The Hustler’s Playbook: Be Authentic

You do not need to wait for someone to give you permission to be the real and authentic version of yourself. You don’t need anyone else’s approval or their blessing to become what you must become. Withholding who you are is to withhold your gifts, your truth, your contribution. You have all the permission you will ever need now.

You don’t need to imitate anyone else. You don’t need to be a pale copy of a brighter original. You don’t need to succumb to the fear that you are somehow not enough and that it would be better to be like someone else (or to be that someone). You are enough.

You also don’t need to be a derivation. You don’t need to be “the next” anyone or anything. Your truth is your own. Living someone else’s truth is to live a lie. Your interpretation is as valid as anyone else’s. No one else’s way is your way.

You have to believe in yourself. You have to believe that your truth is enough, that your contribution is enough, that you are enough. The doubt you feel is the fear of being judged by others. It’s what happens when you live in a society that judges, that separates us from each other. Your belief in yourself has to be strong enough to overcome your fear of being judged.

You have to have the confidence to act. You have to believe that you have the right to live your truth, even when those around you will work to make you believe that you don’t. Some would have you believe it’s safer to conform, to turn down your light, or extinguish it completely. But the real danger isn’t acting; it’s not acting and wasting the time you have been given.

You have to rely on yourself. You have to trust yourself, your intuition, and your instincts. You have to believe that you alone can do what must be done and that you can make a difference. You have to be the one that you count on.

Your mission and vision are your own. Your purpose is your own, and you decide what that purpose is. Your time is short. Make the most of it. Today is day one.