Mock professionalism vs. honest amateurism

I follow Seth Godin’s blog, but admittedly not very closely. He says a lot of smart things, but somehow the broad observations / interpretations of life, career and marketing don’t tend to stick with me. Today’s entry did, though. Says Seth:

When you compete with professionals, you have a problem, because generally speaking, they’re better at what they do than you are.

I think there are four valid ways the think your way out of this situation:

1. Hire a professional.
2. Be as good as a professional.
3. Realize that professional-quality work is not required or available and merely come close.
4. Do work that a professional wouldn’t dare do, and use this as an advantage.

The first option is expensive, the second one might not be reachable, the third one is neither here nore there. His point is that thinking about option four might really open up some new opportunities for you. Be an amateur but don’t try to hide it.

I see the point, but what got me more than arguing for one particular option is to see the whole list as a tool for categorizing different undertakings in life. Some examples:

• PhD: Option 2 can be the only answer. You can’t do it half-heartedly, you can’t go for the “amateur” option and its unethical and risky to hire somebody that does the job for you.
• Cleaning: With the exception of bathroom and kitchen, option 3 does it. No need to get all crazy about. When the dear mother announces a vist, option one might become interesting.
• At many times in my job, acting out the fourth option really comes as an advantage. When we work with industry partners a lot of times they compare us favourably with industry consultants they come across. It is because of the lack of polish that goes along with “being the university”, and the unpretentious acknowledgement of where our areas of expertise are (and where not) that comes across as honest. Of course it still requires professionalism on the content level and of course, many consultants have substance and know their stuff.
• … and then there are still those moments where you just cannot deliver at the highest level and still have to make it look official. And I guess, it is often a cultural thing. Not every client, say, during a sales pitch, would appreciate the honest amateurism. They would rather acknowledge that, “at least they tried hard and that’s why they should get some credit for it”.

So, I think I will go ahead and apply the heuristic to the tasks that will come up in the next time and use it as a test to see a) how serious I take the task (i.e. at what level I believe I can get away with it) and b) to determine how to act towards the other parties involved in a task.

I invite you to share with me, if you think this categorization makes sense and how you would sort your stuff into the different categories.