One of my favorite quotes comes from the infamous Cindy Gallop who said, “You cannot invent the future if you care too much what the Old World Order thinks.”
I lived according to this doctrine as a giant hypocrite, caring pretty much only about what the Old World Order thought. Especially when the Old World Order was responsible for my paychecks.
Now, before you judge me, recall that there are two paths to changing the world and inventing the future:
Path 1: From within the institution you seek to change
Path 2: From outside of the institution you seek to change
I tried for years to change things from within and it turns out I’m quite terrible at it. Or as one grad school advisor put it, “You editorialize too much in your papers.” Which was meant as an insult, but I took it as a compliment. (There is no such thing as objectivity, I argued. By claiming a neutral stance you’re simply abdicating responsibility for the effect of your framing. BUT I DIGREESS.)
I left academia soon thereafter, but continued to try to change the world while remaining inside the institutions I sought to change. It didn’t work well for reasons Liz Gilbert beautifully articulated when she posed the question: “What flavor of shit sandwich do you prefer?”
My flavor is outside the establishment. I can handle the uncertainty of entrepreneurship and manage my own time no problem. But make me attend meetings with no discernible point and I will literally dissolve into a puddle on the floor.
Which is why….
Fitting squarely in the outside of the establishment category, I was shocked when I found myself defending pandering to the establishment to my friend and #HAMYAW co-host Hilary Weiss.
Hillary had made an assertion on pageantry. Basically that there’s no time or room for it, focus on the bottom line. In theory, I agree, but in practice, there are times when you need to pander to the Old World Order. I’m as shocked as you are that that was what I said, so we decided to make an episode about it.
Don’t laugh, but the controversial topic at hand was business proposals. As in, the PDFs that live on your computer that you regularly ignore (not marriage proposals, though those are similarly controversial).
Hillary took a stand that invented the future. I took the stand that it matters what the Old World Order thinks if they’re paying your bills. And then we both negated our original stances and found ourselves somewhere in the middle (I know BOOO – reconciling differences is not nearly as fun as flipping tables and pulling out hair, which is why Bravo won’t pick up our show. womp womp).
Watch our heated volatile debate – OK FINE – watch our respectful (but spirited) conversation on posturing and pageantry in this week’s “Hillary and Margo Yell at Websites: Do You Need Fancy Proposals?”
 |
We share what works, what doesn’t, and why – as well as (dun dun dun) a Twitter controversy!
-Margo
PS: Come watch me speak today! I’m speaking at 12:45P M EST today at ClientCon. You can tune in here (it’s free). The topic is how to write well when you don’t feel like writing because, obviously. ✍🏻
PPS: Hillary will be mad at me for adding a link to something besides #HAMYAW so click here and watch extra so she doesn’t yell at me. Like open an incognito tab and watch on repeat and drive those numbers up. I’M KIDDING. (I’m not kidding). She probably won’t read this anyway, so it’s cool. Be cool. ACT COOL.
