The King is Naked

A couple of weeks ago, I received what seemed to be a very important and interesting invitation from Matt.  He had an opening in his Social Media Director Mentorship Program for 2019 and was wondering if I would like to join them?  I was not about to ignore such an incredible opportunity, and so, I dutifully clicked on the link he sent on the email.

The link took me to the page describing the program, where a message from Matt immediately started playing. Poor Matt! Six years ago he was “unemployed, uninspired and dead broke.”  He tried several things that did not work and embarrassed himself several times. I wonder how? Finally, a breakthrough! He “figured out what it takes to not only to reach and engage people online….but to get quality customers for virtually any type of business using social media.”  He was so successful, he become an expert and a bit of a celebrity in his own town.  That was probably the best part of all… Well, that and having the freedom to work anywhere in the world, travel to magical places, try new hobbies like surfing, join other celebrities on holidays….the life I dream about but have yet found a way to achieve. I could accept Matt’s invitation, right?

You see, after having to turn business away, he decided to share the wealth and teach his strategy, methodology, the theory behind his success to some of his friends. Yep, they were successful beyond his expectations!  Now, for the small amount of $1,950.00 I can join the growing group of “very successful entrepreneurs” who were once broke, frustrated with their 9 to 5 jobs, wanting to stay home with their kids, looking for their purpose in life and are now their own bosses, and work very few hours a day……. Right!

Let me tell you how Matt found me. After I decided to start my own business, I went from searching for jobs to researching the training industry, event planning, small business start-ups, anything and everything that could help me in my new journey.  I did find that information but I also found this incredible network of people making money selling “nothing”.  I am still surprised by this finding. It is incredible how all their stories follow the same path: they were all broke, decided to be their own boss, worked very hard to get there, are now very successful, and, this is the most amazing part about them:  they are willing to “share their secret” so other people can also make the “kind of money they are making”.   I am not sure I want to make that kind of money.

A search for “home-based business” will reveal several opportunities to become your own boss, make money quickly, and have passive income….. Just pick the one you like the most. Maybe you want to “Stand Out and Make Money on YouTube” or learn the “Art of Start: Turning Ideas into High Growth Business”, or “Start Your Own Blog and Make Money Overnight” or better yet “Become an Instagram Influencer and Monetize Your Following”.  We went from a society that values leaders to one that values FOLLOWERS. No matter what you choose, the pitch is the same:  if you follow the steps they give you, work as hard as they did, you will be as successful as they are in no time.  To get the “decoder”, however, a small contribution to their wallets is required, so they can maintain that lifestyle they talk about on their videos.

There is only a tiny detail they do not disclose, though — the way they really make money. Maybe they made some money following the steps of the course they are selling but most likely it is just “a crummy commercial”, as Ralphy found out.  Don’t despair! There is a way to make money by following their real business model. It is what I call the non-scam scam. It is very simple really:

1. First you create an e-learning course about anything, as long as you can guarantee a lot of money to be made if the method is followed.  Don’t worry about quality, YouTube has greatly lowered our standards.
2. Then create a free webinar where you will give enough information about your program to entice people to pay for it.  To attend the webinar people will have to give you their e-mails addresses and join the Facebook page about the course, Instagram group and/or other social media groups related to your program. Remember that we are now a society of followers. Only people with lots of followers become influencers and make money.
3. Sign up to receive information from people offering similar opportunities to make lots of money quickly.  Once you have their contact information, let them know about your free webinar and start promoting their free webinars.

Tah dah! You will belong to the network of people that promote each other on their blogs, websites, Facebook pages, Instagram accounts.  They post everyone’s success stories so they reinforce the idea that you too, can be a part of this “living the life” group.  This is, to me, the worst part of the trap.  One that, unfortunately, I fell for.  During my early stages of research, I found this blog dedicated to women that, are already, or want to work from home.  The blog had real useful and interesting information on how to start a home-based business, companies that hire for remote positions, even advice on how to protect yourself against scams. At least their definition of scams anyway.

One of the postings was promoting a FREE Work at Home Summit webinar.  The description of what was included seemed very real and extremely good. This is where I should have noticed the first red flag but, as the webinar was FREE, sure enough I registered for it.  Remembering all this, makes me laugh at myself.  The webinar was not even a live one.  It was a video of bubbly young Caitlin telling us her story, and yup, you guessed: fired and flat broke, she started offering proof reading services and before long she was making 40K a year and she was so happy she decided to help other people find happiness by teaching them her methods. This is where the FREE ride stopped and I had to buy my ticket to reach the Summit.  Red flag number 2 missed by me.  Not good!

To actually have access to what was described on the original post and other courses like Facebook for Business, Etsy, Steps to create a blog, I would have to pay $197.00.  The ‘’money back guarantee’ made me ignore my natural instincts and pay to embark on the trip.  Agh! The view of this Summit had nothing to do with what one sees upon reaching to top of the mountain. Rather than seeing something beautiful and extraordinary, I saw something ugly and shameful.  It gave me the full view and understanding of the network of scammers and propagators that is now populating the internet.  As I clicked on each module, I was taken to the webpage of the person giving that course where I had to give my e-mail address and yes, join their Facebook group in order to download the material.   Memo to myself: unfollow all these people in order to save reputation…..

