Ultimately, people will respect you for being yourself.
When conviction and commitment are seen, even when your decisions and values are not agreeable, people will respect and even support you.
Even if you ‘fail’.
Big Sean’s example.
A controversial artist in the hiphop community once made a video that caught a lot of backlash online. Big Sean, a strong voice in the industry, commented on a post about the video, saying to the artist “I just respect your audacity to be you.”
I was taken aback by the comment, somewhat. Sean, I expect you to use your voice for good. Let him know this shouldn’t be. Now, I don’t see it that way. I don’t think Sean necessarily had an approving stance. Instead, I now see what Sean did—that a person boldly living their life as they believe it should be lived, is a marvel, and a leader in their own right.
That’s the stuff this world needs. More people being active players in their own lives.
What Aunty told me.
I once pastored a church where I was younger than many of the congregants. They had more life experience. More income, that was for sure. I battled with imposter syndrome. Why should they listen to me?
They should listen to me not because of me, but based on the integrity of God’s word that I shared. That’s the short answer, but I digress.
A cousin of mine was visiting from Toronto one particular Sunday. She noticed has timid I was while preaching. I couldn’t look my congregants in the eyes while I preached. She called me aside afterwards and brought it up ever so sweetly. I confessed that I felt intimidated by the congregants and their career accomplishments. She reframed my life for me in a way I never forgot.
“Taiwo, you’re the one that studied Medicine, left it to go into another industry. And here you are now, in another country, doing even more things. That’s your experience. They don’t have that.”
She was showing me that by living my life based on my own convictions, I was in fact demonstrating authority. And that I should let it show in how I carried myself.
I never forgot that.