Don't Be Yourself. You're Better Than That.
This week, a look at why boldness is your birthright.
It’s surprisingly easy to drift into a life of smallness—to settle into the comfortable, the quiet, the familiar. We tell ourselves it’s noble to be “authentic,” but often that authenticity is just inertia with better branding. This week, we heard from authors who offered a different invitation: what if the real work is to imagine a bolder version of yourself and practice living as that person, to take inspiration from people who aim high and refuse to apologize for it? Maybe that’s how we become who we’re meant to be.
Book Bite of the Week
Authenticity is overrated
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzik is the Chief Innovation Officer at ManpowerGroup, a professor of business psychology at University College London and at Columbia University, co-founder of deepersignals.com, and an associate at Harvard’s Entrepreneurial Finance Lab. In his new book Don’t Be Yourself, he argues that authenticity is overrated and can backfire, especially at work. Success comes from strategic self-presentation, empathy, and balancing personal freedom with responsibility to others. Pick up a copy of his book on Amazon or check out the author’s summary here on the Next Big Idea app.
This Week on the Next Big Idea Daily Podcast
The surprising science of everyday courage.
Ranjay Gulati is a Harvard Business School professor whose new book, How to Be Bold, reveals the surprising research on what makes ordinary people capable of brave acts. You can pick up a copy on Amazon or listen to his big ideas now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
This week, Book of the Day is brought to you by The Future Begins with Z: Nine Strategies to Lead Generation Z as They Disrupt the Workplace by Tim Elmore—inspire and connect with the next generation of workers as they transform the workforce. Pick up your copy today.
This Week on the Next Big Idea Podcast
Best of: Decoding Elon Musk
When Walter Isaacson, the legendary biographer of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Leonardo da Vinci, started shadowing Elon Musk, he found himself following “a guy who was one of the most popular people on the planet, and ended up with a guy who’s the most controversial.” Listen to this encore presentation of our conversation with Walter on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
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Happy Pub Week!
Congratulations to our must-read authors who have new books out this week: Max Telford (The Tree of Life), Alex Pentland (Shared Wisdom), Melissa Bernstein (The Heart of Entrepreneurship), and
(The History of Money).