The Darkness Precedes the Spotlight

Erica Jong wrote, “Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.”

In entrepreneurship, the “dark place” is sometimes called “the dip.” In spirituality, it’s often referred to as “the dark night of the soul.”

Whatever label we may use, the experience is universal: the process of actualizing our potential is inseparable from the pain of exorcising our demons. In order to discover what we’re truly capable of, we must be willing to enter and embrace the dark realm of questions we cannot easily answer, phenomena we cannot easily explain, and challenges we cannot easily resolve.

The spotlight is what summons us. The darkness is what shapes us.

In order to stand in the spotlight, we have to be willing to walk through the darkness.

And by “spotlight,” I don’t mean “fame.” I mean “the brilliantly shining light of self-awareness that nothing can extinguish.”