry.

Though it’s easy to judge, I actively choose not to because I can’t discern who is involved in passive selling and who is only interested in becoming famous. The best we can do is to ask the Holy Spirit to examine ourselves and show us where He’d like to bring truth and transformation.