The massive amount of emails they sent on a daily basis offering me new opportunities to make money was unbelievable.  One of the “instructors” from the Work-A-Home School got pissed at me for not accepting her invitation to attend her new course on budgeting. She was probably shocked that the money-making network actually failed her. Red flag 3 spotted and burned. Ha!

This takes us back to Matt who was the instructor of Ultimate Facebook Profits which is a part of Catlin’s Summit which was recommended to me by Holly, owner of the WHW blog.  A blog I considered good until a couple of weeks ago when I received two emails from Holly about the new product offered by Caitlin – Work Your Way 2019 – 100% FREE Virtual Conference. Red flag number 4 – NOT missed!

There are successful people using these media to provide real services and many do have high standards. They are a source of inspiration for us to keep our dreams alive. Those are genuine people who worked truly hard to achieve their goals from whom we can learn good lessons. Social media had the promise and still the chance of doing a lot of good.   Just keep an eye out for the red flags!

Yesterday I came across an article written by Bedabrata Pain about the poet Nirendranath Chakraborty’s passing and his contribution to the Bengali literature.  In his piece, Pain described many of Chakraborty’s poems, including ‘The King is Naked’, and how they are timeless and still relevant to what is happening today in the world.  He ends his post reaffirming his admiration for Chakraborty:

“Yes, this world could do with more poets like Nirendranath Chakraborty.

If only to awaken the child in us – fearless, authentic, and forthright.
If only to warn us of an obsession with a development that is deeply anti-human.”

The last two sentences made me think of my blog and my frustrating experience in the past 4 months, looking for a new position. Eight weeks into my search, I fully understood why many job seekers give up and decide to start their own business.  The list of “must do” is longer and more complex by the minute. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a firm believer in planning and preparation.  However, at what point we moved from thoroughly preparing for job searching and application to an excessive number of rules that is discouraging and dehumanizing?

After I lost my job September of last year, I immediately started getting ready to find another position.  First things first, get up-to-date on the new trends about resumes, cover letters, job boards, etc.  There is no shortage of advice in the internet about what job seekers must do in order to “stand out” from the crowd. 

According to most articles, if I do not have a profile in LinkedIn, I practically do not exist since more than 90% of recruiters use this site as their primary search tool to find candidates.  Creating a profile is not hard except for all the steps I must follow if I want to be “found by the recruiters”.  I need to use LinkedIn’s Search Optimization Engine to my advantage. How?

I must have a complete profile which includes a “killer headline” with all the right ‘keywords’ employers may be searching for in the industry I am interested.  I also need to use the same keywords several times in my summary while I describe 2 or 3 of my most significant achievements.  As recruiters want to see results, I need to use numbers right up upfront while writing a summary that is warm and welcoming. Hmmmm

My photo needs to be professional but I need to remember to “smile for the camera” so I can look “friendly and approachable”.  I also need to enter my work experience using my human voice to tell my story.  I should turn my duties into accomplishment in a “quantifiable way”.  One of the many articles I read on the Forbes website said that “both AI-driven systems and humans today are adept at sensing personality through stories, whether they be in video, embedded media or words on LinkedIn.” 

The steps also include entering my hard and soft skills, getting “good connections” (meaning people who can help you get a job), requesting strategic recommendations (without recommendation recruiters will not even look at me), become an author, update my profile frequently and, I love this one – Be Excited!  I need to “make sure my LinkedIn profile shows my enthusiasm for what I do”.

All these steps took hours to complete and that is just one item on the list of things I need to do before I can apply for a position.  I still needed to make my resume up-to date which will need to follow some of the same rules as the LinkedIn profile.  I should have a powerful summary that tells recruiters I am the right person for the job.  I should have “accomplishment statements” instead of job duties descriptions.  I should have the right keyword that will allow my resume to bypass the “Applicant Tracking System” designed to weed me out. I should have the soft and hard skills related to the position I am applying for.  

It is now time to search positions and send applications.  Time to write those pesky things called “cover letters”.  Yes, I need to write them because they are my opportunity to “tell my story” (how many times do I have to tell my story? Which story should I tell?) I need to find the one that will “grab the attention” of the hiring manager or the recruiter before he/she decides it is boring and deletes me from the list of possible candidates.  I also need to find a connection with either the company or the person I am sending the job application to so I can tell a story in a way that is memorable and personable but it is about the company, not me.   Another tip to remember:  send resume and cover letter to the hiring manager so the application does not end in the “black hole” created by the ATS system. 

