The Authenticity/Attraction Loop
ChatGPT Summary:
The article discusses the "Authenticity/Attraction Loop" that entrepreneurs and creatives experience in their lives and work. Authenticity, defined as a personal vision and aspiration, is contrasted with Attraction, which involves collaboration with others to bring that vision to fruition. The article emphasizes that all visions need social validation and involve communication and persuasion to attract support. In this process, the pure authenticity of the vision might be altered, but this adaptation is considered natural and necessary for success. The article encourages individuals to embrace this loop, continuously find new visions, and engage in the ongoing cycle of creation and response.
The Authenticity 🔄 Attraction Loop
There is a deep and inescapable tension that I notice pervades the lives, careers, and outlooks of entrepreneurs and creatives. I have come to call it the “Authenticity/Attraction Loop.” It relates to the inevitable nature of our existence as social beings, embedded deeply and inextricably within layers upon layers of social connection.
I like to say “There is no (SELF)”. Nothing we ever do can be meaningfully understood or validated without social feedback. This is the source of the “Authenticity/Attraction Loop”.
Authenticity is about the (SELF).
Attraction is about the response of others.
Those two elements combine to form an endless feedback loop 🔄 around all that we create and put into the world. Here’s how it works.
We exist as the (SELF), our unique, embodied, individual existence with consciousness and will. We come to amidst a society at some point in history and geography. We then observe, connect, feel, and aspire.
And then we have visions of what does not yet exist. Could be an enterprise. Could be art. Could be technology. It’s typically one of those three. Perhaps there are other categories that are also the subject of vision. We also have visions to improve our families, friendships, communities, species-level dynamics (politics & economics), etc.
Our visions are our own. We download them from some sort of metaphysical ether accessed somehow through our unique human consciousness, which perceives and integrates not only what is, but also what could be. No other creature does this. We more or less share our perception of what is with all other humans of standard cognitive function and sensation. But our sense of what could be is highly individual. No two humans will ever have the same vision. This comes from a unique and highly personalized set of faculties.
Let us, then, define “Authenticity” as this highly individual result of aspiration and vision. It is yours and yours alone. When we talk about our authentic selves we imply a purity of personal vision. If and when it is altered by someone else then it is no longer completely authentically ours.
Now for “Attraction”, which relates to other people. Our visions start with us, but can’t ever stay there, because we’re a social species, and all visions involve collaborating with others. Sometimes the others are a team. Sometimes the others are partners. Sometimes the others are customers, clients, or audience members. Everything we do is a collaborative effort, and therefore all visions involve other people. Who are they? This is your audience, and you must attract them through a process of communication so that they change their course and act to support and sustain the realization of your vision.
And, as soon as you begin the work of Attraction, with its attendant processes of communication and persuasion, your vision changes. It may be subtle, but it always does. You must tailor your offering to the market, and this will, somewhat or substantially, violate the sense of pure Authenticity surrounding your vision. And you know what? That’s okay. That’s how the process goes. Always. In all times and places.
Commend yourself for having the courage and resolve to discern your vision, step into leadership, push into the discomfort of communication, and do the hard work of persuading your audience(s) to support you.
And then go back to your Authentic (SELF) and find a new vision so that you can once again approach the market and Attract the audiences who will support you through the processes communication and persuasion.
Rinse, lather, repeat. All leaders and creators must do this in some way.
And that, my friends, is the Authenticity/Attraction Loop 🔄. Go forth, envision, create, respond, and have fun doing what you, and only you, are here to do!