The reality is that to do great things you need to be a bit of a fraud. "Fake it until you make it" is required to push through the uncomfortableness of repeated setbacks and failures. It takes a very different kind of person to succeed at a high level.

The truth being, of course, that none of us know what we're doing until we do something long enough to learn a thing or two. But how do you stick with something long enough to gain a high level of expertise without a fair bit of overconfidence? And how do you convince others to allow you to take the actions necessary in order to gain experience without a fair bit of self misrepresentation? We all do this in interviews, when trying to find a life partner, and even to convince ourselves we can achieve something a bit beyond our current skill level.

The fake it until you make it mentality can be seen in politics too.

People unknowingly help big corporations destroy smaller competitors by demanding more regulations. In reality, those same corporations often fund the very laws and "anti-corporate" movements that claim to restrain them. They use lobbying and fake grassroots campaigns[1][2] to shape rules that raise costs for smaller rivals and secure more market share.

Of course, this hurts them somewhat in the short term but the payoff for gaining market share and destroying competition far outweighs the upfront cost. This is viewed as an investment strategy in the world of business.

This shouldn’t be surprising. Political competitive advantage is even taught in business schools as Michael E. Porter explains in Competitive Strategy.

This is a case of business faking a movement or desire for change until it snowballs into public support for regulations that benefit them.

Think of all the regulatory changes we've pushed for in order to curb giants like Apple and Google. Has it led to them having less control over our lives? Or giving us more choice or better products and services? These companies have grown into behemoth monopolies thanks to this political strategy.

The only way to counter it is through competition: support companies that offer substitute services and stop playing into Google’s and Apple’s hands by calling for more regulations.