A few days ago some Photographer on LinkedIn was plumbing the depths of Stupid with the assertion an “unprofessional” headshot on your profile not only was, um, “unprofessional”, but was also indicative of your attitude to and competence in your work.
In other words, if you don’t have a professional headshot in your LinkedIn profile it means you’re crap.
Apparently.
Hmm.
I could say a lot about this, but I’ll hold my tongue (I have a fuckton to do today, so I need to keep this brief).
So I’ll simply ask this: how does he know?.
This is the “miracle” question, cuz it (and its variations) is so powerful (and annoying to bullshitters).
And he doesn’t know, of course.
There’s no way he could know.
Besides, in the absence of a precise and mutually-agreed definition of what is and is not “professional”, his statements are meaningless.
Guess what?
There was and is no precise and mutually-agreed definition of what is and is not “professional”, so his statements were meaningless.
My point: beware statements of authority from anyone (including me), especially when they’re made in the absence of definitions and evidence.
As I’ve said so many times before… my definition of “professional” doesn’t involve your attire or vocabulary. Nope, it’s more about integrity, courage, confidence, and how well you serve your clients and help them solve their problems.
If you think that’s all dependent on having a fancy head-shot and paring down your words and opinions to make them palatable to snowflakes, then have at it.
Besides, you’ll always end up with the clients you deserve, because you attract ‘em, you deign to work with ‘em, and you let them stay in your life. If you want people attracted to style rather than substance, that’s your lookout.
Me, I prefer the raw, gritty, and unadorned truth and men and women with character and backbone.
And if you’re of a similar mind to me, then you’d do well to join us in the Ground Zeroinitiative.
Look, we ain’t gonna save the High Street by with a few swanky pics and a bit of beige networking, are we?
Nope.
We’re gonna have to embrace some desperately uncomfortable truths and roll up our sleeves and dig into the steaming entrails of marketing.
You up for it, or what?
Click here for Ground Zero details
Witheringly,
P.S. That question — how do you know? — is an excellent one to ask anyone any time they’re asserting something as a fact.
You’ll find most of the time they have no answer other than it’s what they simply believe.
For instance, retard marketer yesterday claimed… “all atheists know there’s a god but think their (sic) isn’t”.
How does he know this?
He doesn’t. He can’t.
Never mind here’s one lifelong atheist who knows no such thing (but maybe he’s a mindset expert and knows my mind better than I know it myself), but he’s also confusing gnosticism with theism, knowledge with belief. His statement isn’t just wrong but it also makes no sense.
More: just replace the word “god” with “glittery purple magic elephant dildo” and you’ll see how stupid the claim is because there’s the same amount of evidence for a glittery purple magic elephant dildo as there is for (any) god.
One has to wonder… if he’s so ignorant and uninformed on this topic yet sees fit to make such an absurd and easily-refuted claim, what else is he ignorant about yet claiming knowledge of?
Anyway…
If you want to join us in saving the High Street and your local bricks ’n’ mortar businesses (and be sure of not being fed any of that kind of irrational bullshit), you know what to do.