Connect, create meaning, make a difference, matter, be missed.
No one can force you to stand up, speak up and make a difference. But if you back off and play along, please understand that whatever happens happened, at least in part, because you acquiesced.
The good news is that more than ever, value accrues to those that show up, those that make a difference, those that do work that matters.
One option is to struggle to be heard whenever you're in the room... Another is to be the sort of person who is missed when you're not. The first involves making noise. The second involves making a difference.
We are too focused on avoiding criticism and not enough on making a difference.
The world doesn't owe you a living, but just when you needed it, a door was opened for you to make a difference.
When you walk around braced for impact, you're dramatically decreasing your chances. Your chances to avoid the outcome you fear, your chances to make a difference, and your chances to breathe and connect.
We’ve been trained to prefer being right to learning something, to prefer passing the test to making a difference, and most of all, to prefer fitting in with the right people, the people with economic power. Now it’s your turn to stand up and stand out.
If you've got the platform and the ability to make a difference, then this goes beyond 'should' and reaches the level of 'must.' You must make a difference or you squander the opportunity. Wasting the opportunity both degrades your own ability to contribute and, more urgently, takes something away from the rest of us.
