By Goretti Kimani
One fundamental weakness of humankind is the desire to be perceived as doing well. We all want our friends to believe we are doing well, with flourishing careers and happy families. Nobody wants their weaknesses and struggles out in the open.
And to do this, people will go to great lengths to conceal their true position in life. And when we have a problem, we hope that we can hide our problems long enough to give us time to recover and get things back on course.
Though this may be a natural survival tactic, it will not work in all instances. One such case is in career building. Like a house built on sand, any career built on falsehoods is likely to crumble sooner or later.
There are people lie about everything at work. They will lie about their age, marital status, whether or not they have children, and even their family background. Others will distort their school or college grades; create counterfeit certificates and testimonials or even make up a reasons for changing jobs.
Yet others will distort a variety of facts to their favour, including past job descriptions, the number of subordinates and even income. Some even create different sets of CVs to suit the different jobs applied for.
Distorting facts
But why spend so much time and energy distorting facts? The main reasons are insecurity and ego. Many people fear that they may not get a good deal if they tell the truth. Moreover, they think the market will perceive them as weak if they spill the beans. Others simply want to massage their ego or maintain some desired false identity.
No matter how enticing it might look, distorting facts is dangerous for your career. The hard truth is that it is difficult to maintain a false profile. Sooner or later the truth will inevitably emerge.
Many companies have elaborate mechanisms of establishing the true background of every employee they take on. So having falsehoods on your CV is akin to letting a ticking time bomb sit by your life. Other concealed facts just resurface without any warning, albeit with some hot drama. There are many cases where some men passed themselves off as single only for a wife and several malnourished children to appear at the work place to the utter dismay of everyone.
Continuous self-improvement
The way forward is only one to be true to yourself and build a career on truth. Identify your weaknesses and have a plan for continuous self-improvement. Remember that every day presents an opportunity to be better than yesterday.
If you have made mistakes in the past, make amends and move on. Avoid the habit of underestimating yourself or overestimating others to your own peril.
The truth is that you have immeasurable potential, and you alone hold the key to its release. Your time and energy is better off spent actualising this potential rather than struggling to live a lie. At the end of the day, only the truth will set you free
The writer is a human resources specialist with Peoplelink Consultants Ltd. Email: [email protected]
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