The same need, a new setting
We have never talked so much about authenticity. And yet, we have never faked it so much. It is worth noticing how this happened almost without anyone realizing.
Some time ago, autopromotion had familiar addresses: events, corporate stages, strategic coffees, business dinners. It still exists, it only changed clothes. Today it wears filters, hashtags and inspirational quotes. The setting changed, the script is the same. At its center, a very human need: to be seen, even at your own expense.
The engineering of appearance
When I started writing, I looked for an expert in building online reputation. He gave me three pieces of advice that were valuable to him and useless to me.
The first: post every day and tag important people, even if you do not know them, because it widens your reach. I thought about the mechanism behind it. I write something shallow, compliment half a dozen people who, out of their own ego, will repost the empty praise, and the magic happens. I would build reputation not from what I think, am or delivered, but from who I manage to tag. The second: comment on many posts, anything, without needing to make sense, just to engage. The third: keep my computer open on LinkedIn for hours to look active and reply to everything the minute it arrives.
I followed none of them. And he became a Top Voice. The question remains: what is that title for, if not to point to someone whose practice and words inspire others? For me, being a Top Voice is having a voice. A voice where truth speaks and delivers.
Why the formula works and still is not enough
Let me be honest: these tactics work. They produce real numbers. The problem is not their efficiency, it is what they demand in order to keep working. A presence assembled from the outside has to be fed from the outside, every day, without a break. This is what I call Ter Poder: a potency conditioned on something you must keep maintaining without pause. The moment you slow down, it begins to disappear.
There is a quieter cost too. When recognition starts coming from outside, the outside begins to decide your worth. This is The Surrender of Power: you hand over to a system of likes and reach the job of saying how much you are worth. And that system never finishes the job, because every post restarts the quote from zero.
The recognition that begins within
When I write, whether here, in classes, projects or talks, there is a piece of me in all of it. None of it could be done by someone else, because my experience is in what I deliver. An empty speech can create impact for a moment. But the recognition that lasts has to begin within. The external is easier: following trends, using hooks, commenting the obvious, signing in the company's name. The question is whether it brings any fulfillment.
That shift, from recognition that comes from outside to recognition that begins within, is what I call Ser Poder: a potency that does not depend on what you have in order to recognize who you are. It does not vanish when the numbers drop, because it was not built on them.
The proof shows up in leadership
Nowhere is this more visible than in the subject of leadership. Writing about leadership is easy, even more so with artificial intelligence. The hard part is being the leader who writes what they do and what they have learned from life.
I am not saying good leaders do not make mistakes. They do. Sometimes they fire people unfairly, sometimes they fail, sometimes they are not just. But leading for real is not looking perfect, it is being human. It is having failed, learned, transformed people and offered value beyond the title. Simon Sinek says leadership is not about being in charge, it is about taking care of those in your charge. And Ralph Waldo Emerson sums up what matters: what you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
What remains when the algorithm goes quiet
The authentic path may take longer. It may not be simple or fast. But when it is done with truth, it becomes greater than results: it turns into a coherent expression of who you are. Leadership is not about speed, it is about depth. Not about the number of voices, but about the quality of presence. And not about winning over crowds, but about truly transforming the people beside you, whether one or thousands.
Great transformations and the people who genuinely believe in your work are not born from the algorithm. They are born from the courage to be who you are, even when that earns less reach. That is the ground where authenticity stops being a pretty word and becomes practice.