Long before launching the Moral Courage Project, I became famous as the first Muslim after 9/11 to stand publicly for reform in my faith of Islam. Despite the bravery that others saw, I consistently made  what I now call the “Manji Mistake.”

 

The Manji Mistake is to turn a potentially healthy discussion into a winner-take-all debate. Knowing that I’d be attacked for my labels (young, woman, queer, you name it), I listened to the voice inside of my head that said, “When your critics 'punch' you, be sure to punch back even harder. Show them that you mean business!”

 

Sounds fair, right? But it's a lousy strategy for anyone who wants to make change for good. If that's you, watch my video above.

 

And thanks for visiting this page. Keep perusing. You’ll find plenty of tools to have the impact you want without caving to your most formidable foe: your own ego.

 

Which brings me back to that voice inside my head. I thought it was the voice of conscience. In truth, it was the voice of my fear-mongering primal brain. At Moral Courage, we call it the “ego-brain.”

 

That’s why we’re here — to help you outsmart your ego-brain. By doing so, you can turn contentious issues into constructive conversations and sustained collaboration, starting at work but by no means ending there.