How Identity Changes

On Thursday I had a first training with my new climbing team, and quickly into the session I observed what entrepreneurs observe regularly, identity change. I was no longer a random guy from the street who does some climbing. I was now a semi-professional climber who trains with the team.

I put on a t-shirt with the gym’s logo on it, and entered the main floor, crowded, as usual, with both familiar and unfamiliar faces. It felt uncomfortable. Suddenly, people were looking at me as if I was under the spotlight. “He’s what now, with the team?!!”, everybody must have thought. Ten minutes later, the feeling was gone. Nobody cared. I stopped caring. My friend came by to say hi. He didn’t notice the t-shirt.

Identity change sits at the core of entrepreneurship. We launch and kill ideas monthly, weekly, and sometimes daily. For that, we have to associate ourselves with our new project every time. Today I am a carpenter. Tomorrow I own a hotdog booth. Next week I launch an e-commerce store to sell shoes. Or candles. Or butt plugs.

We stick labels to ourselves all the time. But peeling off a label is painful. Imagine a Toronto Maple Leafs fan in their signature hoodie. Ask this person to take off the hoodie and put on the Ottawa Senators one, and you’ll be surprised to learn that a polite Canadian also knows how to say “kiss my ass”, in both English and French.

Our identities are unbending. We are afraid to disappoint our fiends. We worry that our family will reject us. But it’s a muscle we can train.

Stick new labels and peel it off when the time comes. There are always people to support you. Wherever you go. Whatever you do.