I have a soft spot for Linkedin.
No, I don’t mean a swamp filled with crocodiles, I mean a soft spot in my heart.
I don’t know why given they think the best way I can improve my career is by going to work for Johnson Controls, but maybe it’s because everyone on there tries so hard to be professional and meaningful and I find it kinda sweet, despite the fact there’s more fiction in there than any Harry Potter book.
Well, I say people try to be professional and meaningful on there but when someone makes a political statement, then all the nutcases and weirdo’s come out to insult and attack.
How do I know this?
Because when BREXIT happened, I wrote how gullible the people who voted leave were and I literally received hundreds of attacking and threatening comments.
Thank goodness I have been getting that on this blog for the last 10 years or it would have really upset me.
So back to the point of this post …
Recently I have seen a massive increase in the sort of ‘inspiration’ stories favoured by self-help gurus and evangelical priests.
You know the kind … the ones ‘with a message’ that are packaged to be truth but are obviously nothing of the sort.
Stuff like this …
See what I mean?
It’s utter bullshit and yet so many seem to be doing it and I just don’t quite understand why.
Do they think they’re inspiring people?
Do they think by writing something someone else said, it makes them look good?
Do they do it to make up for their own lack of career focus or success?
I honestly don’t know but like those religious folk who are on late night TV going on about how they were a drug-fuelled, alcoholic, cripple until God saved them and now they can heal others … it makes me angry.
To be honest, my reaction is out of proportion to what is being said and done. After all, it doesn’t directly affect me and yet I hate that people churn this bullshit out.
I hate that – consciously or not – they are suggesting that everyone and anyone can be successful as long as you blindly believe.
I get we all need faith in what we’re doing, but what pisses me off is it doesn’t talk about the importance of wanting to learn and to improve or even the requirement of talent.
Yes, talent … that thing that seems to have become a dirty word. That thing that seems to be viewed as a divisive reference when the reality is not everyone can be talented in every single thing, because if they were, then they wouldn’t be talented, they’d just be average.
Talent is vital.
That doesn’t mean people with less natural ability in a certain field should be ignored, of course not, but I do get fed up of this attitude amongst companies – and Linkedin commenters – that ‘talent’ is seemingly secondary to attitude or perseverance. Of course those 2 things are very important as well, but effort without ability or vision will only get you – and the company you work for – so far. Talent is something to be celebrated and rewarded and if people worry saying that might offend those without it, then frankly, you’re not representing the sort of standards the truly talented will want to be a part of.
Phew … I feel better for that.
Or I would if the above example was doing or saying what I was criticising it of.
You see when I looked more carefully at the person who posted it, I saw he worked for satirical magazine, The Onion and then realised [or hope he is] he’s taking the piss. This not only means he seems to also share my view that there’s a ton of this rubbish out there right now, but he has just turned it into comedy gold … which means it’s possibly the best ad for the Onion [and his own humour] you could possibly get.
Now if only the others who do this could claim they were doing it for the same reason …