There is a cost to being different. Trust me, I’ve paid it in full, with interest.

When I walked into Apple Music as the Head of Global Consumer Marketing, I didn’t blend in. My hair was big. My personality was bigger. My wardrobe didn’t whisper “tech exec.” 

Once, BuzzFeed called me “the coolest person to ever go onstage at an Apple event.” Flattery aside, it taught me that being different draws attention, but it also draws fire. People will celebrate you publicly, only to turn around and question your celebration. They’ll call you bold until your boldness makes them uncomfortable.

Still, I wouldn’t change a thing. Because while being different is expensive, it is worth every penny.

Many of us spend our professional lives trying to fit into systems that were never built for us. We dilute our ideas to make others comfortable, we hand over control of our reputations to colleagues, bosses, the “industry.” While it may be easier in the short term to go with the flow, it is a losing strategy in the long term. 

The long-term cost of being different 

Being different comes with a price tag that compounds over time. It’s the pay gap that never quite closes, the promotion ceiling you can’t break through, and the work you drive forward that somehow earns applause for someone else. When the credit doesn’t follow the contribution, neither do the accolades, the awards, or the visibility that turn a career into a platform. And those things matter because they’re what lead to the next chapter: the book deal, the speaking circuit, the “industry expert” label that gives you freedom and leverage later on. 

So the long-term cost of being........

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