(More) Reflections on Business School

November 18, 2016

About a year has now passed since I wrote my first reflection piece on business school right at the end of my first quarter (December 2015). I did occasionally share some thoughts here (about the concept of morphing) and there (about social life at school), but I wanted to make this the second reflection piece now that I have three additional quarters under my belt.

Let me address the elephant in the room: is the MBA worth the investment? Well... I don’t really know – in fact I will never know – but I like to believe so. Maybe I will sell my future company for a ton of money and then directly link my financial success to the investment I made into my graduate education or a specific person I would have otherwise never met. But until then, I rely on “good faith” that this will all be worth it – financially and on every other dimension (how do you even measure the value of connections, friendship and a reputable school degree anyway?)

No Omid, but now for real: do you think it’s worth it? Let me rephrase the question. Is this MBA degree the only viable path? Maybe the best path? Absolutely not. There are many paths that would have helped and will help me to achieve the things in life that I "want to achieve” (I am intentionally avoiding the word “success” because what does it even mean?). Sometimes I even think that I might be even further in my life if I wasn’t tied to this 2-year journey. But once again, you can’t A/B-test your life.

Now, as the critical thinker that I’d like to be: what if I am actually worse off with an MBA?Well, this ties directly into one of my biggest frustrations with business school. I feel that I got into the program for everything that made me unique, yet I will be leaving it being treated as a commodity. When I will graduate next summer, all that unique experience that got me into school will be dwarfed by the MBA title that is written right onto my forehead and which very much defines how the job market will look at me (keyword: pattern recognition). Before I know it, I could be someone’s "MBA candidate #4 out of our 13 MBA hires next summer.” Sometimes I wonder if I could land better jobs in a parallel world in which I would be Omid with 8yrs of work experience versus the 6yrs+MBA person that I will be.

A little too critical for your taste? Well, let’s talk about specific things that I am learning. One of my learning goals was to increase my risk appetite and my willingness to embrace entrepreneurship. I tried to make progress on that front during my first year, but I feel the current fall quarter has been the tipping point on this journey. In particular, there are two classes that have changed my self-perception as a future entrepreneur. One is called Startup Garage (SUG), the other is Formation of New Ventures (FoNV).

Thinking of entrepreneurship, I always considered luck to be the prevalent factor for success. What SUG has allowed me to understand though is that there is a proven process that can lead you from problem to solution. While entrepreneurship always seemed opaque to me, it now feels within reach. And in FoNW, we discuss 18 cases of founder stories which makes me leave class excited and with the urge and inspiration to start my own business. I am walking away from these classes with an increased sense of comfort with chaos.

Another upside: I am learning so much about myself. Not gonna lie, when I came to school, I wasn’t sure if and how much I would learn about myself. I felt that I had life figured out and considered myself among the more mature people in my year. But looking back on this journey thus far, I can definitely say how the first year in particular has helped me gain a whole deeper understanding of who I am, of what drives me, and how I best operate. During the past year, I was finally able to find the right words and descriptions for things about my personality/character/style that I could never describe properly and also managed to open my eyes to some of the blindspots that I had never been aware of.

I have come to believe that business school is less about finding out who you are, but more about finding out all the things that you are not. Yes there is tremendous value in figuring out who you are. But the journey to that point involves assuming different things, testing them, failing at them, and then concluding that you are not the things you thought you were. For example, while I still don’t know what I will be doing after graduation, I certainly know that I won’t be the guy who does interviews on campus and then joins an established company where he will be working as a person who could be easily replaced. As straightforward and obvious as it seems, I was actually that kind of person throughout my many years at Google. I was good at my job, but my job wasn’t unique to me. While I don’t know who I will end up being, I certainly know that I won’t be that kind of person.

These thoughts are really just scratching the surface of all the things that I am still learning. My experience as a second-year student has been significantly better and I am really loving my time at Stanford. Yes, there are many paths forward, but I am glad for all the things that this particular path has offered me so far. After all, I can’t A/B test any alternative reality, so I might as well just appreciate it to the max.

Managing Expectations in Life

October 31, 2016

During my second year of business school, the thoughts on my mind have become much more philosophical. And the horizon over which I ponder has become much longer. In many ways I think that this is one of the main benefits of going to school, namely that it creates the right intellectual and spiritual environment to think about these things in a more serious way.

