The Art of Increasing Your Value: How to Enhance Your Worth

Author: Chang Chenzi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Your social status is reflected in how you dress. People who dress elegantly leave a strong impression, conveying a message: "I am an important figure, intelligent, successful, and reliable. You can admire and trust me. I value myself, and you should respect me too." Shakespeare once said, "Clothes make the man," a statement widely accepted. From the perspective of social status studies, clothing is also one of the basic indicators of an individual's social standing. Many people are often criticized for their inappropriate attire. At first glance, judging a person solely by their clothing may seem superficial and hasty, but experience repeatedly proves that clothing is indeed a standard for measuring a person's taste and self-esteem. Aspiring individuals who desire success should choose their attire as carefully as they choose a life partner. An old proverb goes, "I can tell what kind of person you are by the company you keep." A writer once said quite eloquently, "Let me see all the clothes a woman has worn in her life, and I can write a biography about her." People who dress elegantly leave a strong impression, conveying a message: "I am an important figure, smart, successful, and reliable. You can admire and trust me. I value myself, and you should respect me too." Conversely, people who dress sloppily give a poor impression, signaling to others: "I am someone of little achievement, careless, inefficient, and unimportant. I am just an ordinary person, not worth special respect. I am used to being overlooked." Inappropriate attire can provoke. If a student drives a luxury car or wears expensive diamond jewelry, it is inevitable that people will find them pretentious, as such out-of-place behavior is irritating. A person's clothing has the characteristic of "extending the self." If a person's appearance contrasts with their clothing, which represents "self-extension," it creates an impression of an "incomplete personality." For example, dressing in high-end clothes and jewelry but wearing cheap shoes looks unnatural. Many young people mistakenly believe that "dressing appropriately" always means wearing branded clothing, a view that is just as wrong as completely disregarding clothing. They spend time on grooming instead of cultivating their minds and souls. They constantly calculate how to buy expensive shirts, ties, or coats with their meager income. If they cannot afford what they desire, they resort to buying cheap imitations, resulting in their attire looking ridiculous and attracting ridicule. These young people wear cheap rings, blood-red ties, and loud plaids, and they are undoubtedly people of low status. The playboy—the flashy one—whose profession and life are centered around clothing, has recklessly dedicated his spirit, soul, and wallet to this purpose. They live only for clothes, with no time for learning culture or working hard. Women who dress excessively are the female counterparts of men who dress inappropriately. Their demeanor depends on their clothing. Due to their excessive attention to appearance, they appear exaggerated, flashy, and vulgar. The inner character revealed by such attire is even more repulsive than being poorly dressed. Awkward, shabby, and ill-fitting clothes do not