"But What If I Have Nothing New to Say?"

Spoiler: You don’t. And that’s exactly the point.

I get this question all the time.

From executives, founders, nonprofit leaders, authors and even college and high school students. In fact, I’m pretty sure that every single person I’ve ever worked with has worried about originality in some way or another.

“What if it’s all been said before?”

Their shoulders usually cave inward, head slightly bowed, eyes a bit vacant.

And my response is always the same:

You’re right. You don’t have anything new to say.

After all, “there’s nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:4-11).

But what is new is you.

You, with your one unrepeatable life.

You, shaped by your weird, beautiful mash-up of failures, obsessions, heartbreaks, parents, cities, mentors, songs, food, rituals, books, betrayals, and late-night YouTube rabbit holes.

You have never happened before. And you’ll never happen again.

So the real question becomes: