Categories: Articles

We, The Misfits (And The Beauty Within)

You could hear a pin drop.

It doesn’t happen as often as one might think anymore. I have had the pleasure of attending (in person) the annual TED conference for close to ten years. What you see online – the billions and billions of views that these magnificent TED Talks receive – are the “best of the best.” Getting a standing ovation after delivering a TED Talk is getting harder and harder. The bar is set so high. As each year’s event approaches, and the list of speakers get announced, everyone anticipates that one, special, speech that truly does change everything. This year, there were a few. Still, Lidia Yuknavitch‘s talk, The beauty of being a misfit, was the one for me. I’m that misfit that she describes. A punk. A metalhead. Someone much happier writing about an underground band and seeing a show alone than anything else. Someone who prefers reading to networking. Writing over snapchatting. Yes, we’re all different in our own ways. Still, the word “misfit” is one that has always hung over me. For a while, it was a dark cloud. It took years of working on myself to get comfortable with who I was… who I am. Now, I embrace the misfit. I often laugh at it. I can see the beauty in it. If, you don’t feel like a misfit yourself, this is an even-more important video for you to watch. Don’t mistaken silence for apathy. Don’t mistaken inaction for a mistake. Don’t judge others based on how you are, but rather on how they might be processing the information.

If you liked what Susan Cain did for introverts, you’re going to love what Lidia Yuknavitch does for misfits…

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.