JP ORIGINAL · COMMUNITY BUILDER
Rooms I've Built
Twenty years of rooms with somebody else's name on the door. What I built, what I gave away, and the day I learned the difference.
Nobody remembers who built the building. They remember the name on the front.
I've been building rooms for twenty years. You might have been in a few of them and never known it. My name isn't on most of them, and for a long time I didn't think it needed to be.
Here's the honest version of why. I was never in those rooms worried about credit, because I was too busy trying to get the idea off. Getting it built mattered more to me than being named on it.
I knew the idea was good. I didn't know what it was worth.
Nobody took anything from me. I handed it over, every time, because I didn't understand what I was holding. That's not a complaint about them. That's a note about me.
I'm not staying quiet about it anymore.
I wore a mask for a long time. Not a fake one. Just the professional one. Show up steady, hold the room, keep your head down, never let them see what it cost you. I got so good at it that people stopped asking.
I'm not performing anymore. One face now, and it's the real one.
I set the table for twenty years and ate last. I'd do it all again. I'd just do it with my name on it this time.
Those are the rooms. Some of them are still standing right now with somebody else's name on the door. I'm not taking a name off anybody's door.
I'm just sharing my story.