One of the main thoughts on my mind lately has been about our expectations to events in the future – the good and the bad – and how there is a gap between how we think we will feel about something versus how we will actually feel.

Maybe you have noticed that too: sometimes we expect something really good to happen and once it happens, the joy is not as high and long-lasting as we expected it to be. Think of promotions, a job change, getting into a dream school, finally getting something we’ve been wanting for a long time, etc.

And the same is the case on the negative side of things – the sorrow is not as deep and long-lasting as we expected it to be. Think of an expected “loss" that we expect to hit us like a really good friend who is moving away, missing out on something that we desired, a financial hit, etc. Not saying we are not going to be happy or sad, but more often than not we end up not as happy or not as sad as we expected to be.

But why is that? And more importantly, does it matter? Discussions in class and with friends have led me to think of three reasons which I found very plausible.

1) You brace for impact: one theory I have is that when you expect something to happen, when you already dedicate mental resources to think of a certain situation in life, you are basically bracing for that impact and the hit (either positive or negative) won’t come in as high/low as you expected it to. Your anticipation of it reduces the strength of the emotions that come with it.

2) We mis-project: we are just not good at predicting our future emotions, because far too often the predictions are based on how we feel today. If you are unhappy now, you will think a promotion is what you need that will make you really happy, but once it comes, it barely moves the needle.

3) You forget about other feelings: another theory I have come across is that when we think of a future event, we tend to only consider the feelings that are related to that event, and not all the other feelings that will continue to be part of our lives. Example: when I think of something bad to happen in future, like a friend moving away, I am certainly thinking of all the negative emotions that come with it. But once that event hits, all the other positive things in my life (family, friends, my job, an upcoming trip, etc.) continue to exist. We just forgot to include those in our “calculation" about how we’re going to feel about that event.

All these theories aside, why does this matter? It matters because too often we live our lives in the future and not in the now. And understanding that the good will not be as good and the bad will not be as bad as we expect them to be, really raises the question why we are not more focused on the here and now.

If the good is not going to be as good as I expect to be, we probably shouldn’t be so hopeful about how future events are suddenly going to fix our lives today. And if the bad is not going to be as bad as we expect it to be, we shouldn’t be walking around and let those expectations ruin our today.

Making the decision right

August 08, 2016

There have been various tidbits that I picked up on during my first year in business school which affected my thinking. One of them which I’d like to share with you came from a professor at Stanford who accompanied us on a study trip to China.

He was sharing with us the story of how he married his wife. He grew up in India and his family was very open minded with regards to dating. He was allowed to date and the family didn’t put pressure on him to have an arranged married. Yet while his brothers found their wives through regular dating, he decided to have an such an arranged marriage. And years later, he considers himself happily married and in love with his wife.

His key philosophy behind his successful marriage? It’s not about making the right decision, it’s about making the decision right. Make sure to read this line again. And again.

What he is saying is that when you are faced with different options and you have to make a decision, it’s less a matter of what you decide (making the right decision), but more a matter how you act/show up/behave after the decision was made (making the decision right). A question of how much you want it to work out and the effort you put to make it work out. In his case, it was less a matter of how gets married, but more a matter of what he makes with that marriage.

I find this perspective carries a lot of truth and importance. Especially in the context of all the decisions we need to take in life. Best example out of my own life: my upcoming decision what to do professionally after graduation next summer. For better or for worse, I will have a lot of options to choose from. Chances are I will work out multiple offers and end up having to make a decision among them.

And as I know myself, that’s something that will paralyze me. I will struggle to make the “perfect" decision. I will probably take to tens of people and write uncountable lists of pros and cons. And while all that due diligence is not to be dismissed, there is much more importance to be put on what I do after I choose one of the options available to me.

Think about it: it will all come down to what I do with it. I can choose the “best” option, yet ruin it by showing up with a negative attitude, not taking it seriously, or consider it a waste of my time. Alternatively, I could be choosing the “worst" option, and show up each dinner with a winner attitude, put all my effort into my job, and see it as my golden ticket. It’s more a question of what attitude I show up with and how I truly make it a golden opportunity, than a matter of “choosing the right opportunity.”

Keep that in mind the next time you are deciding between various options and you put too much pressure on yourself about making the right decision.

Social life at Stanford AKA my struggles as a social butterfly

August 04, 2016

One of my biggest personal struggles on campus so far has been navigating the social environment. Interestingly enough, that was the part I was least worried about before school began. But now, one year in, I can attest that “social” is the part of the experience that I have struggled with the most.

