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What we mean by authenticity 5 2 What we mean by authenticity “Why can’t he just be himself?” Lisa asked the teacher, but she in fact was directing the question to Ryan and his classmates. Ryan dropped his papier-mâché pterodactyl and ran crying into the hallway. Didn’t Lisa realize what a hard question that was? Ryan couldn’t be himself because he had no idea who he was. This is an abridged excerpt of a story by the writer Andy Mozina.6 Mo­zina writes funny stories that are emotionally insightful. Telling some- one to just be himself or herself isn’t an easy charge to fulfill. We spend our entire lives trying to attain to a truer and more real understanding of who we are. The best we can do at any given moment is to live according to what we in fact believe—rather than say things we think will please others. This same principle applies to companies and brands. For brands to be them- selves, to be authentic, they have to say and do the things they truly feel and believe. They have to act from their true character rather than perform according to contrived expectations. The temptation to perform—to tweet or share things on social media in order to be accepted—has never been greater. In a sense, we are all performing for one another like never before. Insincerity is everywhere. And it’s a huge problem in the business world. “The things you say and do are symbols of who you are,” says Simon Sinek. “So if you’re putting out false symbols, you will attract people to those symbols, but you won’t be able to form trust with them. That’s why authenticity is so important.”7 Branding is an exercise in trust building. When we fake our way to trust, that trust will eventually collapse—because we will have attracted the wrong people to our brand. We want to attract people who need and respond to the truth and purpose of our company and our products and services. The Latin root for authenticity means “from the true author.” Authen- ticity is veracity: that we are who we claim to be and believe the things we profess. Brand authenticity is finally about locating and acting from our true purpose. We feel a joy deep down when we’re acting with authen- ticity, and we feel the roiling in our guts when we’re speaking and acting deceptively. David Richey, CEO of Richey International, helps clarify a couple of important points on the subject of authenticity in his LinkedIn arti- cle “When Is Authenticity Unreal?” Richey makes a distinction between “objective authenticity” and “constructive authenticity.”8 Objective authen- ticity relates only to facts. Is that scarf made from real silk? Was it made in India? Is that watch a Rolex or a knockoff? With objective authenticity,