# Be Yourself

By [Corporate Heretic](https://paragraph.com/@corporate-heretic) · 2025-05-24

yourself, you, career, selfaware, professional, freetobeyouandme, beyourself

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/6f8953988d1dfc14abac8c7599e00f44.png)

**Be Yourself.**  
  
Please.  
  
For the love of whatever higher power you believe in—or don’t—just be yourself. Stop trying to be an edited version of yourself.  
Or whatever weird incarnation our society expects you to be.  
  
Recently, I was listening to a podcast about young leadership. And I was all in.  
  
• Four-day workweeks? Yes.  
• Pushing back against hustle culture? YES. (Hustle culture is seriously stupid.)  
• Talking about real work/life balance and authentic leadership? YES.  
  
And then... they ruined it.  
  
They started talking about the “challenge” of bringing your whole self to work.  
About how hard it is to know “how much of yourself” to show—especially when you're "in charge."  
  
Kid, you had me for about 90% of the way.  
  
Then you went and made me sad.  
  
Because here's the answer to this huge, complex, MBA-worthy problem:  
  
Be yourself.  
All the time.  
No matter what.  
No matter who you're with.  
No matter what role you're in.  
  
Why would you need to edit yourself? Are you unhappy with who you are?  
  
(For reference: I am extremely happy with who I am and love myself dearly. I'd be loath to cut pieces out just to "fit in" somewhere.)  
Maybe it’s because I grew up on things like Free to Be… You and Me—shoutout to Marlo Thomas.  
  
But seriously—what are you afraid of by being yourself?  
  
You can't actually be anything else.  
You can only fake it.  
You can only waste energy pretending.  
  
And suddenly, it hit me:  
This is why office culture feels like a bad community theater production.  
Everyone’s playing dress-up. Everyone’s wearing hats.  
(And I hate the phrase “we wear a lot of hats.” You know who wears a lot of hats? The late Queen of England. And ACTORS.)  
  
Here’s the thing:  
  
If we’re actually trying to do something, why are we all acting?  
Be yourself.  
And don’t be an a-hole.  
Be yourself.  
And respect other people.  
Be yourself.  
And let others be themselves too.  
  
If you say you're a leader, don't just encourage people to "bring their best selves." Encourage them to bring their real selves.  
  
That's leadership. Showing what's possible—and letting people run with it.  
  
As a society, we've drifted way too far from ourselves.  
  
We mimic.  
We posture.  
We costume up like it's Halloween at the DMV.  
  
And it’s exhausting.  
  
I did high school theater. I can tell you—it takes an enormous amount of energy to pretend to be someone you’re not. That’s energy you could be using to solve real problems.  
Or make real progress.  
Or invent something that actually matters.  
  
So be yourself.  
  
Be the kid awkwardly trying to pull off a fedora—but OWN IT.  
Be the beauty queen answering a question about world peace—honestly.  
Be the rookie who admits when they don't know something—because none of us really do.  
  
Put away the hats.  
Let your hair down.  
Be 100% you.  
  
I guarantee it’ll make everyone’s world a little better.  
  
And it’ll make yours a lot better too.

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*Originally published on [Corporate Heretic](https://paragraph.com/@corporate-heretic/be-yourself)*