I don’t want to hear about triumphs, successes, and overcoming adversity just to follow the norm. I want to hear stories that are complex and messy; that are both happy and sad, good and bad, all at the same time. The stories I find most interesting, are the ones that make no attempt at reducing or simplifying life.
It’s fascinating to admire people’s accomplishments, especially when there’s no short of seeing people sharing it everywhere but what I can tell you is that we’re more likely to learn from their failures due in part to 3 reasons: people who are willing to show their “complex and messy” stories demonstrates that we all suffer from imposter syndrome regardless of any perfectly crafted social media post. Also, it shows we’re all iterating in public through trial and error and perhaps more importantly, seeing other peoples vulnerabilities makes us relate more to them even though I’m cognizant that all of us have our own unique circumstances that we’ve lived.
It feels weird when people reach out to me for advise based on something they’ve seen me shoot, specifically because I don’t feel that what I do is perfect and yet I realize that seems to be the point. They’re not seeking for perfection. They’re seeking for validation that what they’re working on has the right to be messy as well. The more we share how flawed we are with what people assume we’re perfect at the more you’re indirectly motivating others to continue pursuing their own thing!