My Secret Identity
I think I know what Superman, Batman, and all those other superheroes feel like while masquerading around as their alternate identities. Maybe not. First of all, I am not a superhero (just so we clear that right up). Secondly, they chose to have a mild-mannered alternate identity. I did not.
Here is the issue. I lead 2 lives. There is my ‘day job life’, where I am just another security consultant in a consulting firm. My managers within the company are aware of my ’superhero life’, but it doesn’t seem to hold any actual weight with regard to anything in my ‘day job life’. I get assigned to mundane projects like everyone else. I go work for clients who don’t know about my ’superhero life’. You wouldn’t know I even had a ’superhero life’ by watching me in my cubicle all week.
Ironically, I sometimes find that people follow my ’superhero life’, but don’t put 2 + 2 together to realize I am the same person. Its sort of like Lois Lane lusting for Superman and talking about Superman all day…with Clark Kent, while having lunch with Clark Kent. They may read my blogs and articles, or may even have a book I have written or co-authored sitting on their desk, but fail to realize that I am THAT Tony Bradley.
For the most part, it works out OK. ‘Day job life’ pays the bills and provides benefits. ‘Superhero life’ is fairly lucrative. It does get a little frustrating at times though. It seems to me that my notoriety, never mind my knowledge and skills, could be put to better use in ‘day job life’ if they would embrace my role in ’superhero life’ and leverage that. How popular do you think The Daily Planet would have been if everyone would have known that the 2nd-string reporter hanging out with Lois Lane was actually Superman? I’m guessing it would have boosted sales a tad.
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Tony Bradley
www.tonybradley.com
Essential. Computer. Security.