Build-in-Public: End of the Fishy Inside, Flashy Outside Era!
Why we can run (and fail) but not hide from a new Build-in-Public reality.
My lived experiences of helping people develop products, build companies in PUBLIC.
Why are Professionals not Building in Public?
Arijit Singh’s entire music-life (yes both music-and-his-life) starting as a teenager, including most of his tough struggles with mentors, judges, filmstars are all available on Youtube. Many of the SharkTank entrepreneurs/investors are building companies partially-but-practically in the public eye. This phenomenon is not new. Sachin Tendulkar built his entire career, even his GOD-of-Cricket identity, in the public eye and that started 30 years ago. Whether it is the journey of Anurag Kashyap as an Independent Filmmaker, or Independent Music Creators (Sonu Nigam / Jubin Nautiyal / Arijit Singh ), or many Independent Journalists/Authors, most have taken root and are built in public. Then why, are cutting-edge App Developers, Independent Entrepreneurs, Indie SaaS software makers, or Independent Business Professionals not building their careers and companies in Public, when most other creators are??
Public-Scrutiny
Well, for starters, most professionals, consultants and entrepreneurs are in denial, and withdraw themselves into private-mode, for fear of being exposed. We can all run (and fail) but no longer hide. Have you seen Uber Drivers, Swiggy Delivery boys, who need the star ratings or rankings from Public for every task, even if it is just for Rs 25? Gig-economy has been in our face for some time now, so all our Careers and Businesses can no longer be built privately, in the false-cocoon of private-corporates and behind closed-company walls. YES, this is the harsh truth. Speaking specifically about Entrepreneurship, Private Limited Company is to only limit personal financial-liability, it no longer shields Entrepreneurs from Public scrutiny of their emotional turmoils, intellectual mindsets and daily actions. In essence, it does not guard them from who they are! Ill-equipped to handle such public scrutiny, coupled with false-harmony within oneself, and institutionalized into toxic-cultures like Fake it, till you Make it, most professionals and entrepreneurs retreat into their degenerative comfort-zones and derailing false-hoods.
Ratings-and-Rankings
The old era of running businesses and building careers opaquely, within the confinements of Fishy Private Deals and Contracts are passé, both at the level of company deals, as well as individual employment offers. These deals may be hard-fought and legitimate, but they are not transparent to the Public-eye as compared to how rankings-and-ratings are deemed, and hence all private-builds will be deemed fishy. Do you wonder why, so much time gets consumed in Employee Verification, Reference-check and Screening-of-candidates even though they are professionals? Or why private-companies doing professional work pay to be on Gartner/Forrester ratings? Clearly, everything written on the Resume/PR are deemed fishy and hence the 3rd party scrutiny! So, as a developer automatically your github ranking, outweighs your linkedin profile. So what is your github ranking Mr. Programmer? As an entrepreneur how can you prove the provenance of your business-growth in public, Mr. Founder?
Build In Public
3 years ago, Pieter Levels popularized “Build in Public” for independent software makers, and even published MAKEBOOK (makebook.io), and now “Build in Public” is already a movement among indie software makers.
I personally through Makers Practice (this very blog, records and reflects on many of those experiences) over the past 3 years, have deliberately tried to help professionals become more transparent, self-actualized, community-conscious and have been slowly gearing them to become publicly vulnerable. My own journey in the past few months of trying to become a catalystor-coach and write a book, is based on building-it-in-public, as I simultaneously grapple to embrace the digital-medium to build-in-public fully. Compared to independent music creators, indie film makers, cricketers and cab-drivers, the corporate paycheck-based professionals and software-based app/game makers, may have realized “build in public” very late, but since they are mostly digital, they may use cutting-edge and latest means, compared to other fields.
My lived experience dealing with such clients however is that, more than 95% of corporate professionals, including founders of many software ventures are blissfully unaware of the tectonic shift that has occurred. Committing to building our entire-work-lives in public (not just our careers and businesses), under intense scrutiny, while handling continuous feedback along the way, this trend, has now reached a point-of-no-return and is inescapable. I feel, this shift towards building-in-public begins by being authentic, vulnerable, open for public-criticism. Yet, as even data below suggests, most entrepreneurs try and build from an understanding of the problem, outside-of-them.
All those glittery and shiny problems that promise goodies and rewards (frills, thrills and drills) is where the focus is on, instead of starting with the wounds within (skill-and-will), and trying to be a Wounded Healer. And yes, 90% of Entrepreneur’s fail and the rates are only increasing, but more damaging is that, they are rarely seen as authentic, since they never focused and solved an internalized problem in the first place.
