Be You, It's What True Entrepreneurs Do Doing things your way and letting your personality shine can build up your courage, confidence and compassion.
By Matthew Toren •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Entrepreneurship is a vast field. Despite so many people in the world claiming the title of entrepreneur, the reality is that it is a uniquely individual job description that requires your own parameters for success.
Since it's your life and journey, why would you be anything but yourself? The answer is external pressures. Family, friends, society, success, money -- all these factors can start to weigh on your individuality and start to push you gently further and further away from your authentic self.
Related: Searching for Wisdom? Search Yourself.
If you're feeling the pressure to alter your individuality, here are three reasons to remain who you are.
You don't have to let yourself be terrorized by other people's expectation of you. -- Sue Patton Thoele
1. It makes you courageous. It takes courage to go your own way and do your own thing. Courage doesn't mean that you aren't afraid, or that you don't have doubts, but rather that you have concerns and fears but you push forward anyway.
As Erica Jong so eloquently put it, "I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: Turn back."
You get to decide how far you let others' expectations and desires for your life shape and mold what you do and where you stop those pressures, or at least stop paying attention to them, and focus on your own unique desires instead.
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. It grows your confidence. As you live authentically, as you let your own unique approach and personality come out on display more and more, you'll find an interesting thing happen: your confidence will grow.
Related: Lewis Howes On Being Confident: 'Own Who You Are'
Facing challenges and having the courage to overcome them builds your self-reliance and resilience and inevitably can lead to more confidence and more assurance. The more you allow yourself to be you, the greater your belief in yourself will become. It's a snowball effect that drives you to be a bigger version of you than ever before.
Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy. -- Dean Koontz
3. It builds your compassion. If you want to be yourself, you should let others be themselves, too. It's easy to want freedom and individuality for yourself but to criticize and judge it in others who don't match your style and way of life.
How are you pressuring others to alter themselves to fit your needs and wants? Wanting something for youself means wanting it for everyone. Being yourself can help you actually build your compassion for others so you learn to celebrate and appreciate their uniqueness.
Related: Richard Branson on the Entrepreneurs He Admires
