Do you care what other people think about you?

Come on. You can admit it.

We all care about that. We all care on some level what other people think about us.

But the big question is, do you care about what a complete stranger thinks about you?

You see, I care about what my friends think about me. But, I also have authentic, honest, beautiful friendships.

Friendships that are really deep and powerful. So yes, I care what my friends think about me. Because I show up for my friends at all times, because my friendships mean more to me than anything.

Do I care about what strangers think about me? Absolutely not.

I stopped caring what strangers thought about me years ago when I first started building this business.

How can I care about what strangers think about me? I can’t please everybody, and if I do spend my life trying to please everybody, I’m never going to please myself.

Does My Language Offend You?

The other day a woman e-mailed me.

She told me she listened to my podcast and she really didn’t like the fact that I use the word “fuck.”

Yes, I used the word “fuck.” If you listen to my podcast, you’ll hear me say it plenty of times.

I wrote her back, because she’s a member of my community and I truly respect all of you in my community.

And I told her, I’m from New York. It’s one of the first words we learn to use.

I’m a passionate person and I spit the word “fuck” out.

She wanted me to use other verbs, other nouns, to describe things.

We all speak differently and we shouldn’t allow words to really bother us. I don’t know why the word fuck bothers people.

Why should it? It’s a word.

Think about it. We’ve made the word fuck a bad word.

F U C K

It’s a terrible word.

Go fuck yourself.

Fuck you.

You’re a fucking asshole.

But it’s so stupid because again, it’s just a word.

Words are made up things.

Imagine if “ball” was a bad word.

You’re a ball.

Go ball yourself.

Ball you.

You get my point.

Words are just ways we express things, and if we’re constantly judging people based on the words that we use, then we’re really missing the deeper beauty of the way the person is speaking.

Let’s All Move to Stepford

Remember that movie, The Stepford Wives, where the women were all robots who looked and acted exactly the same?

Well, when you don’t accept the individuality in the world, that’s basically what you’re saying you want.

Imagine if we all just spoke the same way.

Nobody used the word “fuck.”

Nobody used the word “shit.”

Everybody spoke the exact same way.

While we’re at it, why don’t we all dress the same way too?

Why don’t we all wear our hair the exact same way?

Why don’t we just all talk the exact same way? Forget about accents. All the Brits talking in a British accent, lose that accent.

All the Australians, lose that accent.

Hell, all you people down south, lose your accent. New Yorkers, forget about your accent. Everybody needs to speak exactly like a Californian speaks.

Self-Expression is What Makes Life Interesting

But it’s amazing how uptight people get because of the word fuck.

Go ahead, all you people that don’t like that word. I dare you to say it.

I dare you to say the word fuck. Go ahead, say it right now. I dare you.

Why are we so uptight about stuff like that? Why?

Why are we so judgmental, and why do we care so much about how other people speak or what they think of us?

If the world was all the same, we’d be driving the exact same white Prius.

We’d all be living in the same house.

God, I’m getting bored just thinking about it.

It’s time you realize that individuality means we dress different, we talk different, and we might use curse words that, by the way, are just made up words anyway.

Get used to individuality and accept it, because that’s what makes life a beautiful thing.