The other night, I went to concert with my wife and we both got dressed up, and she looked amazing. I couldn’t stop looking at her, until I realized that she seemed to be getting uncomfortable from the additional attention from me. This seemed to counter intuitive to me. She looked great, she obviously tried to look good, so I kept complimenting her and probably staring a little more than usual, but isn’t that a good thing??? I am a guy after all, so bare with me… I eventually figure these things out :). It finally hit me, that she probably doesn’t see herself that way. I mean, she always rolls her eyes when I tell her how good she looks anyway, and now it’s been amplified. It just doesn’t fit with her self image. Then I got it… All of us can only accept the attention we think we deserve. Deep, right?
Let me explain what I mean. Take myself for example. I’ve been consulting in SAP for over 16 years. I know my stuff in variant configuration and service management, so when someone asks, I have no trouble telling them, I am VERY good at what I do. Now, the software side of things is another story. I tend to get shy, modest, coy… because I’m a little embarrassed. In my mind, because I don’t have 500 customers or earn $1,000,000 a year doing software, I haven’t hit that comfort level in my own subconscious. When I look at it, logically, it’s ridiculous. I’ve developed some great things, got them certified by SAP, and sold them to actual customers :). Yet, I still struggle to tell people that I build software… I tend to fall back to that default of software “consultant”.
Now, I wish I had some magic answer to change my own self image or tell you how to change yours… But I guess this is just one of those issues that takes time… and a little bit of positive reinforcement. So if any of you would just buy some of my applications or my new book, that will help me a LOT 🙂
Thanks for reading,
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike