Quick Tip: Be Yourself in Business and Life

This is the big one that makes you sit up at 2 a.m. on your 42nd birthday and realize you have to quit your job.

Despite all the self-help books that suggest you can be anything you want to be, you need to figure out what makes you tick, and act accordingly.

If you’re not a shark, maybe you shouldn’t be working in an environment that requires aggressiveness and fearlessness.

If you’re the kind of person who obsesses about keeping all your CDs, books and receipts in alphabetical order, you may not want to have a job that is full of chaos and unpredictability.

The more deceptive you have to be about your personality traits, the less likely you are to be fulfilled, even if you’re making double the money you would doing the kind of work you love.

An advantage of being yourself is that it allows you to admit weaknesses and lean on others for help in coping with (or overcoming) them.

Remember that not everyone lives for their work. If the centre of your life is in your family, your volunteer work, or some other area, then maybe you don’t need to be on the fast track to corporate success.

Shakespeare said it best: To thine own self be true.