Authenticity. Although an itchy word of course, it can no longer be banished from my mind. It seems to have crept into my pores. Everywhere I go I see retro, tributes and other expressions of fake.
Authentic
Who is authentic? At first I could name quite a few people. Famous people. But if you start talking about that, people know how to say the things that make you doubt. So the search for authenticity leads past inauthentic people. As a dear friend puts it: ‘There are few people with the luxury of their own opinion.’ And I fear that he is right. We all adapt. But the more adapted, the scarier. That’s a purely personal opinion, but I see some people doing things that I don’t think they really want to. I also see a lot of people, especially young people, who are dressed in a certain uniform that I think they would actually prefer to wear something else. The uniform, the latest fashion, does not suit everyone. I think it’s even worse when older men wear the same as the older woman walking next to them.
Steve Jobs
Many people will think I’m crazy, but I think Steve Jobs is authentic. He has also made great statements about this. “Your time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” He was probably also driven by making his products a success, but his inappropriate behavior has also had unpleasant consequences for him. His resignation from Apple is a good example of this. Was Steve Jobs nice? Probably not. People with their own route are usually not nice. Because they do not walk with the herd, they often walk against the direction. And that just causes clashes. Although of course there are examples of nice authentic people. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, it’s just an example. There are many more. Yet nice people with a different opinion have been murdered. Because of that dissenting opinion. Anyone who sticks his head above ground level is beheaded.
Passion
My search for authenticity came across the word passion. People with a passion are authentic. It has not been scientifically proven but I believe in it. You can’t feign passion, at least not for long. The shining eyes, the impassioned argument, the pure emotion. All things that I associate with people with a passion. Passion for a hobby, for an animal, for work. But also for negative things. I was told with love. And that’s true. There are also people with nasty passions. But they are also authentic. Passion and work. That’s what I’m looking for. And you know, I mainly find work without passion. People who do their work without any pleasure. As if they are condemned to 40 years of the same boss. But that was in the past, right? 40 years on the assembly line? Nowadays we job hop completely nauseous, don’t we? So without much passion. Looking for exceptions.