Victor Hwang, CEO of T2 Venture Creation and a Silicon Valley venture capital leader, delivered his commencement address at Austin Community College in December 2014 — a school whose board of trustees happened to include his mother. The speech was structured as three love letters: to Austin, to America, and to the graduates. This quote came in the third and most personal love letter. After describing the frontier spirit that built both Austin and America, Hwang turned to the graduates and shared what he called 'a big secret.' In a society built on shifting frontiers where people rely on strangers, everyone worries about their place. People drop names, assert power, and curate their social media to appear more important than they feel. Hwang's directness was refreshing — he named the performance that everyone participates in but rarely acknowledges, and used it as a springboard to encourage authenticity.