I’ve never been able to reconcile my bicultural identity. What has been amusing about this struggle is that when speaking in my maternal tongue, my mood, thoughts, and manner, shift from those that I experience when speaking english.

French: A soothing, tender, nonchalant figure, who patiently approaches all situations with purposeful deliberation. He is discrete and prudent like a snake, not acting in haste, but savoring contemplations with the hope of discovering a subtly provocative conclusion about the world in which he finds himself in. He is content with keeping his secrets, vanity does not factor into his motives.

American: A competitive, egotistically belligerent, and unrefined mascot of action who moves on impulse like a beast. A sense of carpe diem pragmatism seems to overwhelm the beast who believes that indecision is a decision. He is a trailblazer, a forger of productivity and a self-published master of ingenuity. He executes without hesitation, asserting in his right mind that whatever consequence the world will bring him, he will be able to deal with it.

A war has been going on inside me but the outside world has no record of it. Fortunately, the battle between cultural identities is harmless, and the fog is only a condition of strolling on either shore of the mysterious body of consciousness. My mind has arbitrated a peace treaty between the Frenchman and the American, settling conflicts that have fueled dissonance since the birth of my consciousness. As relieving as the rectifying closure between my two identities would be to find, I have not found equilibrium.

However, I have come to understand that the inherit instability of my transience can be a flowing channel for creativity.

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The lean startup is a business strategy that has taught me about relationships. Having a flexible but clear container within which to iteratively address problems as they come in a startup has reduced my fear of making the wrong decision. I am no longer paralyzed by indecision, as the trusted container will iron out and evolve a wrong decision into an eventually right one with hindsight.

My experience with startups has forced me to grow in a myriad of ways. I hold this journey largely responsible for the resolution achieved in my bicultural personal life. I am confident in my ability to solve problems and achieve measurable results. I can create and define ideas, manipulate and iterate on my environment. I am growing with each day that I simply make a decision and follow through with it. I find it thrilling that the work I do is able to so strongly impact numerous aspects of my life.