"Who is richer - the person or the facade?"

Yesterday Cass and I went on an expedition with friends. The boys were more interested in the games of the desert trip than we girls were. After I had grown tired of photographing Snowy in various funny circumstances, I chatted with Fum'.

We talked about relationships, high cost of living in California, mundane topics. Fum' mentioned that a couple of her friends had gotten into network marketing (MLM) and were apparently doing rather well in the scheme of business. What was important is not the nature of network marketing or my personal bias about these type of ventures. What was interesting is how her friends seemed to have transformed into different people. They began to dress differently, sold their old car to buy a Mercedes, talked and acted differently. We briefly went off tangent about the legitimacy of such schemes but regrouped to "does acting rich make you so?"

I suppose, in some instances, "acting as if" works. For example, if I wanted to become wealthy along the likes of Beverly Hills socialites and debutants, I should dress in very expensive clothing and make sure my hair, face, and nails were always perfectly groomed (and expensively so!) Maybe I will even become the persona that I acted as if. Many motivational books urged us to "act as if" and "begin with the end in mind".

However, there is a difference between dressing rich and being rich. Even in the monetary sense. You exude the aura of who you really are, an aura that comes through clothes you drape and makeup you wear.