Would You Rather Be Popular or Purposeful?

Last week I nominated a friend, Dr. Linda Moore, to be featured on PBS’ Makers: Women Who Make America TV segment. Of course another good friend of mine, Dodie Jacobi, was competing too.

Hard call whom to pick as Linda had psychologically healed thousands of low-confidence women and Dodie had taken the business plans and vision of hundreds of entrepreneurs and lifted them to the next level.

Watch MAKERS: Women Who Make America Trailer on PBS. See more from Makers: Women Who Make America.

Regardless of quantifiable achievements, Linda and Dodie, and their opponents, were voted on based on popularity not purpose. Linda failed miserably in vote count. I’m not sure how Dodie did, but this week I learned what it feels like to fail miserably in terms of popularity.

I Took the Wrong Bait

When PeaChic dangled a $500 forgivable grant in front of me for my work at Midlife Mona Lisa and I got excited and campaigned for votes like Geraldine Ferraro (at least during day 1 and 2. Come day 3 and 4, I was ready to concede).

“Do not yearn to be popular; be exquisite. Do not desire to be famous; be loved. Do not take pride in being expected; be palpable, unmistakable.” C JoyBell C.

The whole PeaChic process seemed hollow, shallow, automated and lacking in appropriate metrics. The only thing people saw when they came to PeaChic’s page were 20 logos staring blankly back like beauty pageant candidates staring into the headlights (TV spotlights).

There were no mission statements, no creative briefs, and no documentation of how each business would touch people’s lives or solve any consumer problem.

Even the Miss America contest has a talent portion.

The good news is this “chic” learned something from this competition bigger than a “pea.” When you keep doing what’s in your heart because you care enough to share your good, bad, and ugly life experiences for the good of all women who might face the same issues someday, you will make a big mark in someone’s life.

That’s not always measurable. And I’m OK with that.

How about you? Please share your takeaway and what popularity contests you’ve faced and how it made you feel. What you learned from it (in the comment section below). No one is judging you here.

“All I can say is, Brad totally wasn’t worth it. He was SO not my type. I only hooked up with him because I was trying to see if popularity could be sexually transmitted. Turns out it can’t.”  Katherine Easer

 

 

Category: Career & Money