Go toward the fear.

I grew up in a very competitive and male-dominated family, the oldest of three brothers. My dad appreciated winning and winners. My brothers and I played sports, but my heart was never in it.

Which is not to say that I wasn’t competitive in other ways. My dad often lamented that I just didn’t have the killer instinct. The truth was that he was right. Winning in sports was never that important to me.

I didn’t avoid conflict though, especially where authority was concerned. I wasn’t afraid to stand up, speak truth to power, or to challenge the order of things. I challenged my teachers, questioned everything, and even walked out of school once when I felt I was treated unfairly. My dad was also a rebel at heart, and he respected my rebelliousness, even (or maybe especially) when I stood up to him. From the time I first made a finger painting of my pet turtle, I’ve known I wanted to be an artist. Without such a stubborn and anti-authoritarian nature, I’m not sure I would have stuck to that artist path. But I have.

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