Invest in your appearance | Fola Daniel Adelesi (2024)

I know I've said it over time that you need to make sure you invest in the future. You need to invest in other resources that you need. You must invest in the gadgets that can bring more money for you. In commerce, it's called capital goods, and those capital goods are goods that will help you to make more money. It's like buying a particular product that you can use to make money.

However, it's very important as well that you invest in your appearance. I've seen situations where somebody walks into a room and just because of what the person looks like, one of the panelists sent a message to another panelist saying, this is not our candidate just because of the way the person looked, not even because the person is not qualified.

The person is qualified and just as qualified as the other people were. But because of his appearance and his courage, he was disqualified. This happens to a lot of people, even in businesses. Sometimes, you want to meet with people who want to give you businesses, maybe businesses worth several thousands or several millions of dollars and you don't look like the kind of money you're asking for. They may decide, look, I'm not sure we can give it to you just because of your appearance and your courage.

I'm not asking you to be flamboyant. I'm not asking you to look expensive, or look luxurious. I'm simply saying that you need to look good, look clean, look simple. Investing in your appearance is so important, and you cannot do without it, because a lot of people will always judge you first, based on your appearance before they begin to judge you because of your content or your mind, or your capacity or even your competence.

Appearance is the first thing that everybody judges. When you see people in the first 10 seconds, you can also decide if you want to do business with them or not. Now, you may say, well, 10 seconds is too short. Unfortunately, that's how much life offers you for anyone to quickly determine whether they want to do business with you or not, except you get a second chance, or except you get an opportunity to present and show that you are sound, smart and competent. In some cases, life doesn't give you more than 10 seconds. If life doesn't give you more than 10 seconds to prove your worth, you really don't want to mess up those chances. So, invest in your appearance.

Some of you don't know how to combine colors correctly. You need to learn how to combine colors correctly. And the safest thing to do is to stay with plain colors, or simple colors. Don't put too many colors together, just trying or hoping that you will look good only to look like a masquerade at the end of the day.

This does not apply to men alone. It applies to men just as it applies to some women too. There are women who don't know how to combine colors. You need to learn how to combine colours or stay safe with colours when you’re not sure what to wear. You need to learn how to be smart. Don't wear oversized clothes. Learn more about your body size, shape, uniqueness and what works for you. Regardless of what your size is, there is something off the shelves that will look smart on you. And if you can’t find something off the shelves, there is a smart tailor out there that can use his or head and make something decent for you.

Even if you're not wearing some new or expensive clothes, make sure they are properly fitted for your size so that you don't look like you're wearing a baggie or you're wearing a flowing gown. It's so important that you invest in your appearance because some of the people who are going to help you depend on what you look like before they go further. Even when it comes to relationships, I'm talking about marital relationships, sometimes some people just decide that they can't go with you based on your appearance. It doesn't mean that they don't want you as a person. It doesn't mean that they don't like you, but you just don't look like the person that they have envisaged or the person they have pictured.

Some of the people who want to help you too will look at your appearance. So, take your appearances seriously. Look clean, look good. It costs you nothing or just a little to take your clothes to the dry cleaner, to starch them properly for you, iron properly, and some of you are good at it. So put in some extra effort to do all these things. An investment in your appearance is not a waste of money or resources. It's an investment into other things that you're looking for. So, I hope that in the bid to succeed and be more productive, you'll understand that an investment in your appearance is also pivotal to your productivity.