Ranjay Gulati

I'm like, how do you do it, Ed?

And he said, Sanjeev, when I meet with people, I don't think about what they can do for me, but what I can do for them.

It was such a simple but profound message that day.

It reoriented my thinking.

And from that point on, I've never been afraid to just go and meet people.

Nelson Mandela talked about this.

He said that you know, I thought courage is the absence of fear.

I've discovered courage is conquering fear.

It's taking action in the face of fear.

It's looking fear in the eye and still choosing to do something.

Courage is not the absence of fear, which is the way Hollywood and other fictional accounts portrayed.

Courage is taking action in the face of fear.

Most of us are not fearless.

The fearless are far and few between.

Most of us experience fear.

Courage is being able to take action in the face of fear.

So, you know, it's a great observation.

And actually one of the starting points for cowardice or lack of courage is this self-talk.

We all have a narrative that we tell ourselves about ourselves.

This is who I am.