I kept letting myself get talked out of living my dreams by people who'd given up on theirs.

And it became a pattern that I repeated well into adulthood.

I hate to say it.

I discovered something unique about in myself, something different that I truly loved.

I'd go deep on that thing

that made me come alive and then like clockwork. I'd put someone else's idea of what I should be

doing above my own. I'd let myself be pulled toward convention and the illusion of safety

again and again, a willing concession of my own uniqueness and my power. In college, I traded

studies that I loved like art and literature for pre-med because it was way more impressive when

someone asked me what I was studying. And I traded a career in professional soccer for medical

school at first and then for graduate school later because I was conditioned to believe that it was safer to align around something respectable,

some well-paying job then to make a bet on myself. Risking rejection or, you know, heck, in the case

of soccer, a blown out knee. I even walked away from a dream career as one of the

world's top photographers to run a venture-back startup because, sure, it was my startup, but I,

on reflection, I looked back and I was like, man, why was I really drawn to that? I was probably

drawn to it because people were telling me that it was the next logical step in my

career. But let's be honest, I also knew that my decision would garner, I would say near universal

approval from my peers. Today's episode is brought to you by Never Play It Safe. That's right. My new book, Never Play It Safe, is the sponsor of today's show.

This book, first of all, it was years in the making. I wrote it for you, for us, for the creators,

the entrepreneurs, anyone who is doubting that what they are doing is the right thing if you've

ever felt stuck, if you've ever gravitated away from risk.

I'm telling you that if you're doing that, you're avoiding all of the best stuff in life.

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