“ i’ll be honest. i didn’t know who penelope trunk was a few months ago. a friend said she was a fab writer, and as an aspiring fab writer myself, i figured i should click on over. hooked. on. sentence. one. imagine my delight when i discovered she was going to be speaking at south by southwest.

imagine my heartache when i discovered she was speaking at the same time as kathy sierra. oh well. i could get the kathy podcast later.

after an amazingly brutal career advice conversation with the crowd (i love this woman even more now) i stood in line to bid a fond (and admittedly nervous) hello. something she had said earlier about people being afraid to be amazing and great really resonated with some things i’m internalizing at the moment. so my question for her at the end?

“what would you say to someone who’s afraid to be great?”

“well, uh, you have some food in your teeth.”
lovely. bloody spinach dip. $^@%#!

"you need to surround yourself with people who will tell you that you have food between your teeth.”
she encouraged me to find people who fail, so i can learn. she inspired me to set huge, ginormous goals. to find people who dream big too.

** now, i know i am not the only one who’s struggling with that fear - the fear of being great. and if you have asked the why and the how of overcoming that fear… don’t worry.

the fact you are asking that question in itself means you care. and you will be great.
(that’s the last little bit she told me). and with the smallest little bit of oomph in my heart, i said thank you, we said goodbye, and i scurried off to the bathroom to pick the spinach out of my teeth. FlowerDust.net | Anne Jackson » Blog Archive » the brazen spinach dip and fear