🤕 Our wounds become our gifts even while they're our wounds

I was talking to an extremely successful startup CEO last week. They grew up as a poor kid in a rich neighborhood, always feeling like an outsider who never had enough. Life used this never-enough feeling as a gift: this person's incredible determination to make a positive contribution to the world, and to bring others into the greatness they felt they never had—resulted in big innovation to improve the lives of the worst-off (and employs hundreds of people in meaningful livelihood). But this leader's wound didn't go away: their success makes them feel like one-of-a-kind; still an outsider. I think this happens to all of us: our pain seeds our superpowers, even while staying painful.

One of my takeaways: the places we've been hurt have shaped us in beautiful ways, and continue to create beauty whether we "heal" them or not.
Thankfully.

With love, Jordan