Yo,
Hope everyone had a great weekend! In the words of the great MJ, “I’m back”. Hope you enjoyed, or at least were able to put up with some topics from the audience, but it’s time for me to take back the reigns (please be patient as I get back into this whole writing thing) and finally answer the hard-hitting questions.
Like are companies founded by attractive people more likely to succeed? I felt this topic may be fitting following Rihanna’s performance in the Superbowl last night. After all she is the richest female popstar ever, leveraging her fame to amass $1.7 billion across many income streams. And objectively, she’s attractive.
Now, I’m no expert in the matter, but I did find myself reflecting on the commonalities of those who have been able to start successful businesses.
Attraction is relative, right?
Eh, yea but also no. When we think of being attracted to people you may focus on certain features you like. These features typically vary from person to person, thus making attraction somewhat relative. But there is this overarching thing that is more objective than your personal bias: symmetry.
For the purposes of not singling anyone out, I’ll use paintings instead of faces.
This one? Beautiful, who doesn’t like Jesus.
This one? Horrible, never seen it in my life.
So, what’s my point in bringing all of this up? Well, just to acknowledge that attractiveness is relative (to each their own) but can also adhere to this whole symmetry thing.
The cold hard facts
The truth is, there are proven advantages of being attractive in the work force, as well when starting your own thing.
When in the workforce here are some of the statistics indicating that there is a “beauty premium”:
- More call backs and job offers after having an interview
- Higher earning potential. Attractive people will make roughly 10-15% more in the workforce.
- Higher incidence in promotions and internal opportunities
And when starting a business, attractive entrepreneurs:
- Typically raise more money from venture capital
- Have more media/marketing success for their brand
- Attract better talent to their team
Even outside of business, lenders typically give better terms for “good-looking” borrowers (even more skewed when the lender is a male and the borrower is female) and attractiveness can influence judgements in courtrooms (like our friends Ted and OJ here).
The positive feedback loop
While attractiveness certainly helps, it turns out that confidence is a big underlying factor.
If you’re sexy and you know it (shoutout LMFAO), then you are likely more self-confident which actually affords you to take advantage of these opportunities.
If you hold the mindset of “I’m the best, and I’m gonna kill it”, you may actually perform better than others who may not be confident enough to hold that same mentality.
Time to fess up
I’m sure ya’ll have been reading this whole thing asking yourself “who does he have in mind”. Here’s the extremely short list of some people I have been following that have built substantial brands, in small part due to their looks (opinion):
- Marcus Milione: Started both a supplement and fashion business through TikTok. Has over 500k followers across all platforms and has scaled his business to what I predict do at least 7 figures in annual revenue. He models all his own clothes and recently inked a collab with Saucony.
- Sophie Amoruso: Started Nasty Gal after amassing a large following and scaled it to $23M dollars annually before exiting. In 2013 she was literally named Sexiest CEO Alive. She has since started Girlboss media and a $5M investment fund (TrustFund).
The underlying theme? Well, it appears that looks are best suited for an ecommerce business, where you are the face of the brand. Once you get your small win there, you can parlay that credibility into bigger wins like these two have both done. So, in this way it can most definitely help get you started.
The other theme? Emergence of short form video and picture. TikTok and Instagram have ushered in the age of the influencer and being attractive plays well for these platforms that emphasize visual media. For example, would these two have gotten the same amount of traction had they been limited to only Twitter/nonvisual content? Who knows?
What we do know is there’s a value in audience, and we’re beginning to see people cash in big leveraging their following. With this being a more efficient marketing scheme than even traditional TV commercials, at times.
Speaking of ads…
Moo Moo Express
What you don’t know is that this attraction thing can work for cars too! I’m selling my care this weekend and made sure to get a wash at Moo Moo so that I could get the most for it. Anything from the Low Fat Basic to the Creme de le Creme they’ve got you covered. They’ve got the best operators working around the clock and free vacuums so check em’ out #ad
Ace in the hole
Luckily for everyone, there’s one thing that has been shown to trump attractiveness in the professional setting (or on Survivor, as mentioned previously here): likeability. All you have to do is be nice to people and hope they like you, plain and simple.
Best example of this? Sloth, from the The Goonies. Not the best-lookin’ guy, but perhaps the most likeable of the cast.
So, let’s just aim to be likeable, because after all it’s what’s on the inside that truly matters.
Til’ Friday.
from, matt
