🌱 The courage to be yourself

Here’s your 3 insights in 3 minutes.

💪 Being You

When I was in junior high, my mom’s boyfriend Dan moved into our house.

He used to play the guitar and just walk around the house singing.

I thought it was weird.

Who does that?
Who was he trying to be?

This morning making breakfast, I caught myself singing a Justin Timberlake song out loud. (signs, iykyk)

(Fun fact about me: I have a song stuck in my head at all times.)

As I was cooking up some eggs, I had a funny thought about Dan.

Back then I thought his singing was bizarre. Now I realize something simpler.

He wasn’t trying to be anyone.
He was just being himself.

A lot of people fall into the trap of pretending.
Pretending to care about work.
Pretending to want what they think they should want.

But why do that, if we could just BE ourselves?

After breakfast, I started writing this newsletter (today is 1/21/26).

Coincidentally, Dan’s birthday.

The bad news is Dan is no longer with us. He passed away last November.

The good news is he didn’t wait to be himself.

He didn’t say “someday, maybe.” He just was.

He would’ve been 54 today.

Reminder: Be yourself today.

Don’t wait.

This week I heard a quote from a retired CEO that stuck with me.

She said he spent most of your life busy with work. She felt like a human doing.

But her biggest transformation was when she learned to herself, a human being.

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde

Luckily this is the easiest person to be.

Salud,
Mitchell

Ps. I quit my job (stay tuned, more on this next week.)