You wake up every morning. Turn off the alarm and drag your limp body out of bed to prepare your morning routine. A shower, a comb through the hair and a cup of coffee later, you glance at yourself in the mirror— check yes or no—and head out into the world. On your way to work you see that person who always has Starbucks sitting by that person who always has designer boots on- they are laughing and appear to have it all. You have made partial decisions in your head about who they might be. What their home life is like. The kinds of people they date. You have judged the book by its cover.
Throughout your life on an average, you will impact 80,000 humans. Most of them will know us to the extent of “that person who”. “That person who always wears black clothing.” “That person who has purple hair.” etc. So the question is, what kind of “that person” are you— and how do you know if your cover is a best seller? How do we determine our best selling cover?
The Dark Thriller
The first best selling cover is the cover you show because you are ashamed of who you are. It is literally a “cover”. You may be insecure about something in your life— physically, emotionally or spiritually. This is a cover you put on to impress people and lure them in but they would have no interest in your story. It has little to say about who you are. This may be the poor college student intern at the office who borrowed her rich friend’s Gucci handbag to appear well off— in this situation you're selling an idea, not your true self.
The Autobiography of Johnny Appleseed
The main difference between these two covers is one is who you want people to think you are and who you are. The latter is a cover that allows your personality to shine and tell your story. This is you 100% being you. This cover tells the world that you have a story and people who are lured by you might be interested in it. This cover might be the person who is VP of Marketing but still wears flip-flops in the office because he’s from Hawaii and that’s how they do it. His cover is selling a reflection of who he is.
Double Check
Lastly, there are covers that we wear that are above who we are and are more about respect. Professionalism is a cover that all of us have to wear at times- maybe in an interview or at your partner’s work party. This also could be a time when you are attending a religious ceremony. There are positives and negatives to this cover— but make sure you are being true to yourself at the end of the day.