There are a bunch of productive opinions that you hold back because you’re scared of offending someone.

You don’t want to rile up people, you want to be nice to people, you want to cheer everyone all the time, so you don’t share it with the world.

This might be a good strategy in social settings in real life, but whenever you’re trying to find your tribe, this doesn’t really work well.

For example, if your brand values cater to lowest common denominator, it’ll be very very hard for you to stand out. The people you want to cater to will not find anything interesting if your messaging is diluted.

Similarly, if you’re trying to find your tribe online, it is very easy to offend the common enemy and start being part of the tribe. After all, enemy of my enemy is my friend!

Now, I am not saying to pick someone personally, or just go around offending people on their face. That’s rude.

Rather, take a productive opinion that you have, and share it with the world without fearing who will be offended.

Fear of offending people is why we hold back these opinions, and that makes it harder for us to stand for something, and finding our tribe which resonates with us.

Plus, it is much easier to identify a productive opinion that might offend somebody, than it is to identify a productive opinion that will be helpful (no data here, just anecdotes).

I had been trying to figure out why some of my essays get a great reaction, and why some fizzle out. This is what I feel is the reason.

Whenever I am trying to not offend anyone, no one resonates with the essay.

But whenever I am writing without that fear, I get both sides engaging with me.

People who are offended get angry, but more importantly, people who agree with it join my tribe!

P.S. Please make sure that the opinion you have is a productive opinion. There are many unproductive ways to divide people, we don’t need more of them!