Fear. Not A Fun Career Strategy.
It's not the terrifying world that stops us.
It's fearful us.
We're afraid
we’re weak
hashtag#Irrelevant
too hashtag#old
too hashtag#inexperienced
too hashtag#unwanted
But here’s the most messed-up fuck-with-your-head secret in the entire universe of nearly useless LinkedIn posts.
Your weakness isn’t a weakness.
Our flaws are what redefine beauty.
Burdens build might.
Barriers provoke invention.
Vulnerability is bravery.
During the last year of my gruesomely ample downtime, I’ve been thinking.
And worrying.
Mostly worrying.
Until an idea broke in my broken ADHD brain.
“I’m tired of being afraid”
Sick of it actually. And I didn't want to participate anymore.
Being a cautious people-pleaser, pleasing cautious people resulted in the same number of prospective employers that a corpse might also have.
Carefully calculating all the premeditations had blossomed into tedious omnishambles.
Timid restraint had resulted in a bounty of disinterest.
Making myself more carefully curated wasn’t just not helping,
it was making me the sourest of sourpusses.
I don't believe we make ourselves stronger by trying to hide our undignified feebleness.
But we become invulnerable when we embrace it.
So I asked myself to be brave.
To occasionally say outrageous things that outrage the easily outragable.
To not allow the rampant tommyrot and flapdoodle go wholly unchallenged.
So, that's what I’m trying to do.
And doubtless, I will fail spectacularly.
And I’d love for you to join me.
Maybe we could make sincere sincerity a special LinkedIn thing.
Like being real signaling mutual self-respect.
I just don’t want any of you to feel like you constantly have to signal your success by humbleposting and FOMO-bragging.
Because that's not what it's signaling.
It signals fear.
A completely understandable fear, of stumbling and falling from the golden heights of glorious glory, to wallow in the endless midday listlessness of the professional network tar pits.
I understand. We all do.
And I hope you understand that all of us here are proud of your accomplishments.
And cheer you with legitimately and admittedly envious cheers.
So, I’m not talking about not celebrating.
I’m talking about the fear of not seeming overwhelmingly and constantly successful at all times with all things.
Its a toxic plastic fiction of constant success-shouting and its ick that we feel we have to do it to be competitive.
Or worse, needing to seem less successful to avoid seeming “too qualified.”
Or worrying about a three month gap in a resume.
This is the fear that ruins us.
It mutes our brilliance and dulls our ambition.
And it keeps us from being anything other than afraid.
Which, we can all agree is boring as fuck.
And to anyone in hashtag#advertising , hashtag#marketing or hashtag#media , who is looking at an unsightly gap in your resume. Just tell them you were working with me. I can’t speak to your role, workstyle or personality, but I can say you were an asset to the very hashtag#NDA project we were on.