Adele can be fat. Obama can be black and have a Muslim name. Madonna can sell her sex. Monks can eat meat. My name can start with an X!

I have been giving this bio forever: My name is Xin Gu. It’s pronounced SHIN. I am Chinese. I came here when I was 12. I’ve been in the US for 21 years now.

It never ceases to surprise me when people ask why I didn’t change my name to something more Americano. Why? Because my mother didn’t see anything wrong with my name, so Xin it was.

Just today, I got a message from this girl on a forum I belong to. She goes on about how she Anglicized her name, and how that was so great for her business. In a backhanded way, she suggested that I’d consider it too.

Look, I know she meant well, and I understand her points about conformity yaddi yadda (sorry for the uber sophisticated English here).

I’m not going to judge how anyone chooses to live their life. It’s not my job. Even when I coach people, it’s about finding out what works for them, not necessarily I would do.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s all about AUTHENTICITY. It allows you to be the BEST of who you are. So what I’m saying is: give yourself and others the permission to simply be.

To borrow the urban prose from Jay-Z:

No matter where you go, you are what you are player
And you can try to change, but that’s just the top layer
Man, you was who you was ‘fore you got here

Yes, life often tries to seduce us to conform. But when conformity doesn’t speak to you, you have the power to rise above it and say: this is what I trust in, for such is my self-truth.

You have YOUR self-truth as I have mine. Live by yours AND let others live by theirs. THIS is the most coveted secret to your personal success. This is also the biggest open secret.

I encourage you, no, I compel you to live by your dreams, your visions, and most importantly, YOUR TRUTHS.

Back to my story, if you really have a problem with my name, then my sympathies. Let me know if you want a coaching session to fix that.

Signing off!

If you like the article, share it please. Till next time.  – RebelX