You’re familiar with the saying “it is better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all.” Now, how about wearing that failure on your sleeve like a badge of courage?

The premise behind “Ditch the Act: Reveal the Surprising Power of the Real You for Greater Success” (McGraw-Hill Education) is that showing vulnerability and authenticity is a better strategy in business and life than the stereotypical polished persona you always believed would win friends and influence people. So basically, ditch the act.

Leonard Kim is a marketer who wins a lot of awards despite being a self-described expert at failing. But failing can’t be the only thing he is good at since Fortune 500 companies, NYT bestselling authors and venture capitalists, book publishers like McGraw-Hill Business, large media publications like Forbes, CMO, Fast Company, Fortune, Adweek, Entrepreneur, and hundreds of others, and more than 500,000 followers think otherwise.

Personal Branding Experts Leonard Kim and Ryan Foland share an unconventional method that will get you to the top of your career — whether or not you believe it to be true. It may surprise you, but I never really had dreams that I ever thought would amount to anything, like becoming an executive at a company, getting married or having a home with a white picket fence, or at least a version of it. I thought they were pipe dreams. Things that would never happen in my life. And knowing my coauthor, Ryan Foland, I’m sure he felt the same way.