Most people treat authenticity as a branding problem when it's really about discovering who you actually are. The speakers use Superman and Clark Kent to argue that we hide our true selves behind a weakened version, never fully integrating our real identity.
Chapters
When it comes to being that authentic version of themselves though, I do think a lot of people struggle to figure out who that version of them is. They're trying to solve it, I think, intellectually, right? They think that branding, for example, or personal branding is like an intellectual problem they've got to solve. They don't realize actually it's a heartfelt thing. Who are you at your heart, your core?
So if we look at Superman and Clark Kent, is Superman the alter ego or is Clark Kent the alter ego? Who's the real person? He is really Kal-El from Krypton. And that's who he really is. So most of the time he's hiding. And when he's hiding, he has to pretend to be weak, nearsighted, fumbling, bumbling, and kind of useless in most cases, and a coward sometimes. So I bring that up because I think a lot of people think, oh my God, I am the Superman or Superwoman. And actually you're not. You're being Clark Kent and you're hiding. It's because you haven't fully integrated who you are just yet.