Acharya Prashant addresses the popular saying, "Fake it till you make it," in the context of confidence. He dismisses the idea as a method of fooling oneself, comparing it to someone who doesn't know how to cook a dish but pretends to, hoping it will eventually get made. He calls this absurd and suggests that such a technique might only succeed in deceiving others who are themselves foolish. He elaborates on how this concept might appear to work in superficial situations, such as politics. If one pretends to be a great man and successfully fools voters into electing them, they do, in a sense, "make it" to a position of power. However, he describes this as a nice-sounding story that doesn't hold up in reality. He argues that attaining a position by deceiving others only creates more problems and enemies. To maintain such a position, one must continuously cater to the foolishness of those they initially deceived. Acharya Prashant then critiques the concept of visualization, explaining that one cannot visualize anything for the future that is not already a part of their past experiences. Imagination is limited to rearranging old elements into new combinations, which may appear novel but are fundamentally old. When a person visualizes success, they are merely picturing things they have already seen or heard about, such as large houses and cars. This is not a new future but a repetition of the past. He distinguishes between expansion and transcendence. Visualization, he states, is merely an expansion of one's current state—like expanding a one-room house in the mud to a four-room house, but still remaining in the mud. True spiritual progress is transcendence, which involves leaving the mud altogether. He explains that to become a better version of oneself ('B'), one must leave their current self ('A'), not just have 'A' visualize becoming 'B'. True success is an unprecedented experience, something entirely new that cannot be imagined from one's current state.
