We live in a day and age of originality. Everyone wants to be an original, one of a kind. Let's be honest. They all want to be in their version of Lady Gaga, but the truth is, is that most of us tend to, well, minimize that original nature along the way, especially when it comes to starting our businesses.
In the beginning, we don't care. It's open season, balls to the wall of being our original self, and we get a lot of attention for it. But then, when we decide to be "serious" about taking our business seriously, we tend to tone that back, so our crazy rocky road personality or rainbow sherbet personality kind of becomes a little mellow little less rocky, and a little more vanilla.
In doing that, we end up making one of the most cardinal mistakes most startups make and most people make as we get older, which is we stop doing what we want and start becoming everyone else.
Now, we don't consciously do this, of course. Of course, we say, "Well, it's for the betterment of the relationship. I'm just toning this down so that way, we can make better connections, so that way, I can serve more people." Still, in the end, you're putting yourself in a cage so that way, other people can feel safe around you.
When you start minimizing and limiting your originality, you then start telling other people on the subconscious level that yes, you too agree that your true personality is not A-okay. You need to be minimized, which means that that person has all authority in their mind and subconsciously in yours to help you minimize your personality even more.
This can happen in relationships personally. This can happen in professional partnership relationships. This can happen to your clients. This can happen in so many ways. The truth is that in the end, when you start to minimize yourself when you put your personality in the cage. You end up not just hurting yourself, but you end up hurting the ones that you're meant to serve because they're seeing you as well. They loved your crazy rainbow sherbet personality when you came out, and then they wondered, "Why did you sell out? Why did you go small? Why did you change the way you talked? Why did you change your aesthetic? Was it you, or was it because of what other people thought of you?" Then, that makes them think that they can't be their original selves.
In today's age, entrepreneurs are the true influencers in society and more. It's our responsibility to truly show up as who we are and to be very cautious and unapologetic about how we change our aesthetics and our appearance.
Are we doing it because it's a natural evolution?
Then, great, go for it.
But if we're doing it because we're playing small, trying not to offend others, trying to please the masses or anything else that gets us away from our rainbow sherbet original selves. Then we're not doing the right thing, and we're not just hurting ourselves. We're hurting the ones we say we're here to serve.
Forget about being vanilla.
Forget about being polite, being nice, o doing anything other than what is authentically you because in the end, if your intention is not to harm others but to help others and to be of kindness, love, service, and light into this world, you don't have to worry about how you show up. You know your intentions, and your heart, so in everything else, play full out, original you, and don't allow anyone to tame your rainbow sherbet ways.
Comments