Who are you proving it to?

That's the question Jonathan Pride lands on this week — and it's the one that stays with you.

Jonathan is a combat veteran, an author, the founder of the Caterpillar Leadership Institute, and one of fourteen (possibly fifteen) siblings from New York City. Keith and Gerren open a three-part arc with him about how someone builds an identity out of trying to escape everyone else's expectations — a hardcore Christian household with a father born in 1933, an older brother's shadow, a career in Military Intelligence, and a career pivot everyone told him was crazy.

The centerpiece: the moment Jonathan won an MVP trophy in high school basketball that arrived engraved with his brother's name. That's the whole arc in one image.

We get into the cocoon as the real story of a life, why the butterfly isn't the point, and how the framework connects back to everything we've been circling all season on hyper-individualism.

Part 1 of 3.

Key Topics: Family systems and identity, complicated inheritance from a father born in 1933, Military Intelligence and the drive to understand people, the ghost of an older brother, the three arcs of self, the cocoon as the real story, and the question that sits underneath everything — who are you proving it to?

Guest: 📚 Caterpillars Don't Fly by Jonathan Pride — Available on Amazon 🌐 Caterpillar Leadership Institute → caterpillarleadership.org 💼 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/jonathan-pride-831b3875

Find Us: 🌐 https://www.moreincommonent.com 📸 https://www.instagram.com/moreincommonent 🐦 https://twitter.com/MoreInCommonent 📘 https://www.facebook.com/moreincommonpod

Gerren Taylor: 🎵 https://www.tiktok.com/@gerrent 💼 https://linkedin.com/in/gerrenT

Thinking out loud about what gets in the way of connection.

Like what you heard? Leave us a comment in your podcast app. See you next week.