Now some of my classmates who know me well will read this and probably think I’m nuts to say that. After all, they saw me co-organizing a 260-person class trip before school even began and generally see me all over the place being friends with all sorts of people and attending all types of events. Yet that’s just the on-the-surface impression.

Underneath, I struggled socially. Something I didn’t really notice during the first quarter from September to December. As one social interaction was instantly followed by another (literally from morning until the evening, day after day), my brain had absolutely no time or space to rest and digest how my social life was panning out. It wasn’t until the winter break when I had three weeks and finally got a chance to think a little about my patterns of (social) behavior.

I soon realized that I was spread very thin. I was trying to be everywhere and to get to know everyone – multiple coffee chats each day, ideally with people I had not properly connected with. So I started wondering what triggered that behavior.

Sure, I’m an extrovert and I love meeting new people, but I sensed there was a little more to that. After some more soul-searching, I realized that my behavior was driven not only by a natural desire to meet every single person in my year (much of the MBA value lies in the network after all), but also by a certain need to have a harmonious relationship with the people around me. In other words: I wanted to make sure I left a good impression on everyone. And yes, I also wanted to be liked. It wasn’t my core motivation, but it did play into it.

So as I was going through the second quarter, I increasingly saw groups forming. And while I felt I had a really good 1:1 relationship with almost all the individuals in those groups, I actually didn’t feel I had any “membership” in those groups. Sure, I could have invited myself along to whatever they were doing and in generally I was happily welcomed, but rarely was I on top of mind when those groups were planning something.

While this seems like a negligible disruption to my otherwise busy social life, it turned out to be a much heavier weight on my mind than I expected it to be. That said, this development was totally reasonable. While I was out there socializing with everyone, I didn’t put my social time and effort into nurturing group relationships. So when a group planned an event/trip/activity, I wasn’t necessarily on top of mind. I was a just lose member.

Yet despite the weight I felt, I did ask myself a fundamental question: “would I be ok with giving up on all the 1:1 connections I was making and instead put my time and energy into nurturing my belongingness to a group?” Well, the answer was a firm “no.” Asking myself that question was important to realize that at my very core, I’m a social butterfly. And even if that behavior comes at the cost of not nurturing group relationships, it is the behavior that I would be least willing to give up on.

It took me some time, but I learned to appreciate more everything that I am as opposed to being frustrated for everything that I am not. And while my motivation is changing (I’m working hard on dropping the entire “wanting to be liked” part), I acknowledge that being (a) social (butterfly) is simple part of my identity that I can’t change that easily.

Zero Moments of Truth

July 28, 2016

There are moments that I call the Zero Moments Of Truth. Moments where you stand with your back against the wall, and have to make a very deliberate decision about how you want to live your life from that moment onwards. Moments that define you and which are a test of character. Moments that profoundly impact the trajectory of your entire life. And once you make that decision, everything changes and nothing will be the same again.

Earlier this year, I was standing in front of ±250 of my classmates, giving a talk about a zero moment of truth that I had experienced in my life.

I told them the story of how I grew up in Germany. How I became a person who was strong on the outside (225 pounds heavy) but fairly weak on the inside (very low self-esteem). I shared the story of how something as simple as a break-up was enough to break my back and throw me into a deep depression. How I had become very unhappy with the person I had become.

But I also talked about how I had a moment one day which went down for me as my zero moment of truth. How I looked into the mirror one day – in the midst of my struggles – and decided that I was tired of being depressive and exhausted of carrying around negative feelings. How I wanted to regain control over my mind and body again. And how I worked on changing everything in my life from that moment onwards.

And while I was talking about a zero moment of truth that had happened to me in the past, that very moment of sharing was a zero moment of truth in itself. I had never opened up like that to talk about some of the my past’s struggles. Yet in that moment, I was literally with my back against the wall, and making a deliberate decision to open up and to share. And while it wasn’t easy, I look back on that moment and I can see how everything changed from that moment onwards.

The reason why I write about this is because I want to encourage you to think about your own zero moments of truth from your past. Moments where you took deliberate decisions that changed everything. Those moments are powerful and thinking about them can be very empowering. And if you don’t have any of those moments from your past, try to think what a zero moment of truth could look like for you in future.

