When you feel inauthentic, it’s hard to enjoy your business, let alone make it a success. Many business owners, especially introverts, believe they have to put their real passions to the side and focus their business choices on what’s “safe.” While this may seem like the practical decision, it’s actually a huge error. “It’s always going to come back to being authentic.” - Founder of billion-dollar brand UGG Boots Click To Tweet Authenticity and Business Growth
Brian explains how this approach grew UGG to a billion-dollar company. At least at the start, we’re much better off focusing on a niche we know well and that we’re passionate about. The problem is, this just doesn’t work for most introverts. You want to be able to sell ice to Eskimos. You’ve heard these sales maxims many times: You’ve got to have the gift of the gab. How Being Authentic Leads to More Ideal Customers In this episode of The Introvert’s Edge, Brian Smith, the founder of UGG Boots, shares why he sees no other option than total authenticity, despite the business “risk” it may seem to entail.
This means that trying to bend ourselves to the market instead of focusing on our true passions ends up making us feel incongruent, fake, and miserable. Introverts are more likely to focus on authenticity as a core business value. Traditional business advice includes ideas such as, “Find an unmet need in the market and create an offering around it.” But this is a terrible suggestion for introverts.