An acquaintance of mine is about to publish a book. To say that he’s excited about it is like saying the Empire State Building is tall.
To hear him speak about his project leaves one believing it will be the best book of all time. It might out sell the Bible (6 billion by one estimate). He talks about how much time he spent on it, what he’s doing to promote it, how great it is.
At first, his enthusiasm rubbed me the wrong way. The book might be good, it might not be. But it’s hard to imagine it living up to his predictions. And it didn’t help that I was working on a book of my own. I don’t naturally talk up my work. In fact, I’m more likely to speak dismissively of it.
And then I listened to a Tony Robbins podcast. The podcast was a clip from one of his seminars. He was talking to a member of the audience who used self-deprecating humor in casual conversation. You heard it in his back and forth with Tony. I do the same thing.
To my surprise, Tony admonished him. He said it’s perfectly fine to communicate this way to a point. But taken too far, all you’re doing is putting down your own worth. Why would you do that?
Why would I do that? The work that I do is important. If I don’t recognize that, how will other people?
How important is your work?