“Congratulations, you’re hired.”

“You’re going to help digitize this place because we’re good at a lot of things, but we don’t have a clue. You’re not the first digital expert we’ve had around here, but maybe you’ll be the first to last. So, don’t worry too much over the people who come by just to get a look at you. You’re exotic.

By the way, Big Jimmy is under pressure from the board on this stuff. Between you and me, he hates it. Thinks this digital stuff is a bunch of A-student crap, to be honest. But he’s got to show the board he tried. So I give you six months at the outside.

My advice to you: He likes results and he likes money. You’d better find a way to show him the money— and sooner rather than later.

Good luck!”

God, how I wish it could start that way every time! I mean, with honesty. The whole awful situation laid out plainly so that you can see it as it is, right from the beginning. Instead of the typical situation. Wherein all the same truths apply. But no one bothers to tell you until your exit interview. With the ink still drying on your employment papers. Your file fresh and neat. Lacking nothing but that one more sheet — the pink one — to close the book on this whole misguided situation.

These are the fast truths. Almost no one feels like a digital expert. I’ve been working on this stuff — intensely, obsessively — since before it became a big thing. I worked on the interactive Kiosks for Ford before there was a commercial Internet. I’ve led blue chip and successful challenger and brilliant start-up businesses to successfully compete in the digital world. I’ve helped blue chip giants like Comcast and Citi go digital. And there are many days and moments when I don’t feel like an expert.

You get a room full of digital experts together, and if they’re in a confessional mood, they’ll all tell you they don’t feel like experts. If you give them a few drinks, they’ll tell you they often feel like frauds.

So, welcome to the Confederacy of Frauds!

And then there are the companies. They are mostly too polite, or too distracted, or too invested in letting you hang yourself with your own power cord to tell you how it really is. Instead, they’ll tell you how excited and committed and ready everyone is. It’s the thing to say. And it might tempt you to think you’re moving in for the long run. You think that cubical is bought and paid for. Actually, it’s rented by someone else and you’re just squatting. Security could come by any time to chuck your ass out. That’s the truth.

Feels good to tell the truth, doesn’t it?

So, what if you are the boss? What if the retrograde organization that you work for is your own small business? And what if the Neanderthal of a boss you work for is you?

Well then, honesty is going to be even more important. So tell yourself the truth. Tell yourself the truth about how much you really want to do this, or not? Admit your feelings of inadequacy. Try not to judge yourself too harshly. Don’t fire yourself before you even begin. After all, you started your own business so you wouldn’t have to work for assholes like you.

Still, you have places to go and people to see. You want, you need, you deserve better results. That is, after all, the promise of going digital. And you’re going to have those results @speed.

So, let’s go!