Be Yourself.

There’s only one you. Or me. So often we find ourselves adapting and shifting to what we think people want us to be or to our surroundings. The hardest personal journey is to be authentically you while achieving the highest levels of your profession. I have a little card someone gave me 25 years ago that I keep on my dresser and it is simply titled Be Yourself. It talks about happiness and how joy can be drained from you when you believe that you need to be something you’re not. A CEO with sleeve tattoos? A non-binary senior executive? Wear sneakers with a suit? Whatever. The older I get, the more I know the value of identity and being comfortable with who you are and what you believe. Because I have tattoos doesn’t mean I am any less of a CEO, in fact, I would argue it makes me better, more accepting/welcoming of other people’s expression of creativity in their daily lives.

I was not always this way. I felt that I had to change my demeanor to match what everyone thought I should look/sound/feel. Now, within reason, this can work against you especially if you are disrespectful of some situations, norms, and principles of a team. You can only control how you respond to a situation, not how others do.

I was reminded of a very high ranking CEO at Goldman Sachs that is also a famous DJ and performs around the world. David Solomon is an EDM DJ that has opened for headliners like Paul Oakenfold all around then world, you can read about it here . I so admire this and am but jealous. Here is a guy that is the CEO of one of the most respected (or reviled) institutions on Wall Street and he still drops the beat. I bet his young traders love him more for it. His personal mantra is “Never Lose Sight Of Who You Are.”