I knew as soon as Luvvie Ajayi Jones announced the release of her new book, Professional Troublemaker, I had to get my hands on it. Any book subtitled The Fear-Fighting Manual is for me! I preordered the book as soon as I could, and I cleared my calendar to read it.
As always, Luvvie never disappoints.
Dedicated to the memory of her grandmother (and the “good trouble” she caused), Professional Troublemaker shares truth bombs about how we must move through our fears to accomplish what we want in life. The book is divided into three parts:
- Be – how to work through the internal stuff so you can move forward, despite your fears
- Say – how to advocate for yourself and others using your voice, even if it trembles
- Do – how to do the things that scare the crap out of you
Luvvie sprinkles in stories about her grandmother, as well as her own life, to illustrate how one can bust through fear (and why it’s important to do so). I think you’ll love Luvvie’s humorous approach, side-eyes, and tell-it-like-it-is style. I know I did.
My big takeaways:
#1: “We fear having too much hope.”
Right there on page 43, Luvvie dropped a truth bomb, which felt like a 2×4 to my forehead: “When we are afraid of having too much hope, we’re actually afraid of being disappointed.”
Damn, she’s right.
I don’t dream big enough. Or at least I didn’t use to. Now I dream of being a New York Times bestselling author. I am not focused on disappointment; I am focused on my dream. For even if I never make that bestseller status, I know I tried. And that’s worth the journey.
#2: You will fuck up on your journey.
I don’t like to fail. I have come a long way in reframing failures as lessons, but a big part of me still fears failure.
Luvvie shared a story of how she failed miserably – and very publicly – and how this one failure stopped her from growing and sharing her gifts. I appreciate her story because it’s one I fear I may go through. Well, guess what? It’s inevitable I will fail loudly too, so instead of avoiding it, maybe I should just accept it and move on.
How about you? Can you stop avoiding failure? Can you accept that you will make mistakes on your journey?
How Professional Troublemaker relates to entrepreneurs:
Luvvie is an entrepreneur, and every lesson in this book will help entrepreneurs. Professional Troublemaker can be your primer on how to do things, despite the fear. Because if you want to succeed in your business, you will have to do things that scare the shit out of you. If you need someone to cheer you on and to show you how it’s done, grab Professional Troublemaker.
