This morning I had a virtual coffee meeting with a bold, “say it like it is” entrepreneur and speaker – let’s call her K – who I’m lucky to call a friend for the past 15 years. Among the things we talked about – the pendulum between insignificance and ego, an ethnography of corporate culture and the reality of just trying hold life together with tape and string.
Reflecting on our conversation – I couldn’t help but think that our approach to the world is through how we wrap our identity – what skin we’re wearing. These skins both protect us and guide our intentions and behaviour. Who am I as a corporate exec – as a leader – as a designer – as an entrepreneur – as a parent. When we surround our identity in these casings and then reflect on how we’re doing in them, it can elevate and us into ego or cast self doubt. Add to that, the fluid and rapid way in which these skins can change daily – and even hourly.
It can be both exhilarating and debilitating.
It can both define and be defined by.
You can both find and lose yourself.
Both. At the same time.
The Objective Co 