If you’re anything like me, you hate confining your identity to an 8.5”x11” sheet of paper called a resume.
Resumes are created to help others identify us through pattern matching. Resumes help them fit us into a box and generalize about the type of person we are. Once we are categorized, others believe they can predict how we’ll behave, which gives them a sense of control.
From a young age, we are taught to define ourselves by our accolades and activities. Why? Because this is how institutions define us, and most education is designed to socialize us into these institutions.
Carrying an institutional mindset into adult life can work - there is plenty of success to be found on the well-worn path. When we choose this path and things go wrong – we can always point to the pattern to defer responsibility.
“Look! You see! I did all of the right things but it just didn’t work out – it wasn’t my fault.” This is often an acceptable answer for our peers.
However, if you want to carve your own way, defining yourself by your activities and accolades will create many problems.
I believe that life is a choose-your-own-adventure novel. I like to surprise myself and as a result, I surprise others – people don’t always like surprises.
You alone have the power to write the story, but certain choices are terrifying and justifiably so. On the road less traveled, when shit goes sideways, people will gleefully point out the folly of your “irrational decisions.” In these moments, if your sense of self-worth is entirely derived from the outside, then failures will result in crippling self-doubt.
Trust me, failures are inevitable.
I have lived my life in a way that confuses many people (sometimes myself) and have failed many times. In my darkest hours, I had to ask myself if I was completely lost. At these moments, I experienced deep self-doubt because I knew that I could not justify my failures with tried and true answers.
In spite of these hard times, I love the life I’ve chosen. I also like to transform this life as often as possible.
Here’s a stupid example: I recently cut my hair.
It had grown long for years and I typically wore it in a man-bun, so I (possibly intentionally) created this “yoga guy” identity along with all of the silly attributes that people apply to it:
“yoga guy” doesn’t get angry,
“yoga guy” eats vegan,
“yoga guy” prefers to chill rather than to work,
“yoga guy” is spiritual
It’s been fun to watch these fall away.
If I had to summarize the point of this week’s rant, it’s as follows:
At the end of the day, it’s more important for you to be comfortable with who you are than for others to be.
This may frighten us, but if we trust ourselves and appreciate that all individuals are unique, we might one day live to see how the random dots of our choices connect.
But if we force this connection by making choices just to fit ourselves on a straight line so that others can recognize the shape, we’ll miss out on the outlier experiences that make life truly grand.
Enjoy!
This Week’s Podcast:
Solo Episode: How to Handle Overwhelm in the Face of Unprecedented Global Uncertainty
In this episode, I shared my thoughts on the current social, political, and economic state of affairs in the US. Many macro events happening that are outside of our individual control - how can we personally adapt when the world around us seems to be falling apart?
I share one of my favorite stories from the Bhagavad Gita which I believe prepares us for these types of situations.
What I’m Reading
IDEAS
The Future of Capitalism & Regenerative Economics, Thomas Huebl
Vector Theory of Impact, Sam Altman
MARKETS
The Dreams of A Peasant, Arthur Hayes
Is Gold in a New Bull Market?, Hidden Forces Podcast
Zero Based Budgeting is Not A Wonder Diet, Daniel Mahler HBR 2016
Lessons at the Zero Bound: The Japanese & US Experience, NYFed 2013
STARTUPS
In Defense of the IPO and How to Improve It, by Alex Rampell and Scott Kupor a16Z
CRYPTO
Vampire Attack: An Attack on Liquidity Dependent Protocols, CryptoNative
What the Fork is Going On? Ryan Watkins
Ethereum is a Dark Forest, Dan Robinson
Fair Launch Capital Announcement
COVID19
NYTimes Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker
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