After following most of these advices and working for hours, I had one interview and no job offers. I have a Master of Mass Communications, I speak 3 languages and I have 13 years of experience in logistics.  If I am not getting interviews, I must be doing something wrong, according to articles written to help job seekers improve their chances.  It might have something to do with one of the buzzwords: algorithms!  Article onTechRepublic website explained that “companies use algorithms to sift and sort piles of application data. And recruiters, often paid per referral, rely on automated tools to match successful candidates with job opportunities.” Remember the keywords that I have to repeat over and over again?  It’s my attempt to be among the individuals from the “pile of applicants” the algorithm recommends for the open job. Apparently, some “algorithms prioritize candidates by recency and frequency of desired skills.”

I find incredibly ironic all the advices given on how to optimize my profile and my resume only to receive job recommendations that have nothing to do with the information I entered. Maybe the algorithms took a couple of days off?

The job alerts became the most frustrating part of the job seeking process.  The disparity between my profile and the list of jobs sent in the alerts was ridiculous. I spent a good amount of time updating my information, uploading a new resume, answering all the questions in order to optimize my chances of finding jobs that matched my background to no avail. 

The job search process has become, in my opinion, disrespectful and dehumanized. Recruiters hide behind the algorithms in the ATS and SEO systems or decide on a candidate after looking at the resume for 6 seconds.  Then again, the final advice is that the best way to find a job is through networking.  If that is the best way, why should we go through all this time consuming, dehumanizing process?  Wait, I vaguely remember this website that was supposed to be just that – a place for networking. 

As for my search, I decided to drop from the job seeker group and joined the business owner group. I know it will not be easier. In fact, it will probably be harder but at least I will not feel like I do not exist because I do not have the perfect profile in LinkedIn.

Many of us have come across the sentence ‘the king is naked’ in one way or another.  Few of us, however, may know its true origin.  During the creation process of this blog, I decided that I should learn the history behind the sentence, considering it is the blog’s title.

This blog is based on a short tale known in the US as ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes‘. There are many versions of this tale but according to Wikipedia ⁽¹⁾, the oldest version appeared in the Līlāvatīsāra by Jinaratna (1283), a summary of a now-lost anthology of fables, the Nirvāṇalīlāvatī by Jineśvara (1052). The Indian version tells the story of the dishonest merchant Dhana from Hastināpura who swindles the King of Śrāvastī by offering to weave a supernatural garment that cannot be seen or touched by any person of illegitimate birth. When the king is supposedly wearing the garment, his whole court pretends to admire it. The king is then paraded about his city to show off the garment; when the common folk ask him if he has become a naked ascetic, he realizes the deception, but the swindler has already fled. ⁽²⁾

‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ is the version written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen and published in 1837. Andersen’s manuscript was at the printer’s when he was suddenly inspired to change the original climax of the tale from the emperor’s subjects admiring his invisible clothes to that of the child’s cry “But he isn’t wearing anything at all!”. ⁽³⁾

During my research about this tale and its history, I also found an article written by Bedabrata Pain about the poet Nirendranath Chakraborty who is the author of the poem ‘The King is Naked (Ulongo Raja)’. ⁽⁴⁾  Hopefully, the poem will give you an insight on the spirit of the blog:

Everybody can see that the king is naked
but everybody keeps clapping away.
Everybody shouts: bravo, bravo.
some are trapped in misbeliefs, some in fear
yet others have mortgaged their brains
some are parasites, some deceitful
yet others are hoping to benefit from nepotism
some even think that the regal gown is so ethereal
that it escapes our eyes,
but it’s there alright
why, that’s certainly possible, isn’t it?

The story is quite familiar
but that story didn’t only feature
sycophants and bootlickers
ignoramus and cowards
swindlers and con-men
there was a child there too
yes a child – authentic, honest and daring.

The king is out on the streets again
and people burst into applause
lackeys and toadies flock around him.
But in this crowd of grovellers
the child is nowhere to be found.

Where is the child?
Is he being held hostage
in a secret mountain cave?
Or is it that while playing with
soil and grass and stones
he has fallen asleep
at a river-bank – distant and silent
or perhaps under the shadow of a tree?

Go find him
any which way you can!
Let him confront the king
let him stand fearlessly in front of him
let his voice drown the din of the crowd
and ring out
Hey king, Where are Your Clothes?

(Copyright: Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, 1971)
English translation by Bedabrata Pain

The tale, the poem and the article solidified my intention to create this blog.  My posts will not be as beautiful or as creative as any of them but they will be my way to be the child who tells everyone that the king “is not wearing anything at all”.  I know this blog will reach very few people but it will be open for contributions, it will be a venue for those willing to confront the king, to participate in the conversation, to keep us alert and informed.  

The posts will not be about a specific subject such as politics, technology or photography. The posts will be about issues I believe are relevant enough to bring to light, to start a discussion, to gather more information and write about.  I rather not be like the men the king sent to check on his clothes and who did not have the courage to tell the king the truth: there were no clothes.  I believe fools are not those who can’t see but those who do not want to see.