There’s a quiet pressure that starts earlier than we admit. Be nice. Be polite. Don’t make a scene. Make sure everyone likes you. And somewhere in all that well-intentioned advice, courage gets edited out. But here’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: I don’t want to raise a child who is liked byContinue reading “Raise Brave, Not Popular”
Tag Archives: Integrity
Anchor in Your Own Truth
At some point in life, we all realize something uncomfortable and strangely freeing at the same time: people are going to have opinions about us no matter what we do. Loud ones. Quiet ones. Half-formed ones based on a single moment, a single sentence, or a version of us that no longer exists. And ifContinue reading “Anchor in Your Own Truth”
Give Them a Front-Row Seat
There’s a strange truth we don’t talk about enough: nobody studies your life more closely than the people who once doubted you. Not the ones cheering you on. Not the ones who believe in you no matter what. It’s the skeptics. The quiet critics. The people who smiled politely while filing you away under notContinue reading “Give Them a Front-Row Seat”
Doing the Right Thing When It’s Inconvenient
There’s a strange comfort in numbers. When everyone around us is doing the same thing, it starts to feel safe. Normal. Almost justified. We tell ourselves, This is just how things work. We stop questioning it. We stop listening to that quiet voice that nudges us when something feels off. That’s how “wrong” slowly getsContinue reading “Doing the Right Thing When It’s Inconvenient”
The Weight You Were Never Meant to Carry
There’s a quiet shift that happens when you finally understand this: your life gets lighter the moment you stop trying to manage other people’s thoughts, reactions, and emotions. Most of us don’t even realize how much weight we’re carrying. We replay conversations in our heads, tweak our words to land a certain way, soften ourContinue reading “The Weight You Were Never Meant to Carry”
Black Coffee Lessons
Black coffee isn’t trying to impress anyone. It doesn’t hide behind foam or sugar or clever flavors. It shows up exactly as it is—bitter to some, comforting to others, and completely unapologetic about it. And that’s where the lesson quietly sits: you don’t have to be sweet to be liked by everyone. Some people takeContinue reading “Black Coffee Lessons”
The Feeling People Carry After Working With You
There’s a lot of emphasis on skills these days. What you know. What you’ve shipped. How fast you can deliver. The stack you’ve mastered. The results you can point to on a slide. All of that matters, of course. Competence is table stakes. But it’s rarely the thing people remember most. What lingers is theContinue reading “The Feeling People Carry After Working With You”
The Rarest Thing We Carry
We live in a world where everything looks polished, filtered, edited, and staged. It’s almost funny how often I come across perfectly curated moments online—sunsets that look like they were painted by AI, “candid” smiles that were obviously rehearsed, quotes that sound deep but mean nothing when you really sit with them. You don’t evenContinue reading “The Rarest Thing We Carry”
The Importance of Being in the Right Place
Sometimes life tricks you into thinking your effort is the problem. You push harder, stay longer, stretch yourself thinner than you should, and yet the results never look like what you hoped for. You start wondering if you’re the weak link, if you’re not talented enough, not smart enough, not disciplined enough. But what ifContinue reading “The Importance of Being in the Right Place”
Winning Without Selling Your Soul
Just wanted to take a moment and shout out the real ones. The people out here doing their thing—building, growing, showing up—without cutting corners or stepping on others. The ones choosing honesty over hype, kindness over clout, and values over shortcuts. It’s not always flashy. It’s not always the fastest route. And yeah, sometimes itContinue reading “Winning Without Selling Your Soul”
Kenrick Vaz 