Some thoughts on productivity

July 19, 2016

One question I get asked from friends a lot is how I manage to be so productive: “how do you do all the things you do?” or “you are working on all these projects… do you even sleep?" I think I get these questions about once a week.

And while I don’t think that my level of productivity is always a healthy one (more on that later), I do want to share with you some tips on how to be more productive.

Attitude & Perspective

Let me start by saying that a lot of what allows me to be productive really roots in the way how I look at the world. I have written a lot of pieces about how ephemeral our presence on earth is. Yet for me, this is a realization that drives a lot of my thinking and acting. There is so much I want to achieve, but so little time. There are so many people I want to stay in touch with, so many ideas I have that i want to take into the real world, so much to see and learn in this world. Every day counts, and I don’t want a single day to go by without having the feeling that I was actually productive. This is my underlying motivation to constantly be doing something.

Eliminating “wasters”

Wasters – these are activities that take time, but that I don’t consider "adding value” (which is partly my definition of my own productivity). Playing a game on my phone for an hour, waster. Smoking cigarettes, waster. Watching television, waster. These are all things that don’t contribute to my goals. Admittedly a harsh way of judging such activities, but with time being my most scarce resource, time allocation ends up being my most important decision.

Finding “joyful distractions”

Now after reading how I eliminate these so called “wasters,” you might cry foul and say “but aren’t these activities that are positive, rewarding, enjoyable distractions?” Guess what, I don’t necessarily disagree with you. A friend of mine is a CEO of few-hundred person company. Is he busy af? You bet he is, but he still finds the time to play games on his phone which ends up being the ideal distraction for him. But I personally try to find my “joyful distraction” in activities that are also aligned with my actual goals: working out (goal: staying fit), reading articles in foreign languages (goal: become fluent in many languages), or listen to an audio book (goal: consume more books).

Using “dead time”

Dead time. That’s time in between activities that is unused. Sitting in a cab often ends up being dead time. So does waiting at the gate. You could say even the time a guy stands at a urinal is dead time. Now dead time isn’t necessarily bad. These are good moments for reflection, even to disconnect for a moment. But they are also opportunities to be productive. My time in an Uber is the time I use for podcasts. My time at the gate is the time I use to whatsapp friends I haven’t heard from in a while. And yes, I remember putting a learning card with Italian vocabulary into my employee badge and then review those words every time I went to the urinal. Sorry for the TMI, but you should get the gist here.

Quick wins

I think there is also a psychological aspect to productivity. Quick wins are very important. That goes hand in hand with the understanding that big tasks can be achieved through small activities. When someone asks me about how to tackle a big task, I generally like to ask how they would eat an elephant. Well, the would cut it into pieces. I have that very feeling every time I want to read a new book. I feel intimidated by the idea of reading all those (f.ex.) 300 pages, but once I see the individual chapters, I realize that it’s actually doable. Each chapter becomes a small win. Motivating myself through small wins is something that helps me going. That’s why I really really enjoy writing down to do lists and then ticking off items. Every time I take something off the list, I propel myself with the feeling of being productive and making progress.

Now these are just 5 thoughts around how I think about getting shit done. I could write another list of more tips, but I’m gonna leave that for later. That all said, I think a productive lifestyle also has its downsides.

When you are constantly doing something, time goes by really fast. Sure, you made good use of that time, but there is something saddening about time running through your hands like sand.

The other thing I noticed is that it can alienate others. The mindset of “wanting to be doing something" all the time can really be stressful to others. It generally takes me 2-3 days of “acclimatization” every time I go back home to my parent’s home. Their pace of life is much slower which leads to a little clash every time I get back home.

Last but not least, as much as I talked about cutting dead time and wasters, after all, these are moments of reflection and distraction – down time if you want. I have to admit that I myself am not capable of keeping up that way of living 100% of the time. There are the days where I think myself “screw this” and then end up doing almost nothing: the system overheats and shuts off. That’s why it’s important to find a healthy balance between "productivity time" and "down time."

The power of dormant friendships

July 14, 2016

Since I got to Singapore, two things happened that made me feel immense gratitude for the friendships that I have been able to build and nurture throughout the past ±10 years of my life.

After I posted that I’m coming to Singapore, my Singapore-based friend Nicolas reached out and offered me his apartment to stay while he is out for three weeks traveling. Now I’m using the term “friend” a little loosely here because not only did we not see each other for 8 years but we also didn’t interact that much with each other back in 2008 when he was on a 6-month exchange at my university. But there was enough trust and knowledge for him to reach out and to offer me his place.

