Did you know ambition makes you more attractive?
Iâm serious. Itâs not all about looks. Donât be so shallow.
Thereâs no one definition of beauty and intelligence. Some traits seem to have more precedence towards success than others and most of the time, looks arenât one of them although they certainly help.
Letâs get the cat out of the bag. This isnât my opinion itâs just facts. According to research, more attractive folks tend to secure more deals faster, are better negotiators, rise the ranks of the company, land the most competitive deals, are more personable and seem to network better than the ârestâ even if they donât know nothing!
People want to be around those that look professional and attractive since they are known to make the âexperience more enjoyableâ.
You can decide what that means.
In hindsight, it makes sense. Since you plan on spending time around them, might as well enjoy looking at them. A candidate is seen as more ambitious, courageous, dedicated, put together, motivated and focused based on looks and vice versa.
This isnât a plea for you to get Botox and wear more makeup. Instead of obsessing over your beauty, start focusing on what you can control such as your personality, work ethic and character traits. Comparison is the theft of joy.
Life isnât fair so donât focus on what you canât control.
Prioritize investing in yourself and naturally you will turn the tables.
Beauty =Â Talent?
IQ is a silly measurement because no one cares about it. When a company decides upon a CEO, shareholders to the board of directors want to make sure the incoming CEO is an amicable, gracious and generous teammate that steps up to the plate. No one cares about your ACT score or how many books you can read in a week! Thatâs high school drama. The real world isnât the classroom after all.
Soft skills and personality are crucial. Looks subconsciously play a big role as well since the CEO is the face to the company but most of the time, it isnât based off of that as weâll dive into.
The Case of the Looks
First impressions matter.
Looks arenât everything but when it comes down to what people focus upon, itâs the first thing that stares them down.
On my downtime, I attempt to read the most obscure, random facts and articles I possibly can to stay open-minded and a generalist, not a close-minded specialist afraid of the world.
One of the topics Iâve been reading about lately is relationships. I keep my relationships private since people close to me seem interested in what I have to say on here and I want to respect their privacy.
What Iâve noticed through my experience and research is that younger couples tend to focus on appearance, what they have in common such as any similar interests or hobbies and very basic soft skills and EQ. As couples age, attractiveness disintegrates similarly to a companyâs status. Older couples tend to look for a good listener, attentive, supportive and empathetic partner.
No doubt appearance matters at any age but itâs seen as not as crucial down the road since no matter how gorgeous someone may be, if your partner is rude as a horse, then thereâs no point in wasting your life with them.
What Companies Want
This reminds me of the stereotype behind successful people. When we image them they are Marilyn Monroe replicas, 6ft+ tall, broad shoulders, bright colored eyes, white, American, slim and gorgeous. Yet in reality, for someone to be CEO, those things are thrown out the window. Working for decades in a company as an overachiever, monitoring all teams and working your butt off doesnât always entail being in the best shape.
As we get older, sitting more, skipping meals, caffeinating and less family and movement time seem to be the norm. Work comes first for most. With this prestigious title, itâs all about proving yourself and with years of experience under oneâs belt this comes with old age, less time and different priorities than to get ready like Barbie or Ken to talk with BuzzFeed.
In order to be considered CEO, itâs typical for the individual to already be a senior head at the firm or work at a competing firm and get elected to transition to the new company. Itâs a tedious, competitive and lengthy voting process, several years in the making. You donât have to have worked at the company since graduating, but it increases your chances. More time = better reputation.
Compared to traditional C-suite firms, at hotter startups, the face to the name is everything. They are less established and need to represent themselves as their brand for promotional purposes. The CEO position is argued to be the easiest role in any company, especially the larger it gets. Besides while starting out, CEOs donât do the number crunching or coding, they simply delegate, sign off on tasks and appear on CNBC thatâs. The higher you rank in a company, the earlier you seem to leave, do and make more.
Having a 57 year old CEO represent LâOrĂ©al wouldnât look too appealing 100 years ago when they first founded, although at the time, women barely participated in the workforce anyway. LâOrĂ©al is a global century revolutionary brand but when it comes to the CEO, barely anyone knows who he is since it doesnât have an impact on people as much as with a startup since they need to drive that popularity and market share fast with the top leader.
Itâs fascinating to see the trajectory of CEOs as they scale and the demographics behind it. Startups seem to have the most diverse leaders, females, celebrities and even models in higher ranks when first starting out, despite having less bandwidth and budget just to hire them to pose instead of actually run the company. As companies becomes more profitable, companies focus more on operations and throw less money at the image of the CEO.
Market Share
Beauty is a billion dollar industry and expected to rebound rapidly as consumers are traveling, spending and dining more ditching the sweatpants and putting on the swimis. This means companies need to be more prepared to serve customerâs needs, look like them and be a powerful image in this competitive space where beauty is all personalized.
Brands such as Victoria Secret, are in the process of remodeling, no pun intended, their operations and strategy to appeal to all sizes and most importantly, women instead of men. A little late but better than never! Ideally female athletes or plus-size models would be ideal candidates for CEO instead of another male for a lingerie womenâs apparel brand, yet once again, this all makes sense since startups tend to focus upon the CEOâs representation and be directly behind the brandâs purpose and actually use the products.
According to the CPI index, along with used-cars that took up a majority of the CPI index in May, lipstick and self-tanner were the most popular consumer items purchased as Americans are heading out into normal life again. Younger companies need to prove the CEO and higher execs use these products as well not as much as old-age corporations.
You Do You
Everyone is beautiful in their own way and this is a dangerous subject to get into so I kept it based on facts. I hope this article gave you a glimpse into how companies tend to choose their CEO, what matters to them and what they take into consideration.
I believe soft and hard skills, personality and non-cognitive skills all matter more than the dimensions of your face. Focusing on strengthening those superpowers instead of planing for your next Botox surgery will make you more fulfilled and likable. You have no one to impress except yourself and never blame anything on your natural beauty.
The world is naturally unfair and thereâs always a reason someone chooses you over someone else for a role or vice versa that you may never understand why but always remember, things happen for you not to you and your looks ARE NOT everything. People are bias and what appeals to them, they are more likely to go with.
You have everything you need and can be as successful as your skills take you.
Now hide that mirror.