Crippled CEO Blog #188: Be Who They Think You Are

Crippled CEO Blog #188:

Have you ever had someone believe in you way more than you believe in yourself?

It’s a weird feeling. Like someone’s read the back of your book and decided it’s a best-seller before they’ve even cracked open the first chapter.

It used to happen to me a lot. Colleagues. Friends. Customers. Employees. Romantic interests. People would meet me, spend a little time with me, and then, inexplicably, start acting like I was that guy. You know the one. Visionary. Charismatic. Capable. Confident. Charming. A little mysterious. Definitely knows how to cook something exotic.

Meanwhile, I’m just sitting there like, “I hope this person never asks me to point out France on a map.”

But over time, I realized something. These people weren’t dumb. They weren’t naïve. They weren’t imagining some fantasy version of me. They were just… early.

They were seeing the potential version of me — the one I hadn’t fully stepped into yet. The me I could be if I believed it as much as they did.

And that’s when I decided to try an experiment.

I decided to be who they thought I was.

Not in a fake-it-til-you-make-it kind of way. Not in a “let me pretend to be impressive and hope no one notices I’m actually panicking over how to spell ‘judgment’ without spellcheck.”

But in a “what if I just became that person” kind of way. What if I acted like I was the kind of guy who could handle this? The kind of guy who deserved the admiration? The kind of guy who gets it done, figures it out, and makes it look good while doing it?

What if I became the version of myself they already saw?

Spoiler alert: It worked.

I started making braver decisions. Speaking more confidently. Writing these blog posts like someone who had something to say. Running my company like the guy I thought my employees deserved. Dating like I was someone worth dating (imagine that).

And slowly, over time, the gap between who I thought I was and who people believed I was started to shrink.

Until one day, I looked in the mirror and realized: I was that guy now.

Or at least… closer.

So here’s my point: We all have people who believe in us more than we believe in ourselves. And instead of brushing that off as misplaced praise, what if we took it seriously? What if we looked at the version of ourselves they’re rooting for and said, “Okay, let’s build that guy.”

Because here’s the real kicker: That version of you? That better, braver, bolder version? That’s not a lie. That’s not fantasy. That’s you — just with the fear peeled off.

It’s like Michelangelo said about sculpting David: “I just removed the parts that weren’t David.”

Be who they think you are.

Because they’re not wrong.

(Do you know who I really became last night? Your mom’s fantasy. And then again. And again. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.)