Replies to post #8207 on FinancialAdvisor's College Class (FACC)

[lentinman]

I AM NOT A CONFORMIST: By Len Tinman

I have worked my whole life to figure out who I am, what makes me special, what makes me unique, and how I fit into society as an individual. Having learned who I am, I have become very comfortable and confident of my place. I don’t succumb to pier pressure and I won’t be intimidated.

There is zero chance that I am going to wake up tomorrow or anytime soon and decided that I am no longer motivated to be different or that I am motivated to being the same as everyone else. I not only don’t want to be the same as everyone else, I don’t want to be the same as anyone else! In fact, if anyone else does it, then I am likely to want to do the opposite just to be different.

I have succeeded in life to the degree I have because of who I am, not because of who I tried to be. People remember me because I am different. My tombstone will not read “Here lies just another Joe.” I don’t follow the crowd. I am not a sheep being led to the slaughter. Trends mean nothing to me – unless I set them.

I don’t approach things like everyone else. I am an original thinker. That is why I have accomplished things that others have not. That mindset is what allowed me to invent a few things and to write my books. I am not constrained in my mind by the limits of typical thought and behavior. I consider myself to be evolved beyond that.

I am not going to worry about keeping up with the Joneses. I am not going to care what the Joneses think. I am not on this planet to please the Joneses, but rather to please myself and whomever I make a commitment to. If any person requires that I become something that I am not, then I cannot make a commitment to them.

So, as a nonconformist, I run the risk of being labeled eccentric, peculiar or even strange. Thank you. May I have another? Many of the greatest personalities and minds in history were off beat. That trait is what set them apart from the crowd and allowed them to reach their full potential – not encumbered by the constraints of society.


I shall be telling this with a sigh.
Somewhere ages and ages hence.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and I
Took the one less traveled by.
And, that has made all the difference.