Fakes are powerful
Fakes beat the original in being arousing and holding the attention of people by being more entertaining and interesting. That is because they are not trammeled by being the original!
That explains the phenomenal success of The Onion and such parodies.
If the original is reclusive and enigmatic, and also successful, then we have to look for rumors and fakes to satiate our inherent clamor for gossip and scandal! As the world is full of people who love to sweeten their tea with a pinch of tittle-tattle and mild scandal, there will be no dearth of resources to cater to such needy!
Now we have a highly successful and enigmatic celebrity, who prefers to keep his private life out of arc lamps and depicts and attitude of “My personal life is nobody’s business”. Doesn’t he fit the bill to be the most likely candidate for being faked! But there is another spin-off benefit too – call it “collateral” if you like – for the adventurous and the innovative faker! He becomes instantly famous!
Now we are talking about Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple – The Apple of Mac, iPod, iPhone (someone has prophesied about an iPot, but I think it is yet to be launched!).
And We have a Fake Steve and his blog. That makes the genius of the fake the cynosure of all eyes, all over the wide web! The Fake Steve Jobs aka Daniel Lyons is not a rookie blogger, but a Senior Editor at Forbes
Now The FSV has written an immensely funny book, Options: Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody
The book does contain some rare gems of wisdom, especially of management. Foundread has picked up 10 Commandments of Fake Steve Jobs, which I want to share with you. Don’t laugh. management is a serious business!
Here goes a gist of them:-
- Never let people know where they stand. Keep them guessing. Keep them afraid.
- You don’t have to hire the best people. You can hire anyone as long as you scare the shit out of them!
- Only promote stupid people. But not just any stupid people.
- Never tell people what is expected of them.
- A manager should be inconsistent and unpredictable. Be random.
- No praise. Ever. Management gurus also tell you to reward performance. I disagree
- Keep people’s spirits broken. Fire people on a regular basis for no reason.
- Throw Tantrums, literally cry and scream and roll around on the floor like a three-year-old.
- Don’t speak to employees in elevators.
- Start with the ad campaign.
Want to get the whole commandments in its full glory? Here goes!
