Joe Gerstandt | keynote speaker, freedom fighter, freak-flag flier

Hard questions.

I was just minding my own business.

Maddie Grant was in Phoenix and Jeff Hurt called her out. 

And then she called Jeff and Jamie Notter out. 

And then he called me out. 

And here I am…called out. Maddie’s question to us was:

So go on, tell me my fellow Xers – Have YOU sold out? Have YOU gone mainstream? Or are we still the guerilla army, changing the world (only without telling anyone)?

I spent a few days hiding under a pile of coats, hoping that the question would go away, but… you know how that works out.

Have I sold out?

Let me start with the observation that I enjoy asking big questions more than I do answering them.  Part of why I struggle with this question, is that I think it is a really, really, really big question…and a really important one.  Especially in my line of work.

I want my work to be about the truth and delivering on our promises and remembering what truly matters, and that kind of stuff tends to be noisy and ambiguous and uncomfortable.  Sometimes it is downright scary.  And a lot of people / organizations / associations would much rather have some simple lies than the complicated truth.  People want silver bullets…even though they do not exist.  People want best practices…even though they do not exist.  People want to pay people for solutions, when the only real solutions are carried within themselves.

The question about selling out hits home to me, because I started to realize a long time ago that the more popular and sought out I am as a speaker, the less I am probably delivering my true message…but I have to be sought out as a speaker to make a living.  So that’s where I live.

Have I sold out?  No.  I could find an easier way to make a living or I could probably make an easier living as a speaker and consultant by parroting the same simplistic, dishonest bullshit that so many in this work sell.  I make some compromises, but never without struggle and heartache.  I am engaged in that struggle every single day…and in my thinking that is something very different than selling out.

I am changing the world, thought it can be hard at times to see the progress.  I am changing the world, and I am owning and using my unique gifts to do so.  I am changing the world, because I believe that the world needs changing and I believe that I have a contribution to make in that effort.

So.

What about you?  How do you answer the question?

Be good to each other.