Simon Sinek

We're also preoccupied with ourselves, you know?

I had what a lot of people would be considered a good life, as living the proverbial American dream.

You know, I quit my job to start my own business, made an okay living, had great clients, did good work.

And yet I'd lost my passion for that and didn't want to wake up and go to work anymore.

Which was embarrassing because superficially everything was just fine.

I was pretending that I was happier, more in control and more successful than I was or felt.

Which is quite frankly pretty draining and pretty dark.

And it wasn't until a very, very close friend of mine came to me and said, something's wrong.

She was the first one to notice something.

And I came clean and I sort of let it all out.

It was that catharsis that sort of lifted this heavy weight off my shoulders.

I was no longer alone.

It was no longer a secret.

And all of the energy that was previously going into lying, hiding and faking now went into finding a solution.

If you allow someone to sit and struggle with you, it actually deepens the relationship.

But what we're talking about is risk.

What we're talking about is being vulnerable.

And it requires more courage, as you've learned.

It actually requires more strength to say, I'm anxious today than it does to lie and say everything's great.

That's the irony.