Be different

Be different:

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Be different.

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Be you.

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Stand out.

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Went to a drinks event tonight for work.

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A place where I knew no one.

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Got to the bar and it was dead.

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Grabbed a drink, got some food then started chatting to these people who work at a debt fund.

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Started doing the standard back and forth and then got to my story.

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When I told him I was a doctor, he was blown away.

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‘Holy shit, never met an MD in venture capital before.’

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He turned to his colleague and said ‘have you ever met an MD in finance before?’

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It made me feel like a zoo animal.

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But it also reminded me.

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I’m different.

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What I’ve done is rare.

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There’s no playbook for this path I took.

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Public school in Canada, med school in Scotland, venture capital in Amsterdam.

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No one else has that story.

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But that’s mine.

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That’s my story but everyone’s unique.

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Everyone’s story is their own.

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Each of us are the only people in the history of the world that will ever have our genes, looks and experiences.

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We’re all different.

So why do we conform?

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Why do we want to be like everyone else?

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Why do we want to follow what everyone else is doing?

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Mimetic desire is part of it, but it’s also the way we grew up.

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The way we were conditioned.

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The way we were told to respect authority, always follow the rules and be a good student.

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Our education system taught us to conform what other people wanted for us.

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Governments and corporations kept the current system of education to make efficient factory workers.

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To make us all the same.

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To all follow the same rules and the same path.

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It’s scary to be different.

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It’s scary to go out on your own.

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It’s scary to follow a path with no destination and no playbook.

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But why not?

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Why not be different?

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Why not live on your own terms?

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Live the life you want, not the one other people want for you.

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Be you.

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Be different.

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