Do I need to sell myself for people to see my value?

Rabbi Landau answers with a lesson from business. “A good product doesn’t need marketing. And good marketing doesn’t need sales.” If you are out there hustling for sales, he says, you already failed twice.

There are three levels. With a great product, people come to you. With great marketing, people find you. With neither, you need aggressive sales to chase people. “You never saw a Rolls-Royce on a billboard. Does gold need a salesman?”

The same applies to a person, to your character and your reputation. When they are real, you don’t need marketing. The people who scream loudest about how valuable they are, he observes, are usually the ones with the least to show for it.

King Solomon said, “Divrei chachamim b’nachas nishma’im mi’za’akas moshel bak’silim,” quiet wisdom is heard deeper than the screams of a man trying to rule fools. “Real value doesn’t need volume. Real value doesn’t need convincing.” If you have to sell yourself, that is a sale you already lost. So build something real, and the right people will find it.

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

Real value attracts on its own; loud self-promotion usually signals the opposite.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

There is constant pressure to prove, to show and to be seen. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that the one who shouts to be heard shows what he lacks by the very act of shouting.

Underlying need or longing

A person wants his worth to be recognized. Rabbi Landau teaches that when there is real substance, the right people find their way to him without his chasing after them.

Deepest human truth

A person who is whole inside does not shout. He simply is. Real value doesn’t need volume.

More questions from this teaching

• Why do I have to chase customers to make sales?