The April showers have again brought May flowers and everything is in bloom (and my allergies are kicking in). Walking down the street yesterday I was stopped in my tracks by something next to me that seemed out of place: potted fake tulips. “Tacky,” I thought.
From a distance, I may not have noticed these flowers were fake, and they would have blended in during the spring and summer, and looked remarkably out of place in the fall and winter. But up close, these flowers stuck out like a garish sore thumb.
Up close, it becomes easy to spot things that are fake: the wood veneer table that looked elegant now looks cheap; the watch that looked regal now looks shoddy; and the salesperson who looked helpful now looks disingenuous.
It’s worse to discover that a person is fake than it is a potted fake plant. The fake flowers don’t have a choice. Fake people have the choice whether or not to care about others, and they choose not to.
These are the people you want to avoid bringing into your organization. Fake people only care about themselves, and they will destroy your brand and hinder your company’s success.
From a distance, fake people may look as normal as the rest of us, perhaps even more attractive because they are often smiling and look like they are best friends with everyone. But up close, fake people are transparent, impervious to other people’s thoughts and opinions the way fake flowers are impervious to the weather.
The only question left to answer is, why do fake flowers have no smell, but fake people tend to reek of too much cologne? 
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