I’ve burned a lot of bridges in my life.
Some accidentally and some almost intentionally.
The best example of the intentional burning of the bridges were parties in undergraduate.
I had a difficult time at parties. I wanted to talk about things that mattered to me. I despised the fake conversations. I would work my way around the room until I found someone who was willing to talk about something meaningful (which normally amounted in me leaving having burned through every group at the party).
Another example of rightly burned bridges were certain mentorships. When I started talking about my values and it turned out that they weren’t money and success and careerism a lot of mentors lost interest in me.
Speaking about what you believe to be important and having that be the cause for a burned bridge between you and a mentor and their lack of interest in you is a good thing.
You’re going to lose people in your life when you begin to speak truthfully. Burned bridges aren’t always a bad thing. Sometimes people just aren’t interested in what you are interested in and it’s better that they’re not in your life.
The most important thing is to make sure you learn throughout all of these instances in order to make sure that every mistake and every success are equally valuable to you.
