For Me: On Opinions, Influence, and Leadership
The other day, my son came home visibly unsettled. During a conversation at school, a classmate—confident, influential, and a natural leader—dismissed cricket outright. "Cricket is a bullshit game. It’s not even a sport. Who wants to play cricket?" And just like that, the atmosphere shifted. The classmate’s words didn’t land softly as one boy’s preference—they hit like a verdict. My son, who happens to love cricket, suddenly felt that something he enjoyed was being mocked and invalidated. Not just by one person, but by the silence and subtle agreement of others around him. It stung. That moment has been sitting with me. And what it revealed is something deeply simple but often overlooked: the power of the words “for me.” "I don’t like cricket—it’s boring for me." "Dancing isn’t my thing." "Academia is not the right space for me." When we add “for me,” we open the window to plurality. We signal that this is my truth, not the truth. I have a p...