The performance of seeming strong: when appearance weighs more than talent.

We live in times where the appearance of talent is worth more than the talent itself.

LinkedIn has become a runway. There are professionals showing off more looks than competence, posing as authorities with an aesthetically impeccable feed, but delivering content with the nutritional value of a plastic lettuce. You know that beautiful plate on an Instagram post from a fancy restaurant that, in your mouth, tastes like punishment? That’s what we’re talking about.

There are those who sell presence without delivery. There are those who sell image without depth. There are those who only sell.

And the market, poor thing, remains hungry.

It’s not just about using filters or whitening your teeth, it’s about a culture that confuses performance with depth. That exalts “seeming busy,” “being in motion,” “showing results”… even if those results don’t exist. It’s the “I don’t even have time to breathe” post, published at 7:02 AM, already with a strategic little coffee in hand and the caption ready: "on the run, but with purpose."

It’s the aesthetics of productivity. The aesthetics of resilience. The aesthetics of authority.

But tell me something: what’s the point of seeming strong if, on the inside, you're falling apart trying to maintain a character that never fit you?

True authority doesn’t need to shout. It doesn’t perform, it sustains. It doesn’t get dressed up, it builds itself. And, above all, it doesn’t need to be validated all the time, because it exists even when no one is watching.

You are not your feed.

You are what you deliver. What you solve. What you change in people’s lives with your work, even without reels, animated carousels, or the damn Porsche in the background.

And since we’re being honest: whoever has never seen an authority melt live, cast the first ring light. Just one off-script question, one objection from a client, one improvisation…and there it goes. The makeup of competence runs off.

As my grandfather used to say: "whoever wants to seem great without power ends up seeming small without even knowing it."

And to prove life is ironic, we’re watching the Bets CPI, which has basically become the Cookies CPI. A stage where some try to come out acclaimed as people’s avengers, while others, once darlings of the morality algorithm, walk away with their reputation more melted than a candle at a seventh-day mass.

Moral of the story?

It’s not the well-fitted blazer that makes a leader. It’s the content of what they say when the mic is on.

So, if you’re more concerned about the filter on your photo than the filter on your thinking, maybe it’s time to rethink the strategy.

And here comes the real plot twist:

Being an authority is not about seeming. It’s about being. And being, sometimes, takes work. It scares. It gives you chills. But oh…how it pays off.

And you? Have you caught yourself performing authority instead of sustaining it?

Tell me in the comments. Let’s talk with truth. Because LinkedIn is already full of façades.