Why An Obsession With Self-Promotion Can Limit Your Success
Today's foremost marketers and career professionals advise us to build our personal brands online and in the workplace, selling ourselves as valuable assets companies should desire.
But David Zweig, author of "Invisibles: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion," thinks this drive to continually self-promote has gotten out of control.
"We live in a culture that values attention above all else," he tells Business Insider. And the quality of work is one of the first things to be ignored.
He sees shameless self-promotion all over social media, of course, but also in the office. Zweig's noticed a trend toward professionals needing everyone to know about their successes, sending self-congratulatory emails or pestering their bosses for attention.
Zweig doesn't just find it annoying. He thinks this intense need for attention is keeping people in all kinds of industries from focusing on the quality of their work and even their happiness.
In his new book "Invisibles," Zweig argues that we could all benefit from studying the greats behind the scenes, from the architect of the tallest skyscraper in China to Radiohead's guitar tech.
These invisibles, as he calls them, are able to work for the feeling of a job well done, rather than a pat on the back. Zweig has found that this type of person consistently has three traits: ambivalence toward recognition, meticulousness, and savoring of responsibility.
"It's paradoxical, but seemingly the way to achieve external rewards like money and recognition at the highest level is to not be focused on them but rather to be driven toward intrinsic goals," Zweig writes.
He highlights the career of satirist Neal Pollack to show how abandoning a humble work ethic for an obsession with self-promotion can lead to failure.
An emerging writer at the time, Pollack's 2007 memoir "Alternadad" net him a six-figure advance and tons of media coverage. His ego blew up, and even inspired him to start a band and go on a nationwide tour for a cross-promotion with the book.
The media attention got him both a sitcom and movie deal, which inspired him to move to Los Angeles. He tried starting an online community for parents, also tied to his book.
"I was trying to turn 'Alternadad' into some massive multimedia empire. And I failed!" Pollack told the A.V. Club in 2013. The sitcom and movie both fell through, and despite all the hype, the book sold a mere 10,000 copies.
"Instead of doing what I did well, which was write, I was trying to cash in big time and become some mogul," he said. "I wasn't doing what I dreamed of doing, which was be a writer. Instead I was just a salesman."
Of course, Zweig tells us that a degree of self-promotion is important - you and your work will never be recognized if no one knows what you're up to.
But he thinks it is dangerous to associate an increase in attention with success, rather than the other way around.
Otherwise, we'll all just be miserable jerks unable to effectively collaborate with each other.
Florida State psychologist Roy Baumeister, who's studied self-esteem trends throughout his long career, told Psychology Today last year, "My recommendation is this: Forget about self-esteem and concentrate more on self-control and self-discipline. Recent work suggests this would be good for the individual and good for society."
As Zweig tells us, "I've found myself on Twitter trying to get more followers. And then I've realized I'd have done more for myself if I had just spent that hour writing something."