Categories: Articles

Find Your Bravery

**Who we are is not the same as what we post.**
This is the primary lesson that social media mirrors back to the world. When people ask me to explain the popularity of [Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/mitchjoel “Facebook”), I often shoot back that Facebook feeds the highest level of our most basic human need: self-actualization. It allow us to present ourselves in the way in which we would like others to see us. We’re all so deeply engaged in that activity. With that, we also know that by trying to please others/everyone we wind up pleasing no one. Especially ourselves. What makes this even more strange, is that the people that we all admire and respect are the ones that made their own way. They didn’t focus too much on what others might think, or they have the courage and bravery to put something out into the world that demonstrated who they really were and what they were really thinking. We see this in music and poetry. We see this in a brilliant ad or a disruptive startup.
**How can you gear up to be your best?**
Most people think of [Brene Brown](http://brenebrown.com “Brene Brown”) as the amazingly [popular TED speaker](http://go.ted.com/bpZY). She’s an author (if you have not read [Daring Greatly](http://brenebrown.com/books/ “Daring Greatly”), you really should). This past week, Brene announced the her newest book, [Rising Strong](http://brenebrown.com/2015/04/09/i-love-big-book-news-and-i-cannot-lie/ “Rising Strong”) (which will be out in late August). Reading about the book (and getting excited about its publication date), I was reminded of this stunning presentation she gave to the creative industry at [Scott Belsky](https://twitter.com/scottbelsky “Scott Belsky”)’s [99U](http://conference.99u.com “99U”) event from last year. It’s called, [Why Your Critics Aren’t The Ones Who Count](https://vimeo.com/78769611), and it’s a 22 minute presentation that we all should schedule ourselves to watch every couple of months. It’s a strong reminder to show up, do the work… and know why you’re doing it.
**Watch this…**

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.