I was in San Francisco and Silicon Valley all last week. Part of my visit was presenting at LinkedIn so I wanted to look fancy and brought a suit and dress shirt – but I didn’t take a close enough look at my shirt before takeoff.
So the morning of the presentation I get out my shirt and lo and behold, I brought a shirt with French cuffs…and no cuff links. 🙁
Then I took to social – and within minutes I had heaps of feedback within my network.
Everything from rolling up my sleeves to paper clips to Seinfeld puffy shirts to what Macgyver would do.
I ended up getting a pair to borrow from a buddy over at Apple.
Want to know what’s fascinating? Not a single person asked what the presentation was about.
We live in a world where people want a look at quick appearances and visuals before content. People were thinking of how they would look and feel if they were in that situation – so much so that the content wasn’t front of mind.
What moves you? Even if you aren’t a materialistic or superficial person, you’re likely to judge a book by its cover.
Most people quote the old saying – don’t judge a book by its cover.
Let’s add to that: …but that cover better look good. 🙂