The Man MakesThe suit was never the man. Build the man, and the suit will fit.
The suit does not make the man. The man makes the suit. Strip the title, the car, the followers, the brand from a hollow man and there is nothing left standing. Strip them from a real one and he walks out unchanged.
This is the line the whole ministry is built on, so hear it plainly. The external things — the role, the income, the image — are cloth. They hang well on a man who has done the inner work and hang loose and strange on a man who has not. The work, the real work, is building the man underneath: the judgment, the character, the code. Do that, and the suit fits. Skip it, and no title will ever cover the gap. Crisis is the tailor that measures the truth, and crisis always comes.
The Stoic source
Epictetus, Enchiridion 17Remember that you are an actor in a play, the character of which is determined by the Playwright ... For this is your business, to play admirably the rôle assigned you; but the selection of that rôle is Another's.
Translated by W. A. Oldfather
The Scripture
1 Samuel 16:7 (part), KJVFor man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
The move
Spend one day without one of your "suits" — drop the title, the prop, the thing you usually hide behind. Meet people as just the man. See who is there.