You Deserve the Truth: Change the Stories that Shaped Your World and Build a World-Changing Life

by Erica Williams Simon

Overview

From a millennial media maker and award-winning social critic, an accessible, straightforward, and remarkable guide that “invites us beyond the old stories we’ve told about ourselves, and into the wonder of our dreams, hopes, and love—so we can find our truth and purpose” (Glennon Doyle, New York Times bestselling author) for a generation paralyzed by the pressures of life.

Behind the glossy Instagram pictures, many people in their 20s and 30s are living frustrating lives: overwhelmed and confused, anxious and inauthentic, exhausted and afraid. They are leading lives that, unbeknownst to them, have been shaped by everyone but themselves. From social media to the workplace, the stories that they have believed have left them constantly seeking a better life but rarely ever finding it.

Erica Williams Simon saw this all too well. At 27, she abruptly walked away from her career as a rising political media star to find her own truth and a truth that would help others finally build a life worth living. She rejected the lies that the world had taught her, and rewrote the ideas that have the power to shape a generation.

You Deserve the Truth is a “refreshingly blunt take on happiness” (Publishers Weekly) and is a masterclass in how to challenge the narratives about fear, work, identity, success, love, and life. This “smart and all too real guidebook for anyone striving to craft an authentic and inspired life from the ground up” (Franchesca Ramsey, host of MTV’s Decoded) gives you the tools you need in order to break free from the narratives holding you back from starting an exciting new phase in a beautiful life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501163272
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Publication date:	01/14/2020
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,087,506
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Erica Williams Simon is an award-winning content creator, TV host, and social critic. She is the head of The Creator’s Lab at Snapchat; host of the popular podcast, The Call with Erica; an advisor for NPR’s Generation Listen; and cocreator and host of the digital talk show, The Assembly. A committed civil and human rights advocate and preacher’s daughter for life, Erica is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and resides in sunny Los Angeles, California.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Part I

Chapter 1 The Mic Drop 3

Chapter 2 The Answer Is Story 21

Chapter 3 Getting Story Smart 43

Part II

Chapter 4 The Story of Fear 67

Chapter 5 The Story of Dreams 84

Chapter 6 The Story of Work 105

Chapter 7 The Story of Money 123

Chapter 8 The Story of Time 139

Chapter 9 The Story of Faith 155

Chapter 10 A Love Story 178

Part III

Chapter 11 New Story, New Life 199

Chapter 12 Change the Story, Change the World 216

Epilogue 237

Acknowledgments 239

Editorial Reviews

03/18/2019

Snapchat executive Simon deconstructs faulty narratives in her gratifying debut, a blend of advice and personal experiences aimed at millennials pondering how to find success while also leading meaningful lives. Simon, a self-described hard worker, found success early in her career; she first managed a ritzy spa while in college, then worked in politics and for nonprofits before becoming head of The Creator’s Lab at Snapchat and starting the Man Repeller podcast. She starts off by relating a transitional period when, while at a nonprofit, she felt the buildup of discontentment that had accumulated from years of overwork; she impulsively decided to quit. She went on to dissect her beliefs on success, politics, happiness, and her Christian faith, and concluded that life is shaped by four types of stories: internal, firsthand, produced, and myths. Simon asserts that all stories, including internal ones, are told from one perspective and often are not completely factual. She shares stories from her past as a jumping-off point to encourage readers to reevaluate their lives using “narrative intelligence” (a person’s ability to understand patterns in their own thinking). Millennials looking for advice from a perceptive peer will appreciate Simon’s refreshingly blunt take on happiness. (May)Correction: An earlier version of this review mischaracterized the duration of the author's past nonprofit work.

Publishers Weekly

"Erica is the girlfriend everyone deserves: full of wisdom, grace and unwavering honesty. You Deserve the Truth is the smart and all too real guidebook for anyone striving to craft an authentic and inspired life from the ground up. Erica's willingness to share the messy parts of her truth is a needed reminder for the rest of us to live ours."

Franchesca Ramsey

"For a straightforward and honest look under the hood of the human experience, soiled but also blessed by what social media has done to it, Erica Williams Simon’s You Deserve the Truth will act as a roadmap that can feel like an iron fist in a cashmere glove: delicate and warm but unflinching and equable at once. If we are, as she says, all wayfinders, Erica is the closest thing we get to a guide."

Leandra Medine

"In this beautifully written, smart and soulful book, Erica Williams Simon gives us what we all need more of: The knowing that life, at its best, is more about wonder than certainty. With You Deserve the Truth, Erica invites us beyond the old stories we’ve been told about ourselves, and into the wonder of our dreams, hopes and love – so we can find our truth and purpose there."

Glennon Doyle

"Our lives are filled with story; Simon’s book deconstructs her personal stories about fear, dreams, work, money, time, faith, and love... Simon mixes her personal experience with national and global examples of nascent narrative intelligence. Her writing style is readable and engaging, and her message matters."

Booklist

"Our lives are filled with story; Simon’s book deconstructs her personal stories about fear, dreams, work, money, time, faith, and love... Simon mixes her personal experience with national and global examples of nascent narrative intelligence. Her writing style is readable and engaging, and her message matters."

Booklist