Bless the Hacker Who Revealed My Second Mountain

How a LinkedIn breach led to a reassessment of professional identity

Reflecting on the past few months, I wish I could say that I committed all my energies to developing my new business: Action Stations!

However, in reality, much of my energy was spent thinking about an important conversation I had on a recent visit back to the UK. 

Quoting American civil rights activist, Marian Wright Edelman, during our conversation, my old college buddy and philosophy classmate said to me, “you can’t be what you can’t see.” 

I’ve been ruminating on those words all summer. 

Now that I’m firmly past a misspent youth and currently dawdling in the doldrums of middle age, I have been meditating upon what it would look like to climb my own “Second Mountain.”

The Second Mountain: A Different Perspective on Success

Alaska, Aug 2024 — I took this photo at Moose Pass on a road trip from Anchorage to Seward.

The Second Mountain is a term coined in a brilliant book of the same name, written by bestselling author, journalist and New York Times columnist, David Brooks.

He says that, in midlife, the Second Mountain we climb leads to the realization that one’s contribution and care towards others has become, perhaps unwittingly (or somewhat unexpectedly and out of our control), a more important factor in the quality of our lives than one’s prior sense of our own personal achievements —which is the First Mountain you climb in your twenties and thirties. 

For whatever reason, I could not see my Second Mountain until last week, when I discovered that my LinkedIn profile had been hacked.

The LinkedIn Hack: An Unexpected Catalyst

To my bemusement, my name had been changed to Mary, my profile picture was an attractive woman working at a desk, and all my profile details and career history had been deleted. The hackers had bypassed 2FA and changed my notification settings, leaving me unaware of the breach for months.

I reclaimed my account through LinkedIn's verification system, but when I exported my data to rebuild my profile, I found nothing to recover. The backup only contained post-hack information. (Pro tip: Download your personal data regularly!)

Initially, this felt like a disaster – an omen, even (In the absence of information, I can get quite superstitious). The timing couldn't have been worse, as I was just about ready to launch my new business after months of development.

The Monument to Success: LinkedIn’s Double-Edged Sword

Yet, equally, I also had to admit that I had been hesitant about making an announcement for months. 

Like many entrepreneurs, I grappled with self-doubt and had a chronic case of imposter syndrome. I’ve had my share of setbacks and could write a tome on “spectacular learning experiences” but only a pamphlet on “being in the right place at the right time.”

As I think we’re generally encouraged to do, over the last 20 years, my personal LinkedIn page has become a monument to “my success” —whatever that means. My profile felt like an objective reference point; the one thing I could point to if anyone asked, “who are you and what do you do?” 

Identity Crisis: Who Are You Without Your Profile?

The silly thing is that people rarely ask that question —everyone hates it— for fear of having to answer it themselves. But when you’re just about to launch your “new thing” they’re the words you imagine reverberating on everyone’s lips; so you better have an answer prepared. 

Now faced with a freshly hacked, blanked out profile, I felt like the LinkedIn algorithm was yelling at me like a drill sergeant:

Who are you and what do you do?

Who are you and what do you do?

Who are you and what do you do?

Who are…  —fuuaaah, I don’t know, Linkedin! 

I’m sure the same goes for you, but I’ve always struggled to answer that question. I plunge into dissimulation. Honestly, I’m not sure I have ever really known! [Cue existential crisis]

The Blank Slate: An Opportunity for Reinvention

Nonetheless, true to a lot of content I see posted on LinkedIn, I did see an opportunity emerge from the crisis. Being presented with a “blank slate” of a profile page, gave me a chance to rethink my approach to professional networking and maintaining an online presence.

I found myself wondering: Do I really need all this? Do I really need a chronicle of my career laid out on a website that I have little control over? 

I realized that in order to feel ready enough to launch my business, the crucial question I had to answer was: How much of my identity is tied to my professional past? 

And the crushing realization was… whoa, all of it. And then I felt like the hacker had kicked my sandcastle —this identity was built on dust. 

