I was working with an entrepreneur on a pitch deck. It was a damn good deck, but it had a stock photo that was not the best selection. I mentioned it to him several times, but he didn’t change it.

Please note it is always perfectly fine not to follow my advice. It doesn’t bother me in the least.

We got to talking about the kinds of images one should use — I favor original, fresh, light, pleasant. I like images of people who you would want to meet, or who you think might be like you.

The chap asked me, “How bad could it really be?”

That made me think of this picture of former CIA Director John Brennan.

Do you want to have a beer with this guy? Sit at the same table with him? Does he look like a friendly chap?

Maybe the old boy isn’t the right model? Here is the picture John Brennan selected for his Twitter gargoyle — ooops, I meant gravitar. He picked this one, so you have to think it’s his best self-image.

Remember this when you are selecting images for everything.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Some of us are just naturally photographic.