Playing the Game
“The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.”
— James Baldwin
“Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.”
— W. Somerset Maugham
Games
Games are pretty commonplace in business. They’re pretty popular everywhere, but there’s something about business that just brings them to the fore. Most of the time, they’re just different ways of getting along, but I think that there’s a point they become a bad thing.
Suits, for instance. A suit (or even a nice shirt and polished shoes) does wonders for the confidence in a business setting. And certainly, when you’re trying to sell a product or get a job, you want people to think “this guy looks professional.”
On the other hand, they’re called “power-suits” for a reason. Just what are my motives for wearing the fancy gears? It seems to me there’s a line to cross, from “I’m looking professional” to “I’m trying to appear to be something I’m not.”
Obviously, dress sense is only one of many different elements a person will use to gauge what sort of person I am, but what’s to stop me “cheating” in other areas too? Like, sure, I can act like the businessman people expect me to be; I can act confident, I can pretend I’m not out of my depth, I can buzzword-bomb with the best of them.
Where is the line between “playing the game,” and actually compromising my self?
My worry could be summed up like this. I think it’s necessary to play the game at least to some extent. But what if I get so used to the game, or find myself liking it so much, that I forget it’s a game? What if I become what I’m playing at?
Integrity
The best definition of integrity I’ve come across in recent times (found on Doc Searl’s Weblog) is this: “You are what you appear to be.”
So, with that in mind, my guiding principle is simple: I must make sure that what I appear to be is true to who I am. I can play the game, but I need to be constantly aware of what sort of person that makes me.
Or, to quote Batman Begins, “It’s not who you are on the inside that matters. It’s what you do.”
Comment by Angus • Tue 28 Jun 05, 9:08 pm #
Drat… you just caused me to lose The Game by your title! And I was going so well too.
OTOH, quoting Batman Begins has restored your estimation in my view :).
Seriously, for what it’s worth I’ve been wearing shirt & tie et. al. for a year and a half now at the day job. You do get used to it; then again, in medicine “style” equals a white labcoat, so perhaps it doesn’t quite qualify as Playing The Game ;).