Are You Building a Career or Just a Brand?

Let’s face it: we’re all living double lives. There’s the version of you that gets up, does the work, and delivers results. And then there’s the curated, polished, LinkedIn-friendly version of you - the one who seems effortlessly successful, constantly grinding, and always "on." Over time, it feels like this second version of ourselves has taken center stage. We’ve become performers in our own career dramas, and honestly, the show is exhausting.

In today’s professional world, doing the work is no longer enough. You have to be seen doing the work. The modern workplace has morphed into a "performance economy," where showing competence often gets more rewards than actually being competent. It’s not just about getting results anymore - it’s about how well you package those results for an audience. And while this shift is great for social media algorithms and networking events, it comes with steep costs for our careers, our skills, and our mental health.

A World Obsessed with the Show

The performance economy is a new reality shaped by the tools we use and the behavior they encourage. Social platforms like LinkedIn reward visibility, engagement, and shareable soundbites over quiet, thoughtful expertise. Hiring managers drowning in resumes often favor shiny online profiles over digging deeper into candidates’ actual skills. And in this environment, the pressure to "perform" becomes relentless.

Take a look around, and you’ll see this dynamic everywhere. Consider these familiar characters:

• The software developer who spends more time crafting viral Twitter threads about their "10x coding journey" than actually writing clean, functional code.
• The marketing manager whose personal brand is a masterpiece of storytelling but whose team struggles to deliver real results.
• The startup founder who dominates networking events yet hasn’t built a product that solves a meaningful problem for customers.

Sound familiar? These aren’t outliers - they’re symptoms of the system we’ve built. The performance economy rewards visibility over substance, style over skill, and buzz over impact. And as more people play the game, the pressure to join in increases. Watching others succeed through self-promotion makes us question whether putting our heads down and focusing on deep work is even worth it.

But here’s the thing: this isn’t just a matter of vanity or ego. It’s a systemic problem that’s reshaping what we value as work itself. Slowly but surely, we’ve been duped into believing that the performance is the job.

The Rules of the Professional Stage

In this new reality, career advancement hinges on an entirely different set of rules. It’s not about what you know or what you can do - it’s about how well you package and promote it. Your personal brand, your thought leadership content, and your online visibility have become the new currency of success.

The platforms we rely on for professional growth are designed to amplify this dynamic. They reward hot takes, viral posts, and shareable snippets over nuanced analysis or quiet expertise. Hiring decisions often come down to who has the most polished online persona, not who has the strongest skills. And so the cycle continues: we see others rewarded for putting on a performance, so we double down on our own. Before we know it, time that could be spent mastering our craft is instead eaten up by managing our public-facing persona.

This creates a vicious feedback loop. The more we focus on appearances, the less time we have for meaningful growth. Skills stagnate, expertise erodes, and professional personas become increasingly disconnected from reality. It’s a system that benefits platforms and rewards showmanship - but at what cost to our individual careers?

The Real Costs of Playing the Game

This obsession with performance and personal branding carries significant consequences. It doesn’t just affect our daily lives - it reshapes our careers in profound and often damaging ways. Let’s break down the fallout:

1. The Visibility Trap: We start prioritizing roles and projects based on how good they’ll look on social media, not how much they’ll help us grow. Foundational, unglamorous work—the kind that builds real expertise - gets sidelined in favor of flashy achievements that generate more likes and shares. Over time, this leads to a career built on surface-level wins rather than deep, meaningful progress.
2. The Narrative Prison: As we build our personal brands, we create stories about ourselves: our strengths, our trajectories, our "unique value propositions." But these narratives can quickly become cages. We feel trapped by the image we’ve projected, afraid to pivot, take a lateral move, or admit we need to learn something new. Real growth is messy and nonlinear, but our curated personas demand perfection and progress at all times.
3. The Engagement Treadmill: The constant demand to post, comment, network, and stay visible pulls our focus away from deep work. To truly master a skill or solve a complex problem, you need uninterrupted time and mental clarity. But when your brain is fragmented by the pressure to perform for an invisible audience, meaningful growth becomes almost impossible.
4. Skills Stagnation: The "10,000 hours" rule for achieving mastery is real - but what happens when those hours are sliced up and reallocated to content creation, personal branding workshops, and maintaining an online facade? The result is a workforce that looks incredibly impressive on the surface but lacks the depth of skill to back it up.
5. Authenticity Burnout: The mental toll of maintaining a professional mask while juggling real responsibilities is immense. Over time, this disconnect between our public personas and our actual selves leads to exhaustion, disillusionment, and a nagging sense of impostor syndrome. We may look successful, but inside, we feel disconnected from our work and uncertain about our own value.

Reclaiming Your Career from the Performance Economy

So, how do we escape this trap? The solution isn’t to abandon personal branding altogether or log off social media forever. Instead, it’s about finding a balance between substance and showmanship - about reclaiming your time, energy, and focus for what truly matters.

For Individuals:

• Audit Your Time: Take an honest look at how much time you’re spending on performance versus practice. Are you devoting enough energy to honing your craft and building real expertise? If not, set boundaries around content creation and online engagement.
• Redefine Success: Shift your focus from external validation (likes, shares, promotions) to internal growth. Measure success by the skills you’re building, the problems you’re solving, and the impact you’re making - not by how good it looks on your feed.
• Embrace Messy Growth: Allow yourself the freedom to pivot, take risks, and learn in public. Real growth is rarely linear, and it’s okay to show vulnerability. Prioritize genuine progress over the appearance of perfection.

For Organizations:

• Rethink Hiring Practices: Evaluate your recruitment and promotion processes. Are you rewarding substance or style? Develop methods to assess actual skills and contributions rather than relying on online personas.
• Celebrate Deep Work: Create a culture that values thoughtful, impactful work—even when it’s invisible. Recognize and reward employees for solving real problems, not just for being good self-promoters.
• Foster Psychological Safety: Encourage employees to take risks, experiment, and admit when they need to grow. A culture of authenticity and support can help counteract the pressure to perform.

Building Something Real

The professionals who will thrive in the long run are those who can master this balance. They’ll use the tools of the performance economy strategically, without becoming enslaved by them. They’ll understand that, in a world obsessed with appearances, cultivating genuine skill and expertise is the ultimate competitive advantage.

The choice isn’t between performance and substance - it’s about knowing which one truly matters. So, take a step back. Audit your time. Focus on what really drives long-term success. It’s time to stop the performance and start building something real.

Truly Yours

Narghiza Ergashova

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Narghiza Ergashova is a highly skilled finance executive based in Australia with extensive experience across industries like property, mining, chemicals, and infrastructure. She is recognized for her expertise in managing complex portfolios, building strong stakeholder relationships, and driving exceptional business performance.

As a thought leader, Narghiza regularly shares valuable insights on leadership, innovation, and personal growth. Through her Medium articles, she covers key topics such as employee engagement, effective leadership strategies, and overcoming business challenges. Her work resonates with professionals looking for actionable advice and inspiration to succeed in both their careers and personal lives.

To learn more about Narghiza Ergashova, you can explore her work on the Blogger, STCK.com or visit her Medium.com profile. Discover her expert insights and strategies for leadership, business growth, and navigating challenges in today’s fast-paced industries.

In May 2025 Narghiza Ergashova released her debut autobiography called Curly Clix Convictions . The book delves into Narghiza's journey as a professional, entrepreneur, and wife and a mother. You can visit her biography by clicking the link below.