Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg returned to work Monday after his paternity leave but before doing so posted a picture of his closet: several gray shirts and gray hoodies.
“First day back after paternity leave. What should I wear?” he asked with a only an ocean of irony to accompany the text. “Feeling undecided” he added with an emoticon.
First day back after paternity leave. What should I wear?
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, January 25, 2016
“This man must be mad” you probably thought to yourself. “Someone should stop him.”
Stop yourself. There’s actually some method to this madness.
“I really want to clear my life to make it so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community,” Zuckerberg reportedly explained during a Q&A when he was asked about his uniform wardrobe. “I’m in this really lucky position where I get to wake up every day and help serve more than a billion people,” he added “And I feel like I’m not doing my job if I spend any of my energy on things that are silly or frivolous about my life.” Can reducing your closet to just one uniform help you emulate Zuckerberg’s success? Maybe.
Reducing your professional wardrobe to one look can not only reduce the amount of time you spend picking out what to wear every day, but also “brand yourself.”
“Consistency of all kinds is what builds brands,” author and brand expert Dan Schawbel told Forbes. “People who wear the same thing, have a catch phrase or two, and associate with the same people are more memorable than those who don’t. It says this is who I am and this is what I enjoy. I think it’s a rather positive thing that helps people identify with them and allows them to just be themselves.” Zuckerberg isn't alone in this practice. Think about other successful people who have worn the same outfit or uniform: Steve Jobs, Karl Lagerfeld and Johnny Cash are three examples.
Matt Lee is a web producer for Metro New York. He writes about almost everything and anything. Talk to him (or yell at him) on Twitter so he doesn’t feel lonely@mattlee2669.
