Yesterday I revealed the four secrets that bald men know that might lead you to success and happiness in business.
Here’s the second secret:
Never hide or conceal your glorious head. You’ve seen them - bald men too timid to embrace their destiny. Wigs and toupees are almost always obvious, and worse, the comb overs, flaps, fluffed up fuzz and numerous awful hairstyles that attempt and almost always fail at concealing a beautiful bald head. It’s pointless and it attracts attention to them rather than distract or deceive. I’ll also throw in those obvious and bad dye jobs, too (good hair coloring, especially for women, can be natural and attractive, but men in their seventies with jet-black hair are fooling no one but themselves).
They’d feel so much better if they’d just let go, cut those stragglers off, free themselves and stop being ridiculous. Yes, I’m talking to you, Donald Trump.
When I embrace my baldness, no one gives me a second look. But I see how people react to those who attempt to cover and conceal. They’re objects of ridicule. I often want to go up to them, pull them aside, and tell them, “Buddy, I don’t know you, but as an official bald man I have to tell you, just let it go.” But I don’t do that. Often.
Now the leap from metaphor to business: every venture has its strengths and weaknesses, as well as unique qualities that others might regard as flaws. If what others perceive as a flaw isn’t something you can change and, frankly, doesn’t affect the quality of your offering, then rather than conceal it, embrace it.
Let’s say, for example, you want to stay small in business and you have to charge more to make it worth your while. Embrace it! Especially if you’re very good at what you do. Let everyone know that you’re the top with quality and you charge for it. Work with your customers to let them sing your praises and have them mention that they paid more and were happy to do it. Go bald and go big — in celebrating the high quality of your small business.
What you have to look out for in your life and your business is when you’re hanging onto a past success that just doesn’t work any more; in fact, it makes you appear oblivious to the current market. For example, are you still paying for a Yellow Pages ad, even though you’re not sure you get any business from it? That advertisement is your comb-over. Shave it off.
And what about your web site? If you designed it yourself and web design isn’t your business, I’m betting it sucks (yes, sucks) and everyone knows it. It’s hurting you. Even if you had a pretty good site, but it’s more than two years old, it’s probably not doing what it should for you. A good design, taking advantage of your business strengths and the latest Internet technologies, will bring you new business. Is your current site doing that? If not, shave it off and start over.
Do yourself a favor. Look in the mirror every once in a while. Examine yourself. Find what is really great about you and what you do and get rid of everything else.
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