You are not your LinkedIn profile
You are a unique person with immeasurable value
“When we pretend to be someone other than who we are, our true self hides in fear and shame; the fear of being discovered and the shame of not being enough.”1
-Matthew Kelly
Recently, I went on a trip to visit one of our customers. After going through a few layers of security, we convened in one of the conference rooms. There were 15 of us around a table. As is the custom, our host asked that we introduce ourselves. The sharing pattern was predictable. For some reason, these types of “around the table” introductions cause a bit of low-level anxiety for me. I think it goes back to grade school. Growing up in Arkansas, my best friends were Grant, Scott, Mike, Brad, J. Max, Brad, Chuck, and Chris (for those of you wondering, we all wore shoes, and I didn’t know any Jim Bob’s). Also, you would be correct in assuming there was precisely one boy named Tarek (pron. Tah-reck).2
“Hi, I’m Tarek, and I’ve been with our company for 20 years. I lead an engineering team responsible for designing a new business, process improvement, analytics, and warehouse design.” I realize getting into a deep conversation with 15 people you just met is unreasonable. However, it got me thinking about how we define ourselves. When you have spent your entire career in a corporate environment, it can be challenging not to define yourself by your job title and responsibilities. Your LinkedIn profile holds the details of your progression and accomplishments, but is this the real you?3
Who are you really?
While walking the warehouse floor, I struck up a conversation with someone from our customer’s team. I learned about her career progression from finance to retail. She talked about what she had overcome to be successful. She was born and raised in Italy until she was 19 before immigrating to the U.S. to expand her career. Her face lit up with pride when I asked her kids and family.
There’s so much more to each of us that we tend to bottle up and not show the world. You are a person with hopes, dreams, convictions, experiences. You are so much more than what you do for a living or how you stack up against others. The lowest level of identity is your resume. I believe God created you as a unique person with immeasurable value. There is no one in the world like you!
The lowest level of identity is your resume. I believe God created you as a
unique person with immeasurable value. There is no one in the world like you!
Here is your takeaway. Get curious about others. Go one or two clicks deeper and ask more questions. Make it about them and not about you. For me, focusing on serving others makes all the difference. I’m human. I don’t always do it well. I get self-absorbed, too. But there is great power in connection. As you serve someone else, you may find that you are the one who is blessed the most.
Go change someone’s day. Make it an impactful week!
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It’s funny how little it bothers me now to have a different name than almost everyone else I meet. I am proud to be my Father’s son, a 1st generation immigrant from Egypt, whose story I will tell in this space one day soon.
Funny, I haven't updated my LinkedIn in years!! A few years ago I wrote a poem called "curriculum vitae" with all the alternative life experiences/skills that have made me "me", much more than any degree. When I meet someone new, it takes me at least twenty questions, before I even bring up, if at all, the classical "what do you do?" So, I hear ya!