In this Entspresso episode, host Evan Carmichael introduces a clip from Whoopi Goldberg in which she explains that being yourself comes with the cost of others' discomfort. Evan expands on this theme for entrepreneurs, arguing that true success requires authentic self‑expression, willingness to break rules, and the courage to fail publicly. He stresses the importance of feeling fear, embracing discomfort, and persisting despite judgment from strangers, family, or peers. Evan shares a personal anecdote about filming his early videos in a public dance studio, describing how he resisted the urge to shrink his presence because of onlookers. He emphasizes that early attempts will be imperfect, but continued practice builds confidence, just as muscles grow with exercise. The episode concludes with a call for viewers to share their biggest personal discomforts, a shout‑out to a fan who bought his book, and a reminder to believe in one’s “one word” and keep drinking espresso.
Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is be yourself. Over to you, Whoopi Goldberg.
Well, my life is a class, if I was to say. It probably teaches that you can be yourself and an individual if you are comfortable with not everybody liking you or how you think, if you're comfortable with going against the grain, if you're comfortable with, you know, people making fun or saying really nasty stuff, if you're comfortable with all of that, you can be yourself. It's— that's the price. The price of being yourself is, you know, other people's angst. About you being yourself.
I think this is such an important message for entrepreneurs because if you want to have success as an entrepreneur in life, but especially as an entrepreneur, if you want to have success, it has to come from you being you, from you being willing to break the rules, from you being willing to express yourself, from you being willing to fail publicly and know that even the fact that you were willing to try and fail is an inspiration. Use it as an inspiration, not just to yourself, but to others around you. And the people who are watching you and judging you and throwing tomatoes at you and saying you're not good enough and saying that was such a stupid mistake and laughing at you, you have to learn to ignore them. Because if you just constantly live your life according to other people's judgments and expectations of you, then you're never going to have success. You're living up to somebody's expectation who's never done what you want to do. Your family or friends or people in your community who are saying that you can't do this and you should be doing this, you should go down this path instead of doing— staying here and going here, you should be going down this path according to them. Well, have they done what you want to do? So you're living your life according to what these people's judgments are? You're never going to have success. You're just going to be a smaller version of them, and chances are they haven't done much either. So take the little that they've done and be smaller because that's not you. Congratulations, that's a happy life. You can't just be a copy of somebody. You can't shave your head, wear a Believe hoodie, and come on and do top 10 videos and expect them to do as well as mine. You can't outdo Evan Carmichael. You can't out-Evan Evan, just like I can't out-you you. Don't copy me, go and do you. Don't say yes because somebody wants you to, say yes because it's meant for you. The thing that I might disagree with with Whoopi is that to get to the comfort, you need to go through discomfort. It's like saying, "Don't be afraid, it's gonna work out, don't be afraid." You're gonna be afraid. It's okay to be afraid. It's okay to have fear standing up to somebody. It's okay to have fear putting something out in the public that you don't know is going to work or not. It's okay to be afraid. It's not don't feel the fear. It's feel the fear and do it anyway. It's feel that fear that people are putting on you or you're putting on yourself that this may not work, that this expression of myself, I'm pouring my heart out here and people may not accept it and people may laugh at it. People say that it's stupid and that it will never work. Pouring it out there anyway because you know that it has to be released, because you need to know. Here's a quick personal example. When I first started doing these videos here, I did it at Toronto Dance Salsa, and we're in a mall, and there's people walking by constantly, and there's people who look in every now and then and see what's happening in here. What's this guy doing in the dance studio with lights and a book behind him talking and yelling into a camera? What's he doing? And at the start, that was something that I was sensitive about. And in between, it's even worse. Like, in between the clips, I have my headphones on and I'm dancing. I'm doing this. I'm walking around the studio doing this. You see, there's somebody watching right now. Uh, uh. That's how I do— this is what I'm doing. Walking in the studio, dancing, thinking about what I'm going to say next, and people are walking by. And I would let that hold me back. I would let their judgments make me play small. So instead of doing my dance, I'm doing this a little bit smaller. Why am I letting myself play smaller because of some stranger's expectations of me? Why are you letting yourself play smaller because of strangers' expectations of you? You will only have success by being you, by letting the thing that is different about you come through. And at the start, since you're nurturing it, since you're starting it off, it's the start of anything, you're gonna suck at it. It's not gonna be the best expression. It's not gonna have a fantastic result, chances are. And so don't expect it. Expect it to fail at the start. That's okay. You keep going. If you keep practicing, I promise you, you'll get to the point where it's comfortable, where you don't care, where you can let go of their expectations. Just like working out, your muscles will get stronger. But when you first start doing it, you need to recognize that it's going to be scary, that it's going to be uncomfortable, and it's through that obstacle, it's through the discomfort that you get the comfort. Comfort is on the other side of the discomfort. The answer isn't crouch back and be a small version of yourself, because if you stay here, you're always going to stay here your whole life, and you have to break through to get to what you can do. So the question today, today is, I'm curious, what was the biggest thing that you had to break through, the biggest discomfort that you had to break through to be yourself? Leave it in the comments below. I'm going to join in the discussion. I also want to give a quick shout out to Vamsi Polimetla. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. It really, really, really, really means a lot to me. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. I wake up every morning, espresso keeps me going.
