I have been thinking about the phrase “Perception is everything” and I have come to the conclusion that it is a true statement yet deceptive at the same time. This statement is not a matter of right or wrong and that is the amazing thing about the statement.

Someone would say “but isn’t our perception wrong sometimes, so how can perception be everything?" Well, saying that only highlights how important perception is, our perception being wrong or limited only highlights the value of correct perception.

Think about it, why is it that in this media saturated world that how we appear in the eyes of others is so important? We want to appear successful, important, beautiful, clever, attractive etc but why? It seems how we appear to others affects how we see ourselves and this is why we place so much importance on how we are seen. In this case, perception is everything because of how we appear to other people.

I once walked down Sloane Street in London and on that street you have all the big designer labels with shops. Fendi, D&G, Gucci, you name it, they were all there lined up and the thought hit me “vanity is big business” I mean do people buy these expensive things JUST because they are quality products and look nice? No! they buy them because they are status symbols that make you look important and successful and it seems self esteem is magically built into those name brands because almost everyone else has emotionally invested into this magically inbuilt high value tied into them.

As I walked down the street further and got to Knightsbridge which is where Harrods is, I noticed that a lot of people were rocking the new Beats by Dre headphones. You know those ones that cost over £100 that I personally don’t think really sound better than others that don’t cost as much. Somehow because people have bought into the image of it, they were willing to part with a lot of money. Is this really about them sounding WAAAAAAY better than cheaper earphones or is this an image and status thing? Your answer depends on who you are and if you’ve bought into the idea that they are superior or if you’re kind of skeptical like me because you tried them and didn’t really hear anything more amazing than some good old Sennheiser headphones.

If you want to further see how the phrase “perception is everything” has such truth to it, think of the whole idea of branding or watch how we present ourselves in the digital social networking worlds of twitter, facebook and all the others. Look at how we celebrate when we get more followers on twitter, it makes us feel more important when our numbers increase because people say “well he/she must be important if he/she has over a million followers and this other guy has only 100” It does make you think doesn’t it? What make us think this way?

Look these pictures below of some amazing 3D street art. It looks so real doesn't it? But we all know it's not real, if only we could see many other things clearly for what they are.