Entering from facade

Almost 2 weeks have past since I last wrote here. The blog access counter indicates that there have been many accesses only to find the old and stale entry. I apologize to you. I have been really tied up mentally with my work. I just did not feel like thinking about anything but my report. It will continue until February 16 the deadline of my report to my client.
Today I read suiren's question concerning how to say "形から入る" in English and thought for a while. It's really tough to answer this kind of question since, as far as I know, there is no direct English equivalent. If there is none, we need to create one. In order to create, first of all we need to know the meaning of the Japanese expression clearly. But the problem is we, more often than not, do not know its clear-cut definition. In this case what does "形から入る" mean? Can I explain it in Japanese in the first place? If I could say it in easy Japanese expression, I should be able to put it in English. Suiren, can you?
So the problem here is not so much an English problem as a Japanese one. I believe it is not just my problem but, I would say, also your problem. When we speak English, sometimes a nice Japanese expression flashes in our mind and we are tempted to translate it into English and we fail because there is no such word-for-word translation in English. If it is like hiroko's question "考えてみると", you have an English equivalent if it does not exactly correspond. But most of the cases the two languages are different especially when it comes to elegant or sophisticated expressions. That's where the difficulty and interest lie in learning different languages.
I have made this sort of mistake (trying to translate Japanese expression directly and interrupted conversation flow) uncountable times in my early stage of English conversation. Gradually I learned throwing all Japanese away while talking in English. This way, spoken words get quite explanatory and NOT elegant. But we need to be used to it. And then at the next stage we should pick up whatever elegant expressions you like in English, which does not always have Japanese equivalents, and try to use them completely separate from Japanese.
Getting back to "形から入る", I would say first something like "enter from facade", perfect literal translation, knowing it will not get across to him/her. The person I am talking to should ask "Enter from facade?" Then I would say "If you want to start something new it is important to invest in your looks or gears (so that you won't give it up easily)" Are you satisfied with this translation? I am not. But Brushing off this dissatisfaction is a critical part of speaking a language.
If you are not satisfied, why don't you give me an easy paraphrasing of it in Japanese. Maybe I can give you a translation.