BU Be you. Play the long game.

I went to college in Boston, Massachusetts in the mid-90s. Most people know that Boston is a great city, but few realize that it’s very much a college town. Colleges – and college kids – everywhere. BU, BC, MIT, Emerson, Harvard, UMass-Boston, and the list goes on. It was a great place to live for those four years.

I learned early my freshman year, though, that to get the ”full” experience of being young and in Boston, a fake ID was a necessity. You could get by with a bad one at some places, but needed a good one for most places.

Lucky for me, I knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who was making good ones. Really good ones. In an attempt to squash fake IDs, many states were putting holograms on their IDs at this point because that was hard to replicate, but this guy was making ones complete with a hologram and everything. Legit. Cost me $90 which is a lot when you’re a college kid, but I felt it was a worthwhile investment.

Bam. Happy birthday to me.

That ID was a gem. Got me into some shady places I shouldn’t have been in. Got me into some classy places I shouldn’t have been in. It even worked at a few 21+ concert venues in Colorado and Pennsylvania which was nice because me and some friends were into this new, up-and-coming band called The Dave Matthews Band. They were playing small, dingy clubs then, but we knew that wouldn’t be for long so it was cool to see them in small rooms.

I had a fraternity brother, Bradford, who I didn’t hang out with all the time, but it was fun when he was around. One night while bar-hopping in downtown Boston, he told me a little secret: he didn’t have a fake ID. Never did. Never needed one.

Wait. What?

He told me that he was willing to accept the probable fate of not being allowed into an establishment on any given night and always just gave bouncers his real ID — the one that said he was 18, or 19, or 20, or whatever.

Turns out that most bouncers would only look to see if the ID was real and never did the math.

This flat out blew my mind. As I thought I was beating the game, he was playing an entirely different game because he wasn’t playing a game at all.

. . .

Checking for authenticity was priority #1.

Today, as I am focused on building my business venture, Magic Room Brand, from scratch, I think about that whole phenomenon often. They way I see it, there are two choices: 1) build a brand that acts like it’s something else, or 2) stay genuine to what the brand is and can eventually be.

Well, duh.

Acting like something you’re not might get you immediate gratification, but then what?

When building something from the ground up, I’ve found that it’s important to make sure that you get each step as right as you can get it. The slightest compromise early on could lead to some big problems later. This is true for both physical and non-physical entities.

Be who you are and accept the results.

Reinventing and evolving yourself is always a good exercise, but can be done with more grace and ease when your starting point is genuine.

Extra bonus is that you won’t ever have to deal with a bouncer who is actually from the city your fake ID says you’re from.

Bouncer: Hmm. That’s my hometown. What high school did you go to?
Me: Ummm…the one on that one street next to that one neighborhood. You know, the one with all the classrooms and stuff.

Oof.

#bewhatyoumake