Self-promote to survive

There’s a real danger in today’s culture, especially if you’re a
young person in some kind of creative industry - I even feel this as a
church leader - that in order to survive and become successful, you need
to end up becoming obsessed with promoting yourself.

I don’t like it.

I really don’t like the person it turns me into, the way it
encourages me to relate to other people, the way it feels sometimes like
it could take over my life. 

Three dangers of pursuing a lifestyle of self-promotion:

1. You become firmly rooted as the centre of your world.
Everyone else becomes a supporting character in the play of your life.

2. You end up with fans rather than friends.
The art of relating is forgotten, replaced with endless networking.

3. You rob yourself of the chance to be content with who you are.
Our identity becomes rooted in showreels and portfolios, rather than in who we are and what we mean to the people we care about.

Originally posted at James Henley's blog.