Your position in the marketplace is critical.
In business, we refer to this as branding. Your branding is what most people see.
They see your beautiful website that converts well.
They see your content — blog, videos, podcasts.
They admire your success and your positioning in the marketplace. And then they try to create the same positioning for themselves by copying what they see.
This is where the problem lies.
The problem is MOST people focus so much on what is “seen” and neglect the other important stuff that is “not seen” — the stuff that holds up the positioning that they see.
And they wonder why they are not getting the same attention that you’re getting. They wonder why they are not getting success.
What they don’t see are the processes that created that position. The processes that lie beneath the surface.
The persistence.
The failure.
The sacrifice.
The dedication.
The hard work.
The discipline.
And the disappointments.
So, when you try to create a position in the marketplace without a solid foundation, you create an illusion. This is popularly referred to as “the iceberg illusion”. This is when we get carried away with someone’s “above the surface” success and don’t consider all the “below the surface” price they paid to achieve the success.
As David Perell put it:
We see trophies, not sweat.
We see diplomas, not homework.
We see performances, not rehearsals.
Put another way, it’s like a Lamborghini without an engine.
You can’t call it a car without an engine… just like you can’t call a brand a brand without the pieces that make it move.