Michelangelo's Lie
Oct 30, 2026
Have you ever met someone whose confidence seemed completely disproportionate to their circumstances… and yet somehow it worked?
They walked into rooms like they owned them. They priced their work higher than their peers. They talked to prominent people like equals.
And when you looked at their background… there was nothing there to justify it.
I came across a story this week that reframed how I think about this entirely. And it starts with a man you’ve definitely heard of.
In 1475, in a small Tuscan village, a baby boy was born to a middle-class Florentine family. He would grow up to become arguably the greatest artist in human history.
His name was Michelangelo Buonarroti. Yup, THAT Michelangelo.
Today, his work is studied in every art history class on Earth. The Pietà. The David. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Each is considered a crown jewel of Western civilization.
But here’s what most people don’t know about him.
Michelangelo believed something about himself that… wasn’t quite true.
Throughout his life, he claimed to be descended from the Counts of Canossa — a line of medieval Italian nobility that included one of the most powerful women of the Middle Ages, Countess Matilda of Canossa.
The claim was… thin.
His family had been middle-class Florentines for generations. Merchants. Bankers. Minor civic officials. There was no credible evidence linking them to the Canossa dynasty.
But Michelangelo believed it anyway.
And he lived his entire life as if it were true.
He signed his letters with his full ancestral name. He insisted on being treated as a nobleman creating art, not a craftsman performing a trade. He argued with princes, cardinals, and even Pope Julius II himself — about everything from payment to deadlines to artistic vision.
He didn’t negotiate like a stonecutter.
He negotiated like a Count.
And here’s what fascinates me most…
It worked.
Patrons who could have hired any sculptor in Italy paid Michelangelo three, five, sometimes ten times what others charged. Popes commissioned him for the most prestigious projects of the era. His art changed the course of Western culture.
Now imagine for a moment he had believed something smaller about himself.
Imagine he had whispered to himself every morning, “I’m just a stonecutter’s son from a small Tuscan village.”
I don’t think we’d be looking at the Sistine Chapel today.
Which brings me to you.
What’s the story you tell yourself about yourself?
Not the one you tell at networking events. Not the one on your LinkedIn profile.
The real one. The one you believe quietly, in the moments before you walk into a difficult meeting. The one that shapes how you price your work. The one that decides whether you argue with the Pope… or just nod and accept whatever he offers.
Because here’s the uncomfortable truth:
The story you tell yourself about yourself eventually becomes the story the world believes about you.
(Photo: Did you know he helped redesign St Peter’s basilica too?)
If you tell yourself you’re a regular person, you’ll be treated like a regular person.
If you tell yourself you’re a trusted advisor, you’ll be treated like one.
If you tell yourself your work shapes families, futures, and legacies, people start to treat it that way too.
Not because you’re lying. But because the frame you put on yourself is the frame everyone else eventually learns to look at you through.
Michelangelo wasn’t a Count. But he behaved like one.
And five hundred years later, we’re still staring up at his ceiling.
So this week… what’s the story you’re telling yourself?
And is it big enough for what you’re trying to build?
Christian
CHRISTIAN HANSEN has gone behind the scenes in some of the biggest organizations in the world to find out the reasons why some people get chosen and why others don’t. As the #1 bestselling and LinkedIn Top Ten ranked author of “The Influence Mindset: The Art & Science of Getting People to Choose You” Christian helps teams and organizations who want to stand out and be the obvious choice. With degrees from Brigham Young University and The London School of Economics, he’s helped thousands of individuals position and sell themselves. A fan of international communication, history, and choral music, he currently lives in Utah with his family. Reach him at: TheChristianHansen.com
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