Dressing Sharp
This story is actually in the making. At this point — it’s an idea, a thought really.
The thought is that I actually listen to my Dad’s advice. He’s been telling me to dress sharp to work for as long as I remember, and for some reason or another — I chose to not listen to that advice, making excuses ranging all the way from ‘Steve Jobs wore the same outfit everyday’ to ‘takes way too much time in the morning’.
But recently, I’ve had a chance to really think about it. I don’t really mind looking sharp to work. But putting things into context, I can see why I didn’t.
a. At my very first job — no one else did it unless there was a client meeting (and even then we were far from sharp). I wasn’t paid well at all, and frankly I was kid who thought he knew a lot.
b. When I ran my own business — I never thought it to be important, always kind of assuming that the hustle makes up for the fact that I don’t look the part.
c. Always working with startups kind of promoted the whole laid back — more casual than formal look. Never thought it matters really.
But here is the truth of the situation. I like looking smart — it affects how people perceive you, and as a result treat you differently. I recently had to go through a personality test for an interview and I noticed that who I am to myself was largely different to what others think I am.
Some aspects of which are good and others, not so much. But helped me create a map of things that I want to be known for and others that I need to cut back on. Part of me dislikes that I need to engineer my perception, but I do this for my clients all the time — can’t see a reason to not invest in myself.
So finally, after watching a LOT of Mr.Porter video (love that effortless style feel to it) — I’m working on a plan to bring a business casual sense into my wardrobe and see if that changes the way people engage with me.
I want to broadly monitor two aspects.
A. Do I behave differently?
B. Do people I interact with behave different?
Fears going into this experiment is that I’m afraid I’ll turn into someone who obsesses over what I’m wearing. That is a lot of extra decisions that I don’t want to spend time over. I suspect I’ll have some resistance going in — but as I progress, this should get easier and then I can experiment further ;)
Another fear I have going in is how expensive this is going to be — or just how much time I’ll have to invest into this. I feel the need to create a return on investment measurement on this activity, fully aware that I can’t expect tangible results. Maybe the yes’s over no’s? Or eyeballs?
Also, upkeep. Damn. Okay. Let’s try this before I rethink it all :)
