Many of us are uncomfortable with the idea of promoting ourselves. Ask anyone about doing more to get themselves out there and more often than not, you'll get a shrug, a groan and something like "Oh I don't know?", "I just don't have the time", or "I don't have anything valuable to sell".
This could be because society is abound with connotations of arrogance or vanity associated with promoting oneself; things like "tooting your own horn", "blowing your own trumpet", or "you're so full of yourself".
But if you're not going to promote yourself, who will? We can say all we like about contestants in Singapore Idol, Miss Universe, etc. but the truth is, they had the guts to put themselves out there. They weren't waiting for some head-hunter to knock on their doors (which rarely happens); they ran towards their dreams with everything they had. In the process, they were judged, sometimes ridiculed, but at least they were doing it for themselves. And you know what? Many of them got the notice or attention that they needed to further their careers or bring them closer to their goals.
The truth is, getting known by the public scares a lot of people; I myself used to vehemently shun any publicity outside of my role as a radio presenter. Many of us have the fear of being judged negatively, so we fight to remain as "low-profile" as we can. Yet, as we progress in our work, we realize that in order to become better at what we do, we have to meet more people, talk to more people, get more people to know us and work with us. This is the conundrum.
In my experience, you don't lose anything by promoting yourself. Each of us has value, a skill that is useful to others. No one's going to benefit from you keeping that all to yourself. You might be great at hosting events, maybe you have a flair for writing, maybe you whip up a killer curry pasta; let people know!
I can understand why you might be holding back - when you put yourself out there, people may love you, but they may also hate you. Well, you know, whether you promote yourself or not, there are always going to be people, who for some reason, will not like you or the things you do. But if even you yourself do not like yourself enough to promote yourself, then you're wasting opportunities on a daily basis. Wherever you are right now, you have all you need to find more fulfillment, make more friends, make more money, help more people.
Only you can give yourself the permission to get your name out there; be as big a person as you think you can be.
Eugine Loh, 938Live, MediaCorp Pte Ltd
