Faking something doesn’t make it so.

It is not clear exactly when the phrase “fake it ’til you make it” was introduced into the American lexicon, but it is now a cliché. Th is pithy statement captures much of what ails many subject matter experts today.

In the 1920s a psychologist named Alfred Adler developed a therapeutic technique he called “acting as if.” Th e concept has now been used for nearly a hundred years by mental health professionals to help patients practice alternatives to dysfunctional behavior. Typically, people can control their actions more easily than they can control their feelings, therefore Adler recommended performing actions as if the feelings had already occurred. He argued that if you act before you feel inclined to do so, the desired feelings will often follow. For example, instead of waiting until you feel happy before you smile, Adler posited that if you smile first, you will begin to feel happy. And, instead of waiting for your confidence to build before you engage with people socially, if you engage socially, then your confidence will build. Adler could be the father of “fake it ’til you make it,” even though he did not coin the phrase.

Unfortunately, the application of “fake it ’til you make it” has now gone far beyond the original intent of helping to correct dysfunctional behavior. There is no sin in self-talk or other forms of self-improvement, but faking is now encouraged to the point of blatant dishonesty. Faking is even embraced as justification for deceit or fraud. It is one thing to fake that you are happy when you are not, or to fake that you are socially confident when you are not, but faking competence and expertise is an entirely different thing. Faking that you are an engineer or a physician or a police officer does not make it so.

We now live in a time when people are openly encouraged to act as if they are someone they are not. People have learned that pretending to be an expert can be highly advantageous. Unfortunately, acting like an expert is rarely exposed or prosecuted. This is a shame, because as we discussed previously, gaining expertise is a laborious and tedious process. It requires thousands of hours of dedicated effort, which the faker circumvents.

Faking has always been appealing to many. The difference now is that the benefits can be high and the penalties low. People are encouraged to perpetuate a fraud. They have learned that they are more likely to obtain what they want if they talk long enough, loud enough, or with enough conviction. Faking something doesn’t make it so, but it is certainly helping people to get what they want.