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This was heart breaking. Thanks for sharing your story with Billy, and for this reminder of the bravery behind this facet of community building.

The risk of connecting with another human has also been a terrible fear of mine for many years. When I first got into entrepreneurship I didn't realize how big of a obstacle it was. But one day I found a TED talk on Jia Jiang and his 100 days of rejection.

https://www.ted.com/talks/jia_jiang_what_i_learned_from_100_days_of_rejection

I tried two of his exercices and realized how to get over the fear of connecting with others in any circumstance. If things go sideways in an interaction, I could always explain myself or ask for clarifications.

I've shared these "rejection technique" with other entrepreneurs and community folks, like asking for a 10 cent discount , or help someone fill their gas at the gas station, and it doesn't take much for people's fears to get under control after that :)

Thanks again for this much needed post, and all the best for your new subscription!

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Love this exercise... i remember hearing about it but have never dug deep into it. I'm not afraid of human interaction but I am afraid of conflict. I'm a big time people pleaser. So I might just have to give this a shot.

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Your post also reminded me of Elizabeth Gilbert take on how to invite fear on the creative journey :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgKhHeiah80&ab_channel=Salesforce

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i love this so much

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Greatest of storytelling here David. Thanks for sharing the message with us.

Indeed, building community is one of the hardest things every creator/writer/entrepreneur has to build in their entire lives, yet one of the most enjoyable and returning treasures one can have.

Let´s keep connecting, creating, and building better things one step at a time!

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thanks so much for the love Alex!

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Love each essay you drop friend! Let´s keep creating wonderful content!

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Human Connection is the top tier version of true progress in today´s society.

Let´s make it happen David.

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