Looking Good by Feeling Good
Like every other day, I watch Shark Tank reruns on Netflix for the hundredth time with my parents. While watching one of the episodes in season 9, a woman walks in with a mirror that can make people look skinny. It was viewed as a medium that deceives people into buying this. It was considered similar to hair wigs, makeup, and other cosmetics sold in the industry. But, this was something different. This was not to prove that you look good to the people looking at you but to you, yourself — Why would somebody want that?
This is genius but something that may not be immediately apparent, but this is a brilliant play of your mind to make you feel good about yourself.
The founder of Skinny Mirror Belinda Jasmine phrases her genius of a product precisely which requires you to take a step back to make sense. That catchphrase is the title of this post.
You feel good, you look good.
It is a clever twist to the good old cliche phrase — you look good, you feel good.
The vision of Belinda’s product was to show the world how your perception of yourself (that you paint by yourself in your mind) can give you the confidence that no other form of external fakery can. It may be fake, so what? If it can make you feel more confident and help you lead a happier life, that is all that matters.
It is understandable why the Sharks (i.e., angel investors) didn’t invest in it because it is a non-proprietary product and brand-building from scratch for a product like this can cost a lot of money and time.
Do I support not trying to get better by working out? Of course not.
Does feeling better make you happier? Yes, it does.
Please do yourself a favour and watch Belinda’s pitch to the Sharks. Her confidence and her attitude is something we can all learn from. While they crap all over her product by calling it as a false premise, deceiving, demotivating people from actually making progress, she keeps her attitude like those were nothing and never lost composure. This is something we all have to learn from. I can’t recall a single second in her entire pitch where she was grinning or putting up a face — she smiled all the way through. Her pitch may have been rough, but she left the Tank (that is, the place where the seekers' pitch) feeling the same way she entered. This is all thanks to her attitude.
She was coincidentally the perfect person to run a company for that kind of a product that is, her attitude aligns with her vision.
Attitude is everything.
I couldn’t find the full pitch on YouTube but here’s a short clip. If you are interested in viewing her full pitch, watch Shark Tank season 7 episode 5.
