Professional

So I’m sitting at Discount tire getting new tires for my wife’s car and as I’m waiting I wanted to take some time and talk about being professional.

There is a stigma in society that you have to be professional at work. If you want to be you do that at home. Who defined professionality, who drew the lines in the sand and said this is professional and this is not? Professional is fake, it’s you pretending to someone or something that your not to try and fit an arbitrary standard created by assumptions and cultural suggestions.

Wearing a suit and tie doesn’t make you professional or skilled at your job. My crew comes to work wearing hoodies and T-shirt’s and the quality of work that they put has gotten us hired by other people in our space. People think that you have to look professional to be professional, not true. Being a professional means that you have the knowledge and skill at your job to accomplish your task. No one says that Steph Curry or LeBron James are professional NBA players because they dress like it. So why do we do this in business?

It’s a tactic, we use dress as a way to help instill confidence in our clients or the people that we work with. “I look the part so I must be able to do the part.” There’s nothing wrong with that if it is about serving the other person. Sure sometimes there’s a dress code and you need to meet that but most the time it’s people trying to create an image that’s not them. I used to it. I need to wear a suit to be accepted by the business world. Lol, I was so wrong.

There is nothing wrong with dressing nice to help people feel more comfortable. But if your dressing to be professional to fit some made up stigma, you're doing it wrong. You should just be you and be ok with that. The first suite you wore didn’t change that neither did the last suite. So just be yourself. Don’t get caught up in this world or that’s professional and what's not. There is no universal standard for that it’s totally subjective just look at the difference in how business is done between the north and south along the east coast. In the north, if you don’t have an office no one will do business with you. Working out of your house or basement isn’t considered professional. In the south it’s normal to have an office in your basement that people come and work at its totally (air quotes) “professional.” It’s all subjective. I’m saying this to stop worrying about crap you don’t need to.