It’s Hard to be Honest

It’s hard to be honest.

It’s probably the hardest thing that you can ever do. Brutally honest. Not to the people around you, well, that too, but to yourself.

I watched the first 16min of Chase Jarvis interviewing Seth Godin. And minute after minute, Seth Godin blew my mind. And as I was being honest to myself, he blew my ego out as well.

The understanding needed 15min to grow in me, and then on the minute 16, I stopped the video. Took a deep breath, tensed my already tense expression, and said: “FUCK!”

There is probably no way in hell, I can ever match Seth Godin. Simply none. This guy is doing and saying things on a level I can hardly hope to match. Even if I spend the next 20 years of my life doing things really good, really honest, and not sucking too much, I still won’t be anywhere close to this man.

How can I ever matter as much as he does? Or, if we throw the silly comparison away, how can I ever matter, on a scale as large?

My mind is numb, there are no legit answers showing up. I will probably continue watching the video, but with a tarnished feeling of inferiority.

Yet, on the second look, if I look very deeply and with great attention, something else happened on that minute 16. Deep down, it resonated on a level I might not know consciously. It was true unlike most others things I think I know.

It is true. Most of us don’t matter nearly as much as we’d like to think. If you (or your product or art) is truly going to matter to a lot of people, you need to show up, day after day. Put in the work, and ship. And that’s just the beginning.

Continuous and honest reflection on every step are absolutely critical. Going against the flow, and trying out many things, most of which will not work.

And as I am slowly leaving the realm of what that minute 16 did to me, I am grasping another truth. Less intensely that the two before, but non-the-less true as well.

“Why not dance with it?”

All this remarkableness and big words, and aspirations and doubts. They’re all very important, yet, it will be easier for me (and for you) to not put THAT much emphasis on it. It’s better to just dance with it, and see what happens.

It’s hard to be honest. And that’s exactly why we have to be.

Peace,

Bostjan