This is a call to get dangerous.

Society wants to put you in a box so that you don’t upset the apple cart or make people uncomfortable, but I need you to make me uncomfortable. I need you to freak the hell out when everyone else wants you to be quiet.

I need you to say the thing no one else is brave enough to say, even if you’re scared out of your mind. I need you to stand for something, especially if I don’t like what that something is. I need you to force me to deal with things I’d rather not deal with, things that will upset me. I need you to tell me what you believe to be true even when you’re afraid I’ll think it’s foolish.

I need you to be willing to go first, to be the first domino to fall, to be the cause of a chain reaction. I need you to be willing to be wrong. Show me you care more about building something great than you do about being right and I won’t need you to be right all the time.

I need you to be vulnerable and fallible. I am so much more drawn to you when I see the imperfections that make you perfectly flawed. Don’t ever apologize for being human, it’s okay to fall apart. Everyone falls apart. Prove to me that I’m wasting my time and energy pretending to have it all together, show me that no one really has it all together.

Baring your guts will be scary as hell, but I need you to do it so I won’t be so afraid to do it too. You’re the only you there will ever be and if you care about doing something dangerous and costly like building a life that matters, then you owe it to me and rest of the world to show us the real you. The difference you make in the lives of others by being really good at being you will offset the times when you’re misunderstood or rejected. I’m sure of it.

Can you do this for me? For us? Will you try?

I’ll try too.