Something similar happened with my friend Max. Max and I studied together for 3 years form 2006 to 2009, but we were never close. In fact we only got to see each other once for only one hour over the past 7 years since graduation (I quick coffee in SF before I had to leave for a flight). Yet Max saw that I’m coming to Asia and suggested to do a trip together since he was based nearby in Hong Kong. And now I find myself headed to Bangkok to hang out with him.

These are just two stories, but they feed into a collection of many more. Admittedly, both Nicolas and Max are "weak links” – people that I haven’t really talked or written to for years. And as I think about the why and how these two re-encounters came upon, I come to realize that these types of weak links are not actually weak. They are just dormant and they can come to life at any time. The stories of Nicolas and Max serve as two real examples.

Now for that to happen, Max and Nicolas had to trust me and actually want to reconnect with me. And that trust and willingness came through a certain visibility which they had into my life. If the two had not heard or known about me since we last met, they would have probably not felt the incentive to reach out and reconnect. I didn’t have to look for their contact and then cold-message them, but because they knew where life had taken me ever since we last met and what I had been up to, they reached out to me. If it wasn’t for that insight, I don’t think they would have been so welcoming and inviting.

Now I don’t want to promote self-promoting behavior on Facebook, but the fact that my two friends were able to follow my journey through social media, was really a deciding factor in them reaching out. For good things to crash into your life, you actually have to put a part of yourself out there. You actually have to take the risk and share a part of you.

Picture from entrepreneur.com/article/245671

Things you need to be good at as a VC

July 07, 2016

As someone who is doing his MBA right in the heart of Silicon Valley, I notice a lot of people talking, dreaming, wishing to work in Venture Capital. In fact, not that surprising considering that a recent study of 151 VC Partners in the US found that 53% of them had MBAs – 60% of whom from either Stanford or Harvard (source).

At some point I was so intrigued by the industry that I decided to find out for myself. Given my passion for emerging markets, I wanted that experience to take place in South East Asia, so I ended up with Monk’s Hill Ventures (MHV) which is an industry-agnostic fund that invests across the region (focused on Series A investments).

And as I’m thinking about whether this is an industry I want to dedicate myself to post-graduation, I’ve been thinking a lot about what kind of person you need to be to work successfully in VC? Here are the five traits that I have found to be the most important.

Giver Mentality!

One thing that stood out to me from even before I started with MHV, was the reputation that both partners had. I noticed how some of the most random people in my network had heard of Peng and Kuo-Yi. Not only was their network wide-ranging, but so was their reputation. And since I got to work at MHV, I've been able to see first hand why they were so well-known: they are givers! Despite the increasing number of VCs based out of Singapore, they aren't acting competitively, but trying to help just anyone that comes their way. If the company is not a right fit, they make intros so that the founders find the help they are looking for. As VCs, they see their mandate beyond just building a excelling VC firm, but to help co-build a thriving ecosystem.

Operational Experience

Writing checks is easy, managing companies is difficult. And that’s why a good VC should be capable of, to have enough experience (mixed with intellectual curiosity and critical thinking), to not just provide the cash, but to also provide the guidance. The cash will help keep the company going, but good advice and a strong network will help the company get to the next level.

A healthy degree of Extroversion

The first few times I tried to connect with Peng through his assistant, I was offered time slots that were 5+ days away. How could someone be that busy I wondered, but little did I know. Peng and Kuo-Yi are out on the streets talking to entrepreneurs from morning until late into the evening. Each day in their calendar looks like a book shelf, filled with 45-minute slots and pitches. There are weeks when they don’t even come to the office. After attending some of these meetings myself, I realized how much of an extrovert I need to be to have enough energy to meet that many people each day.

Good Judge Of Character

Whatever start-up idea you look at, be assured that it exists in same or similar shape somewhere else in the world. Actually more than just once. Ideas are out there en masse. What it really comes down to is the execution. Execution is everything, and execution is really something that is strongly tied to the founder or founding team. Being able to assess a founder’s character and their ability to deliver on their promise and vision turn out to be as important as the understanding a VC needs to have about the business and the space it is operating in.

