Bios

Ever notice how difficult it is to write your bio? Whether it’s something formal like an “about” page or something casual like an Instagram bio—trying to squeeze your entire existence into a paragraph feels impossible. And for good reason, because despite how many descriptors we list for ourselves, we are all more than simply a collection of labels. 

I can tell you I’m a business owner, skateboarder, father, husband, and writer, and you still don’t know me. There are scores of other people who are those same things who are almost nothing like me, and there are scores of other people who are not those things that I have plenty in common with.

As a business owner, it's been hard for me to come to terms with the idea that the way people perceive me is mostly out of my control. I can hope that if I show up in service with others' best interests in mind, people will see me in the way I’d like to be seen, but there’s no guarantee. My team's interpretation of me is created by some combination of how I interact with them, my track record, and the story in their heads (with the last one likely being the most powerful).

Perhaps the idea that certain people could or even should, fully know us is a flawed one. In the same way that we can't be everything to everyone, we also can’t be fully seen by everyone—it actually seems a bit egotistical that we could be.

For practical bio advice, I’ll point you to Austin Kelon’s Show Your Work: “Bios are not the place to practice your creativity. We all like to think we’re more complex than a two-sentence explanation but a two-sentence explanation is usually what the world wants.” 

This taps into the heart of the matter—bios aren’t the place to fully express ourselves, they’re useful tools to connect the people we hope to serve to the work we do. This is true everywhere we seek to express ourselves: most people will only know a tiny slice of us, and that’s ok.