onlyness: a different point of view grounded in one’s history and experience, visions, and hopes.

first, by being willing to be foolish; second, by acting without evidence that he would succeed; and third, by enlisting help from some crucial new allies.

Conviction is willingness to do the work, to live with uncertainty, to be open to asking for help, and not to worry about the end result.

You’re standing in a spot in the world that only you stand in, a function of your history and experiences, visions, and hopes. From this spot where only you stand, you offer a distinct point of view, novel insights, and even groundbreaking ideas.

Luckily, there’s an easily accessible antidote to imposter syndrome. It is simply to be yourself, and to be so deeply committed to a purpose that what matters is not how you appear to others but what is actually served.

“What do I do that adds remarkable, measurable, distinguished, distinctive value?”

By keeping the focus on the gift itself, though, you can keep your ideas always at the forefront—even if they don’t fall comfortably into an existing “category,” even if there are many other people doing similar things.

First, you stand in that spot in the world that only you stand in, then you meaningfully connect with others so that you (and, more to the point, your ideas) finally have a new pathway in.

Today, networks offer a new way to get things done. Any collection of people can pursue ideas together without organizational authority or hierarchies.* When value creation is institutional and hierarchical, the vast majority of people are treated as cogs, dispensable and replaceable. But when value creation is networked, the distinct ideas,