Use Character Invention To Unlock Value

We've all chickened out of some situation in our lives which could've been the turning point. What if your alter ego was present in that scenario?

Dear Letter-Opener,

Many a times, I’ve adopted different personalities to face unique situations in my life—situations that were foreign to me and that I had never encountered before. The first time it happened was when I actually got on stage to emcee an event that the organizers believed I was fit for. I didn’t know how I was going to fare and if it weren’t for my blazer, the gush of underarm sweat would’ve exposed my nerves in front of an audience of merely fifty people—which obviously consisted of some very important and influential individuals.

Now, my innate personality is actually unknown to a lot of people and I secretly admire the unpredictability I’ve maintained over the years but it was only recently that I stumbled upon a scientific or a mainstream term for what I had done and that was ‘Character Invention.’ My father sent me a LinkedIn post of Sahil Bloom explaining this phenomenon which included Beyoncé adopting ‘Sasha Fierce,’ a character she portrayed on stage or even the late Kobe Bryant embodying ‘The Black Mamba’ at will. And it fascinated me for two reasons.

The first because it explains why I switched personalities in unknown situations. I just hadn’t given it a name but I was doing it. I believe we all do it at some point in our lives. We possibly couldn’t survive in this wrathful world without trying out the occasional alternate personality. And to everyone who says, “I’m the same wherever I go, whoever I meet,” I’m not here to debate you. I’m here to nudge you to try this out in a land where no one knows you; see if it works for you and if it doesn’t, well, then you were on the right path all along, weren’t you?

The second reason is because it gives you leeway to fall back on your original personality. When you adopt a personality in a new situation, you can easily gauge whether it’s working for you or not. The things you’ll say and do will not be you in that scenario—it’ll be the alter ego you’ve adopted and you can go on to unabashedly experiment with this character until you’ve hit the sweet spot.

For me personally, I wouldn’t want dents in my original personality because that’s me. I’ll unapologetically defend myself because I wouldn’t want anyone to mess with my core values, the stuff I wholly and solely believe in until death do me part.

But it’s not the case with Character Invention. What that allows you to do is be open to others, listen to them, maybe even take from them and integrate within this character you’re building and the best part is you won’t even feel guilty about doing it because your original personality is still intact.

More importantly, it’ll get you out there, doing things you otherwise wouldn’t have done. I can’t count the number of times I’ve declined doing something because that would have a chance of hampering my ‘image’ in front of people.

What would people think?

Will it be in line with how they see me?

Is this fitting to what I normally do?

We’re all about conservation when no one out there even gives a damn because they’re all so busy focused on themselves. Damn it, even Beyoncé has to adopt a character to go out on stage. Imagine!

If you’re the person that can live with regrets at the end of their lifetime, more power to you. To all of you who’re willing to go out there and give it a go, you might just unlock a part within yourselves that may surprise even you.

A lot of talented individuals miss out on being what they are supposed to because they weren’t witnessed enough by the world.

Do you know who Michael Jordan is? Everyone does.

Do you know who Sal Brandon is?

Yeah… neither do I. But I’m assuming he was great at something. Guess we’ll never know.

Goodbye,

Aamer

P.S. Apologies to any Sal Brandon out there.