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Andrew Thorp

Founder, Speakeasy Groups

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Have you reinvented yourself, or started a movement?

Seth Godin, Sir Ken Robinson and Derek Sivers all talk about the potential we have to effect the change we want and start something that attracts attention and gets followed. I believe this too, but I'd love to hear from people who've done it. What was it you changed, and why? What struggles did you have and how did you overcome them? And what lies ahead for you?


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  • May 27 2011: I just graduated from high school, and I felt I had to reinvent myself over the past year because I realized how much of my life was on some kind of an autopilot: my tastes and actions were defined almost entirely by the social mood. So if doing homework was distasteful to most people, it was to me too. Now, though, while I still don't love homework unconditionally, when I do like it, I have reasons, and those need to fit with who I see myself as and who I want to be. While I don't mean to say that I have some sort of concrete plan for that, I do want to actively shape myself, rather than be a bystander to the process, then wake up later and have regrets.

    To me, it really seems like the change has to come from within (no matter how clichéd the expression) because knowing something works in theory, and actually realizing it, are two different things- which is why I don't usually feel advice helps. In the end, I think you have to come to the conclusion yourself, and someone else's idea won't cut it for you, because it doesn't fit perfectly.

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