If you haven’t taken a flight lately, the title’s a riff on what the flight attendant tells passengers once the plane’s reached cruising altitude: “You are now free to move about the cabin.” At this point, all aboard can remove the seat belts and stand up.
When I’m working with clients, I sometimes get the feeling that our entire culture is politely seated in our lives, seat belts fastened, waiting for someone in a uniform to give us permission to stand up and get on with life.
Is it time to step up and “be somebody?”
There’s always somebody smarter, right? No matter what we want to comment on, what we want to do or accomplish, there’s always someone who can do it better – right?
There’s a lot of reasons for this: our school system pounds this into us from a young age.
After graduation, the quickly dying corporate model drummed the same faceless, voiceless drone meme into us. (For a great read on this topic and more, check out Seth Godin’s Linchpin).
Maybe it was just me, but when I was a kid, it seemed the prevailing rules in the culture I was raised in were:
- Don’t stand out
- Keep your head down
- Follow the rules
- If you don’t know what the rules are, ask someone
Take all the right steps, and maybe “Somebody” will notice you and offer you your next step in life.
In that environment, imagine a kid bold enough to state, “I want to be somebody!”
Well, that just wasn’t done.
That’s why I can really understand it when a client tells me; “I don’t want my picture or name attached to this site. I don’t want people to think I’m self-promoting. I don’t want them to think I’m full of myself.”
Sound familiar?
It’s time to stop waiting for someone else to give you permission to stand up, find your voice, take a stand, and draw your crowd.
When you think about it, who exactly would that permission-giving person be, anyway? Who could have that much power?
The Personal Web has made stepping up and being somebody to someone else easier than ever.
And there’s never been a better time.
How to Be Someone
The best advice I received in my teens was from a man I greatly respected. He was my boss at the time, and I was a quiet, reserved kid. He had called me into his office I sat in an uncomfortable silence staring at his desktop.
After watching me intently for a moment, he smiled and asked, “are you nervous about something?”
I admitted I was, mumbling something about being intimidated.
He looked me squarely in the eyes and told me, “No one ever has to know you lack confidence until you tell them. Don’t tell them.”
Know this: You have something to say. Your unique combination of skills, life lessons, and experience have given you a perspective and voice unlike any other.
And somewhere out there on the global web are people whose combination of skills, life lessons, and experience make them your ideal audience.
You may be the teacher who appears when they are ready.
Let’s not make them wait any longer, shall we?
Take a stand. Step up onto your platform. Draw your crowd – the crowd who wants to hear your message, told only the way you can tell it.
