Sunday, May 8, 2005

A kick in the pants, plus ruminations on self-confidence

Miss Em has had two neat posts worth linking recently. The first, "notes from the brand you 50 from a few years ago" (okay, I am really unclear on what that title means), is kind of a rockstar anthem for following your dreams. I personally think it's quite inspiring.

The second, "Prep", is a more personal discussion of class difference, and how they manifested themselves in Miss Em's private school experience. That's the kind of post I truly enjoy reading--more people should write them!--and I found it quite thoughtful. While I haven't had the experience of attending an expensive private school with millionaire children, I do know what it's like to feel apart, separate, and to admire people for what they were rather than who they were. I think that in any social system, the people who feel like outsiders are the ones who lack the confidence of the people they think are cool--regardless of what other attributes those "cool" people might possess.

It happens that money can give a person a whole hell of a lot of confidence.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

"The Brand You 50" is a neat little book packed with 50 topics of great advice from Tom Peters - the other two in the series are "The Professional Services Firm50" and "The Project50."

And thanks for the kindnesses re: my "Prep" post - it was hard letting all that out into the blogosphere!

Heather Meadows said...

Thanks for the info. I find that to be a really weird title ^^;; I kind of get it now, at least.

Honest writing like that in your "Prep" post is hard for everyone (except me, apparently; I'm some kind of emotional exhibitionist), but it really does lead to the best reading experience. It's real, and that's important, beyond style or flair. Because the best writing tells us something about ourselves (both reader and writer), the only way to write great works is to tap into emotion--the visceral part of the human experience, common to everyone.

You have a lot of voice in your writing, too, and that adds power to any story.

I enjoyed the post quite a bit :)