Richie Norton quotes Oprah Winfrey in his book The Power of Starting Something Stupid as having once said, “The reason people fail is because they’re pretending to be something they’re not.” In other words, a large part of your success is dependent upon being authentic, being the real you, and being able to answer the question, who am I? Being authentic can be difficult because a lot of people choose money over happiness; we’re in jobs or situations where it is just easier to sacrifice what really makes us happy in order to meet financial responsibilities. But are we really as happy or successful as we can be when we sacrifice our authenticity?
Who am I? How to be authentic
Richie Norton in his book The Power of Starting Something Stupid writes, “Truly being authentic is knowing what matters to you, on the deepest level of who you are, and committing always to act from that authentic center.” The biggest obstacle I see in becoming authentic is really knowing who you are so you can be true to that identity. You cannot be authentic if you don’t know who you are. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend taking a number of personality tests like DiSC or Strengths Finder 2.0. They are well worth the money and from my experiences they are spot on if you take the tests honestly. These types of tests help you to start to narrow down who you are and provide you a home base from which you can begin to know yourself better. However, these tests should highlight what you already know about yourself and confirm things you’ve heard people say about your character.
How many of us, on a daily basis, sacrifice our self respect and integrity by trying to be something we’re not likely at a job we’re unhappy with? Finding and being your authentic self is one of the most important and empowering points in a persons life.
Richie goes on to explain a key point on what it really means to be authentic. “The person you imagine yourself to be in the very best and most powerful moments of your life, is the authentic you.” Think about one of those favorite moments in your life where you felt you were amazing. I have a few: being on stage performing music I wrote and seeing strangers singing along, teaching a classroom or new friends valuable principles, or having a blast teaching my children how to have fun. However, there is a problem with trying to be be this authentic person. Few of us know how to get to this authenticity because we living lives that likely chose money over happiness. This is usually not in line with who we feel we really are. Richie writes, we “don’t know how to move from who we are pretending to be to who we truly are.”
The last key point Richie makes about being authentic is its connection to personal integrity. When you choose to find out who you are and to be your authentic self, you maintain self-respect and personal integrity. Consider the opposite of that statement. I would argue that a large percentage of people trample their self-respect and personal integrity every day when they walk through the door to a job they are not happy with, but choose to do anyway for whatever reason. When you choose to know and be the “best of you” (thanks Dave Grohl), you are empowered with a renewed sense of value that many people seem to willingly sacrifice daily.
In Chapter 11 of Richie’s book he explains steps you can take to help you reach this authenticity. I’m going to summarize the steps that he describes in greater detail in the book.
- Lose Pride, Fear, & Procrastination
- Be willing to do things you may not feel ready for
- Keep your standards and maintain your personal integrity
- Trust yourself
- Start something “stupid”
You can read more about the value of being authentic by picking up Richie’s book here.
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