Professional Identity: The Cardboard Cutout Version of Self

The incident sparked a deeper reflection on personal and professional identity that reminded me of insights shared recently by social scientist and Harvard Professor, Arthur Brooks (not David Brooks of Second Mountain). 

In this video he says, “A lot of people in business… have an identity that revolves around their excellence in their job.”

Brooks suggests that this professional identity, especially when tied to success, is often rooted in fear – fear of failure, fear of losing status. He even goes so far as to call it a “death fear.”

“For those who see their identity as being a successful professional– specifically successful– that’s an identity based on fear, isn’t it? We all have fears. I mean, I have fears. It’s normal to be afraid of things. But a fear of an attack on your identity, that’s actually a death fear.” — Arthur Brooks

Brooks says that professional identity is a “stripped down, cardboard cutout version of oneself,” that can be detrimental to our well-being and relationships. That resonated deeply for me as the feeling of having to ‘perform myself’ on social media has made me uncomfortable for a very long time.

How often do we define ourselves primarily by our professional titles or achievements? When asked “Who are you?”, how many of us immediately respond with our job titles, neglecting other crucial aspects of our identities?

So, for me, perhaps this “hack” is an opportunity – a chance to reassess how I present myself professionally and what truly matters in my life journey. 

Overcoming the “Death Fear”: Lessons from Buddhist Meditation

I’d prefer not to be entombed in my online profile. It took getting hacked for me to see that and say it out loud —to finally dispel this digital sarcophagus. 

Brooks’ recommends a Sri Lankan buddhist meditation to overcome this “Death Fear” anxiety. He concludes by encouraging us to recognize our own lives as a project, understanding that our skills, interests, and identities will evolve over time.

“Everybody needs to manage their own life like a project and understand that your skills and interests are going to change, to do things on purpose, to recognize that the good times are not going to last forever.” — Arthur Brooks

Action Stations: Embracing the Present and Future

Which means that now is probably a good time to tell you about my new project: it’s a digital operations and SEO consultancy called Action Stations! 

Thus, my refreshed Linkedin profile has been maximally minimalized to focus on who I want to be in the present. Namely, player two in the digital game of life —your co-pilot in online strategy, marketing tactics and business operations!

SEO Insights: The Human Side of Algorithms

Should you be wondering how writing about mountains, meditations and a near miss on meandering into a midlife crisis is relevant to promoting my digital business expertise, I’d like to leave you with the single clearest insight that I’ve gained from my entire “professional” career: 

SEO is about understanding what is implicit in the questions that people ask of algorithms and strategizing around what the algorithms ask of us.

It’s not just about content, keywords, meta tags and links. The most rewarding strategies challenge that which feels inscrutable; always testing, rejecting and incorporating those elements that empower you to determine whether the “Google juice” —or any platform’s algorithm— is really worth the squeeze. 

Moving Beyond the Professional Persona: The Second Mountain Begins

In my case, I intend to forget the old glitter locked into Linkedin. All identities are fluid and always have been —especially our professional identity. 

I’ve made many friends along the way —climbing the first mountain— and I’m back down at basecamp, looking to rekindle the embers of those connections. But I’m also excited about the new journey ahead. 

As I embark on my Second Mountain with Action Stations, I’m eager to bring an authentic perspective and lived experiences to bear in helping others navigate their digital worlds. I invite you to join me in cultivating a healthy skepticism towards algorithms and being mindful of how the internet shapes not only our business strategies, but also the way we think about ourselves and others. 

I’m looking forward to new collaborations and conversations, as well as reconnecting with old friends. Most of all, I'd love to hear about your Second Mountain.

If you enjoyed this article and you’re interested in a low maintenance way to keep in touch, please consider subscribing to my Substack, where I’ll be writing —irregularly but enthusiastically— about my professional interests: internet, philosophy and journalism. 

Switching hats to business cap, if you’d be open to exploring ways we can work together on digital operations, or if you’d just like to catch up and wax philosophical, let’s meet or chat via email. And, freshly hacked and newly refurbished, I’m now more confident and much happier to  connect on LinkedIn!