It occurred to me this week that you just cannot fake enthusiasm. Two things happened this week that led me to this conclusion. First, I watched a couple of political speeches at the Republican National Convention, and second, I heard from a founder regarding a new company that he was starting. At first, I could not help as the camera panned the audience of delegates at this convention just how enthusiastic these people were. This is probably the case for every convention of this sort, and I will probably see the same sort of wild-eyed elation at the Democratic National Convention in a few weeks. However, I noticed more enthusiasm than normal. This was extra, a little more flair than is typical. This was palpable and was reflected by the hosts of the various news programs. There was an infectious enthusiasm that impacted any part of the affair. Despite all the pomp and circumstance, balloons, digital displays, signs, posters, and stupid hats – the facade fades quickly when there is a lack of enthusiasm. This cannot be faked, even with millions of dollars.
It also cannot be faked with a slide deck put together by Slide Genie or a similar company. I have been on a surprising number of investment pitch presentations where the lack of enthusiasm is palpable, which is rather shocking. A founder or CEO is asking for money for a company, and they do not show enthusiasm. This has been perplexing to me. What is going on here? I have dug into this a few times just to see if I could learn. What I have uncovered is that in these situations, the founder is actually not that confident in their solution. They are interested in investment but not entirely confident in their offering. This creates a “second-guessing” mentality, which comes out as a lack of enthusiasm. The difference is very real. When a founder comes on a call full of enthusiasm, which comes from confidence, you can tell. Even if their idea is not all that good, their enthusiasm is undeniable. Once again, this feeling, this emotion of enthusiasm, is just not something that can be faked.
So, after watching a Zoom call where I saw a founder muddle through a pitch deck that he did not seem that excited about and then watching a woman dressed in red, blue, and gold and wearing a piece of cheese on her head, I started thinking about this enthusiasm quotient. This part of the equation can make all the difference in the world. This will be the difference between which party gets their candidate elected and which founder can raise money for their company. The enthusiasm quotient seems incredibly important. However, can this be taught? Can this be manufactured? Can this be emulated? Artificially created? Faked?
The answer is absolutely no. However, that does not mean people do not always try. They will do things to show the right body language, change their vocal tone, improve their facial expressions, alter language, and send positive messages that indicate interest and excitement. I researched this topic, and as it turns out, humans are good at detecting signs of fake enthusiasm. Sincerity is important to us because human interaction is dependent on successful relationships that are productive to us. We have ways of instantly detecting things that could indicate a lack of sincerity. We can instantly tell when someone is being inconsistent or there are sudden changes in their interest level. We can tell when someone is overcompensating and exaggerating enthusiasm. We can sense when their engagement is superficial and lacks depth, and we can quickly tell that their body language does not match their vocabulary. That politician, that salesperson, that person asking for money gets scrutinized by millions of years of human evolution. If they are faking it, they do not stand a chance. We will notice that “something is wrong.”
We call this “putting lipstick on a pig” in everyday vernacular. We try this all the time, regardless. We roll a person or an idea in front of people and try to make it look as good as possible, but we face this core problem. All humans are collectively trained by each other to detect this and avoid it when they do. Which ends up creating this collective charade that we all participate in. Hilarious actually. We all are watching the same politician and we all collectively can detect the insincerity and lack of enthusiasm. Some of us go along with it for whatever reason, and some of us reject the facade out of hand. The point is that we all know it, we all detect it, we just deal with it differently. There are risks to playing this game. Eventually people will burn out and just get tired of pretending. They will stop trusting you, and they tend not to want to associate with inauthentic relationships. So my recommendation is to avoid faking enthusiasm; it will eventually come back to haunt you.
If you are not authentically enthusiastic, then perhaps it is best to discover why and deal with the root cause. Life, business and even politics seems so much easier on the person who is genuinely excited, interested in a passionate about what they are doing!
