If you can't tell, I like being the center of attention. Give me a microphone, a
By Daniel Tejada 🚀 · June 3, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
If you can't tell, I like being the center of attention.
Give me a microphone, a room full of strangers, a questionable song choice, and I'll be just fine.
But I wasn't always like that.
When I was younger, I went to 3 different high schools in about a year and a half.
Which meant starting over, a lot.
New school, new people, no friends.
There were days I ate lunch alone because sitting by yourself in the cafeteria felt worse than hiding somewhere nobody could see you.
At the time, it sucked.
But looking back, it taught me something valuable.
When you don't have a group to fall back on, you spend a lot of time observing people.
You start noticing what draws people in and what pushes them away.
For me, it eventually came down to two things:
1. Be authentic.
People can tell when you're trying too hard, The older I've gotten, the less interested I've become in acting a certain way depending on who's in the room.
The photo above is me at a wedding surrounded by mostly strangers. Someone handed me a microphone. I can't sing. I didn't care.
2. Be confident.
Confidence is weird, people naturally gravitate toward it. Not because they think you're perfect.
But because comfortable people make other people feel comfortable too, I learned that skill over time.
Today I'm probably still a 7, I just walk around like a 9.
Funny enough, the thing I wanted most back then was to fit in.
The thing that's helped me most as an adult is realizing I don't need to.
#growingup #leadership