Flashy Outside Fishy Inside
Most resumes (more than 90%) never include failures, never even mention shortcomings and struggles. They are all-HITS and no-SHITS. This kind of a society where most of us are groomed and institutionalized to be Flashy Outside, has crumbled. Even worse, if we maintain a Fishy Inside, alongside our Flashy Outside, by compartmentalizing our Private Lives against our Professional Lives, and nurture an asymmetric equation with our SELF vs SELF-IMAGE, as articulated in the previous 2 blogs here and here, we are doomed sooner than later. (e.g. Tiger Woods, Tony Hsieh, etc).
In fact, the sooner we own-up our SHIT, and the faster we seek to overcome our own absurdities-and-dubious natures, the better HELP, we will find for ourselves. In that regard, its imperative that we need to begin our SELF-ACTUALIZATION by building-ourself-in-public. Starting to know ourself, living conscious examined lives, and trying to actualize our individual-SELF and the individual-difference that is uniquely ours, no matter how weirdly unique we are, is hence a powerful journey and enriching process. However, this journey cannot be a lone-wolf journey. In a hyper connected world, where everyone walks-and-talks alike, to be unlike any-other, we will need to not only be SELF-AWARE, we also need compassionate friends, empathetically-sparring partners and psychologically-safe spaces to help us get in touch with our true-SELF, find our own-niche and navigate the terrains of Building-in-Public.
Further Exploration: Empathetically-Sparring Partners
When we Build in Public, authenticity is everything. Authenticity is that quality where we own our SELF, no matter how damaged it is, and Actualize it.
“Authenticity consists in having a true and lucid consciousness of the situation, in assuming the responsibilities and risks that it involves, in accepting it in pride or humiliation, sometimes in horror and hate.” — Jean Paul Sartre
Hence without being fragile with our lopsided and one-sided view, of trying to always be friendly or nice, sometimes we need to embrace hostility and might have to confront people around us, and be ready to face-and-confront our own-selves in-return. Such confrontation is best experienced with Sparring Partners who have highest empathy and our best interests in mind. Empathetic sparring in its foremost nature is a form of training. It is hence a life skill, with techniques and practices that involve a high degree of heartfelt expressions. Its not loose and brutal trolling or criticizing. It’s measured, composed and conscious. It will help you develop muscles to deal with equanimity, both the fire-and-heat as well as the cold-and-icy prickly responses that might come your way, when you Build-in-Public. In my own personal life, I have had the good fortune of having friends who have been Sparring partners for most of my Adult life, starting with my school friends and even in my Engineering college life. Arun in the photo below has been one such backer, a friend, philosopher, guide and most importantly a sparring partner, who has stood with me through many thick-and-thins, hits-and-shits.
Build-in-Public: Co-holding the Professional and Prostitute within you.
Privately corrupt (fishy) but Publicly kosher (flashy) asymmetric compartmentalization, has left us, both as fragmented societies and fragile individual-selves. When you are constantly under Public-scrutiny, the false-cliche and PR-facade, of being Publicly-kosher gets dismantled. Gagandeep Singh, a fellow OD consultant surmises that Unleashing the Prostitute within, is a way to survive the Gig-Economy. Given that even top-cricketers get auctioned and are traded in open markets, prostitute-archetype may not be unreal. Brutal as it might seem, metaphorically getting naked and being radically transparent to survive in the market, will probably unleash a new breed of highly-skilled prostitute archetypes. But let me add, Gagan also reminds us, that may be some of us, don’t need to just think of surviving.
Perhaps we can all make a conscious choice to move beyond Surviving towards Thriving and Flourishing. Just like Cricketers, who regularly do Private Net-practice, and deliberately seek to flourish, while publicly they are subjected to bidding-wars. In a similar way, most professionals, need to co-hold and unleash within us, both the Privately-Professional (with empathetic-sparring partners) and Publicly-Prostitute (with market-led demolition of mediocrity). This new context of Build-in-Public, will automatically demolish mediocrity, so the Public-space is set, and here to stay for most professions. However, in the Private-space, we can and must build empathetic-sparring partners around us, who will deliberately help us become privately-professional, further fostering and curating a thriving SparFrat (sparring fraternity), enabling most of us to ultimately flourish in the Public-space too.
We at Maker’s Practice are ready to help you co-hold and embrace this new reality. Are you? If this post has created at least intellectual curiosity, please leave a comment and please share and socialize it, with like-minded sparring partners, and help us actualize the build-in-public-partners of tomorrow.