Vision & Opinion

I find it important to have a vision and an opinion about the industries that one is investing in. And along with that, the willingness and readiness to debate the future of those industries. Where are things headed? What is shaping the industry? Do you see where the puck is or do you see where it is going? Having insight and thus foresight is really important because at the end of the day you want to invest in the companies that get it, that move towards the puck. That’s how you build a portfolio of winners and how you create return for your LPs.

Are there examples out there of successful VCs who don’t have all of these traits? You bet there are! Yet I have found these traits to be extremely helpful in building trust with entrepreneurs. And while there are certainly plenty of other traits that matter, these are the ones I have come to consider the most apparent ones.

A good time... a good story… or both!

July 04, 2016

I don’t remember where I picked up this sentence, but it it was an encouragement saying that if you do things that make you uncomfortable, “you will either have a good time or a good story.” There was something very positive and open-minded about this statement, so it stayed in my mind for some time. Yet after a while, I realized that the two are not mutually exclusive. You can have both a good time and a good story.

I like this statement because it encourages me to take risks and it reduces the anxiety that would normally come with it. You certainly need to have a healthy level of “good faith” to soothe your concerns with a simple belief like that… but isn’t that exactly what religions require you to do as well?

So the reason why this sentence has been on my mind again lately is because I was given the opportunity to do something out of the norm. Something that made me feel uncomfortable at first, and which made me look for 573 reasons not to do it – even though the adventurous part of me was really eager to just jump on the opportunity. More specifically, it was an invitation to join someone on a trip to an exotic location. Someone I didn’t know, but someone who was equally crazy and courageous to ask me in the first place.

“Is it crazy if I ask you to join”? I was asked. I paused for a minute or two, and then responded: “Yes it is. In a good way. So... when are we leaving?” And while I was committing to the unknown, to the possibility that this might be a massive disappointment, and to the risk of regretting my decision, I just told myself that at the end of the tunnel, there is either a good time, or a good story. And if I’m lucky, there is actually both. So I went.

And truth be told, this wasn’t the first time I signed up for unexpected and spontaneous ideas or invitations. Yet looking back, there are none that I truly regret. In these moments when I was standing face to face with everything that made my uncomfortable, it was a simple believe like this that allowed to take the risk and carry myself through the experience with a positive and open-minded attitude. And at the end of it, I looked back on a good time and a good story. I made new friends, I got to experience a new place, and I pushed myself to do something I was uncomfortable with.

As I’m approaching the end of my 20s – I’m turning 30 in December – I have become very reflective about this past decade and all the things I did or did not do. The way I think about the past 10 years is sort of a proxy for how I will one day be looking back on my entire life, wondering what life story I wrote. At the end of it all, our life story will be the sum of all the individual decisions that we took. And with that, I want to make sure I take more decisions that allow me to have a good time and a good story.

Talking about the tough stuff in life

June 07, 2016

If you look at Facebook and Social Media in general, it’s hard to deny that the vast majority of the content shared is content about the good stuff in life. Occasionally there is an update about a loss, a personal tragedy, a moment of pain or despair – but the bulk of it is about achievements, accomplishments, aspirations or affirmations.

I recently came across this piece on HBR about writing a resume of failures – and I liked it a lot. I liked it because it encourages a conversation about the tough things in life. And truth be told, my resume of failures would shockingly exceed the length of my resume of accomplishments. From the internships I didn’t get to the promotions I didn’t qualify for. From the scholarships I got rejected from to the opportunities I missed.

So how come we never talk about these things? Embellishment is the name of the game and as we focus on only showing our bright side, we create these images of being infallible human beings. That success is our daily breed, and that we are too perfect to suffer.

But that is not true. We are not perfect. None of us is. We are just not always showing the hardship, we just don’t always talk about our fears, we just never really address those insecurities that influence our thinking and acting – day after day after day.

So when my friend Kudzi asked me to talk about one of my big fears in life, on video, for a new YouTube series called “even the great ones,” I felt uncomfortable. But I also felt obliged to do it. Behind the many followers on Social Media, behind the brands and degrees, behind the polished image of a successful person that my public posts tend to convey, there is a real human being with fears and insecurities just like anyone else.

So when I was asked about one of my biggest fears, I talked about my fear of rejection. This constant fear that I would not be accepted for who I am and that I would have to change to fit in. And as a consequence, that I would end up living a life that is not one in which I do what I really want to do, but one that helps me be accepted.

THE POSITUDE

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